Since the 1980s higher education (HE) in the UK has been continually developing to meet the needs of a changing economy. An economy now based largely on knowledge and its transfer, rather than manual skills and labour, has led to an emphasis by the government on increasing the number of adults with high level skills to contribute to economic…

In spite of engagement and efforts to bring about gender equality in Swedish universities, gender division paradoxically appears in both old and new degree programs and academic disciplines. In recent years there has been a tendency for higher education students to enrol in degree programmes rather than in single subject courses. Due to the…

Work at Northumbria University has focussed on activity that extends opportunities for students to engage directly with the skills development necessary for sound academic practice. This has included highly visual campaigns on the "Plagiarism trap", providing access to Turnitin plagiarism detection software, guides and sessions to…

Although summer schools are a popular and widely used activity for widening participation in higher education, their impact on their participants' subsequent educational careers has not been widely researched. This article draws on qualitative and quantitative evidence from a study across the south west of England to suggest that participation in…

This paper originates from the National Audit Office's 2008 report into widening participation policy in the United Kingdom. The report found that while there appeared to be modest improvements in the proportion of students coming from lower socio-economic groups over the last ten years, reliable analysis was hampered by a high proportion of…

Student retention in higher education might be prioritised by funding authorities and universities but robust measurement of non-completion is elusive. This investigation explores untapped data sources to enrich understanding of non-completion. The analysis features the main undergraduate course in a part of a large UK university with retention…

The dissertation is often promoted as a means of advancing autonomous learning. It is said to offer the potential for students to move along a continuum from dependence to independence. This research used interviews with a small sample of students to obtain a better understanding of the way students approach the dissertation process. The study…

In this paper we discuss an approach to the teaching of information technology law to higher education computing students that attempts to prepare them for professional computing practice. As information technology has become ubiquitous its interactions with the law have become more numerous. Information technology practitioners, and in particular…

This paper seeks to explore an apparent paradox within higher education. The increasing pressure towards widening participation in higher education, resulting in a more diverse student body, can be seen as either an opportunity or a threat. On the one hand it provides new opportunities for students to learn from and challenge one another, and…

Changes in the higher education sector over the past decade have led to increasing demands on academics and resulted in increasing workloads, longer work hours and increased workplace stress. Declining government commitment to university funding has placed increasing pressure on academics to attract research funding and to publish. In addition, an…

Based on previous empirical studies, in this work the author presents an analysis of the role of context in academic capitalism. In particular, she argues that the literature on academic capitalism fails to properly acknowledge disciplinary and institutional differences, which results in an oversimplification of the effects of industry-academia…

This study sought to devise a parsimonious instrument for evaluating academic self-concept (ASC) among British-born students entering "mass-market" (post-1992) universities that cater for diverse and "non-traditional" intakes. Three major facets of ASC were found to be particularly relevant to these students:…

In this article, educators Olen Gunnlaugson and Janet Moore reflect on their experiences developing and facilitating two dialogue-based courses. They proceed with a brief overview of dialogue education and how they are situating their approaches to dialogue within the field of higher education and in terms of transformative learning. Each then…

Expansion of higher education (HE) into the further education (FE) sector has resulted in a renewed period of growth as colleges strive to create a culture and environment appropriate for HE. This article presents findings from interviews with lecturers delivering HE in FE within the University of Plymouth Partner College network and explores the…

This article explores a teaching approach that aims to engage learners more fully in the deep learning process that is characterised by the development of critical thinking skills. The concept of critical thinking skills is reconsidered in the context of the need to shift focus away from teaching teachers about learning to teaching students about…