Centre for the Study of Higher Education



Centre for the Study of Higher EducationHigher Education in the Globalised AgeA One Day Research ConferenceFriday 14 February 2014Professor Roger KingTitle: Models and power in global higher education networksAbstract:The talk will examine the role of standards and models in global higher education, including their function in both coordinating systems and structuring power relations between actorsPaper PresentationsMatthew MontebelloTitle: Investigating crowdsourcing in higher educationAbstract:With the proliferation of the World-Wide Web, upsurge in eLearning popularity, and the explosion in the use of the Internet as a communication medium, novel and promising possibilities transpire for higher education. Crowdsourcing is a concept whereby multiple independent sources contribute information towards a common goal. ?Collective online information has been successfully employed to numerous domains with the added value of reusing expertise that is freely available. In this paper I will be investigating the potential of applying crowdsourcing to higher education by tapping into the collective intelligence of online educational resources and expertise to academically assist students anywhere and at any time. The challenges and issue related to such an endeavour will be investigated to analyse the rationale, ethics, and feasibility of this innovative higher educational methodology. Sandrine SoubesTitle: Conceptualising researcher development: from policy discourse to local practiceAbstract:The proliferation of policies in the UK related to “transferable skills” training and professional development for researchers has not been followed by critical scholarly engagement (Evans, 2011) and empirical research concerned with the meanings of 'researcher development' or with postdoctoral researchers’ experiences of professional development. The trend towards a globalized market for the recruitment and employment of postdoctoral researchers relies heavily on the use of short term research contracts, making research careers temporary and unstable modes of employment. This paper will present preliminary findings from a qualitative study (ethnographic and interview data) exploring the conceptions of researcher development held by postdoctoral researchers in scientific disciplines and by the academics employing them. The analysis will use Archer’s theoretical framework on structure and agency to our understanding of conceptions of researcher development.Jackie GreshamTitle: Perceptions of role and identity among higher education learning support staffAbstract:In an age of globalised higher education, the changing identity of academic staff has been extensively researched and commented on. In contrast, there has been comparatively little consideration of the changing roles and identity of professional services staff engaged in the support of learning and teaching, despite the fact that there has been a considerable impact on their work from national and global agendas. The paper presents some of the findings from research carried out as a single–institution case study relating to the perceptions this group of staff have of their role and identity and some of the factors which have shaped these perceptions, and some of the factors relating to how these constructs have been formed. In particular, it considers whether or not there is any evidence of traditional boundaries between academic and professional services staff being crossed and whether new spaces are emerging which allow for more collaborative working. Philip ChanTitle: Micro-economics of undergraduate medical education in the NHSAbstract:The service increment for teaching (SIFT) is a budget line in the UK Department of Health which is specifically marked for funding related to the teaching of medical undergraduates in National Health Service (NHS) facilities. It replaced a haphazard, individually negotiated funding system in 1974, and has undergone one substantial modification in 1996. Variants of SIFT exist in the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The total budget for SIFT is very considerable (?728million in 2005), and can typically translate into over ?20million per year income for a central teaching hospital Trust, or roughly 4-7% of total income. For the numbers of medical students, this is remarkably generous, and contributes to the perception that it costs the UK taxpayer ?200000 to train a doctor. These are large amounts of money in higher education terms. The place of SIFT, both in the educational setting and in the running of a teaching hospital Trust, is examined through a series of interviews with teachers, directors of teaching, financial officers of the Trust and Directors of teaching in the University in two separate locations. The mechanisms of implementation of this financial policy are closely examined, using documentary evidence in the public domain: where the money goes; what it is spent on; and to what extent it is accounted for, and by whom. Strengths and weaknesses of this system are highlighted. The Department of Health has been engaged in reform of SIFT for some time, and this has finally been implemented in 2013-4 This paper could inform the rebasing process both by tracing the historical development of this policy and by highlighting the benefits and the unintended effects of systematic characteristics in the funding of undergraduate medical education in the NHS.Laura LaneTitle: Access, participation, mobility and their representation in higher education policy in England ?Abstract:The concepts of access, participation and (social) mobility feature extensively in higher education debates in England but how are they represented in official policy texts during the period of mass expansion? This paper provides an overview of a current EdD thesis exploring these issues through a critical policy analysis of the higher education White Papers published in England between 1987 and 2012.?Markita MulveyTitle: A new further education and training sector for IrelandAbstract:For the first time in its history, responsibilities for further education and for vocational training in Ireland are to be brought together under one government department. A new sector of further education and training will be administered by the Department for Education and Skills. The nature, development and governance of these previously separate areas have been little understood, especially their shifting boundaries and changing relationships. Based on an analysis of a range of documentary sources, the research will examine the reasons for this long history of separation and the factors informing a government decision to establish a single sector.Billy BennettTitle: Towards technological universities in IrelandAbstract:This paper maps the proposed development of Technological Universities in Ireland to similar change processes in other countries. The paper explores the case for reform of higher education in Ireland and possible redesignation of Institutes of Technology as Technological Universities.Aidan TollandTitle: Diversity in higher and further education: two approaches comparedAbstract:This paper presents the approach used by Malcolm Tight in his 2007 paper reporting on institutional diversity in the English higher education system.? It explores the similarities between Tight's approach and that of my own in studying institutional diversity in the English further education system.? It identifies the lessons that can be learnt from Tight's approach and the similarities and differences between the available data for English further education?and higher education.? Finally it explores the?theoretical approach taken by Tight and demonstrates how it differs from my own.Brian GormleyTitle: On-campus versus commuter student: does place of residence have an impact on student success in IrelandAbstract:Whereas numerous studies in the US have shown that students living on campus are more “successful” on a variety of scales and measures (Pascarella and Terenzini, 2005) the limited amount of research from Ireland has produced some conflicting results (Mathews et al, 2004, Blaney et al,?2008).? Using secondary data analysis, two major national student surveys in Ireland have been analysed to identify differences between students in four different living arrangements: Living at home with parents; Living in private rented accommodation; Living in student halls (on- or off-campus); and Living in their own home. ?This paper will examine if it is possible to draw any conclusions on the effect of place of residence on student success."Bill EsmondTitle: Knowing your place? Student conceptualisations of higher education in local spacesAbstract:Whilst globalisation is widely associated with the movement of people into new spaces, contemporary social forces have also served to limit social and geographical mobility for many. These (im)mobilities are often associated with knowledge and skills which may be acquired through different educational experiences. Thus, the stratification of higher education that has accompanied its expansion is also associated with differential patterns of mobility. Whilst a global elite of applicants make their choices from an international menu of selective, ‘world-class’ institutions, institutions which formerly had local associations, such as the ‘civic’ universities in England, also seek international recognition and accreditation. Conversely, marginal institutions retain local associations: these can be linked to social immobility, yet may also entail transformative potential. In a qualitative study of adult participants in English college higher education, patterns of spatial mobility, diverse even within a small sample, illustrate the contradictory meanings of ‘local’ higher education in the context of class and gender differences. Whilst participants’ student identities drew on their study in an institution defined by its locality, questions of location also affected their apprehension of their future identities. The potential to move between different locations – along with the limitations to such mobility - implies the potential to move beyond the locations to which people are assigned by social structure. The data illustrated the discursive frameworks through which such mobility was contemplated and, at times, denied. Whilst the transgression of geographical, social and educational boundaries is at all ages framed by institutional discourses that problematise diverse voices – and whilst their diversity is often critically associated with educational disadvantage – these accounts may at the same time indicate possibilities of transformative potential.Sylvie LomerTitle: Mapping UK policy on international higher education students, 1999-2013Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to set out the policies on international students, from 1999 to 2013, and describe the main content, through documentary analysis of primary sources associated with national government policy. Although there is a wide research base on teaching and learning, and experiences of international students, much of this is institutionally based (Pelletier, 2003) and not focused on policy. There is, therefore, scant literature on UK national level policy, with the recent exception of Walker (2013). Preliminary readings suggest that policy on international students in England can be broadly grouped into three phrases. Tony Blair’s Prime Minister’s Initiative, ran from 1999-2004 in its first iteration, and was succeeded by the second phase, the PMI2, from 2006-2011. The most recent phase is most clearly codified in the Coalition Government’s International Education Strategy, published in 2013. Although there is a considerable degree of continuity between the Coalition IES and the New Labour PMI, these policies are characterised by different rationales for international student recruitment, and different representations of international students. Ibtissam Al-FarahTitle: Women, education and agricultural development: the example of YemenAbstract: According to a Human Index Report in 2013, Yemen ranked among the least developed countries. On a Global Gender Equality Scale published in 2012, Yemen was ranked last out of 135 countries. High levels of illiteracy and poverty among rural women are acute in a society with gender specific roles, early marriages and segregated schooling. Among a number of poverty reduction projects launched by international development organisation are those targeted at agriculture. However, there is a dearth of information on the work of these bodies and the impact of their activities. The research is focused on programmes sponsored by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and will examine the scale, scope and influence of these interventions.Ronan O’BeirneTitle: Open access and open research: what are the issues?Abstract:Governments believe that a vibrant and productive research community underpins a successful knowledge economy yet the rapid changes to research brought about by technology, globalization, ‘big data’ and an agenda of open access present a range of new challenges for researchers. Specifically, shifts towards open data and digital scholarship are having a significant impact on the research lifecycle. On the one hand the “openness” agenda can be seen to undermine the established ‘business’ or competition model of the research community notably publishers. On the other hand the power of computing is allowing huge datasets to be generated and manipulated in new ways; on ensuring open data, big data and open science, mandated through funding councils, are seen as important factors for economic success. Moreover the channels of research and scholarly communication are changing rapidly with the rise of open access journals. While this can be seen to challenge the traditional peer-review mechanisms undermining the stranglehold publishers have had on the research dissemination process there are contentious issues surround Gold Access and Green access within universities. The changes to the process of research - its collaborative nature and its greater use of large datasets - has meant that the skills traditionally associated with research have expanded to include for example data management in a digital networked environment. This presentation looks at these challenges as part of the initial findings from a larger body of work (EdD Thesis) that uses a theoretically-informed?Delphi-based study to examine the changing relationship between the academic library and modes of knowledge production.Rhiannon BirchTitle: A nearly forgotten inquiry: did the report and recommendations of the Dearing committee (1996-97) amount to a codification of a newly unified higher education system?Abstract: The Dearing inquiry was established with support from the main political parties in May 1996 in response to a financial crisis and in order to exclude higher education as a policy question in the run up to the 1997 General Election. Although its remit was clear and wide-ranging, the differences between the terms of reference and the final report indicate a broader agenda at work than is generally acknowledged. By revisiting the evidence in the Dearing archive (which comprises of evidence submissions, committee minutes and administrative documentation), my research examines the extent to which the inquiry marked a turning point, between the idea of a system promoted by the Robbins inquiry and the emerging competitive market later defined by the Browne review. Alongside its headline recommendations on student fees, renewed growth and widening participation, did the Dearing inquiry also represent a major exercise in codification: the establishment of principles, protocols and frameworks for the operation of a post-binary system of publicly-funded higher education?Eileen Kelly-BlakeneyTitle: Student experiences of widening participation in initial teacher education: a Bourdieusian analysisAbstract:This paper provides an overview of how Bourdieu’s three-level approach to studying a field was employed in a recent Irish study to examine the experiences of students who entered full-time undergraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programmes via widening participation (WP) routes. In the study, ITE is conceptualised as a ‘dual field, sub-field’ and a mapping of the field highlights how WP has impacted on ITE. In seeking to understand the habituses of non-standard entry-route students in ITE, interviews were conducted with nine students from two higher education institutions. Their narratives illustrate the heterogeneous nature of students’ experience of the dual-field of ITE. Derived from the narratives, a schematic representation of orientations within the field finds students positioned as either ‘Adjusting’ or ‘Belonging’, with positions being independent of entry-route. The implications of the findings for policy and practice are outlined. Helen PerkinsTitle: Listening to old wives tales: small stories as the stuff of professional learningAbstract:Drawing on the methods and outcomes of a project funded by the Higher Education Academy, the study takes up the challenge posed by Nutbrown (2011) to ‘push out from the safe(er) boundaries of established methodologies’. The project explored auto-ethnographic investigative approaches to pedagogy. Through the telling of small stories, what Lyotard called ‘petit recits’, it placed auto-ethnography at the centre of teaching about research processes.Keynote addressProfessor Gill ValentineTitle: Learning encounters: in an era of globalisationAbstract:Drawing on original empirical research from a European Research Council project, the talk will examine how students and staff narrate their experiences of cross-cultural contact on a British university campus. The sociologist Stuart Hall has argued that in the context of supermobility and superdiversity how we develop the capacity to live with difference is the critical question of the 21st century. Universities are often imagined as cosmopolitan or progressive spaces. In theory, the campus environment therefore offers opportunities for more intense and prolonged forms of contact with 'difference' than the ephemeral micro-scale forms of interaction that have dominated much of the academic literature about encounter as means of reducing prejudice. In practice, however, the material presented in this overview suggests that many respondents tend to self-segregate, or in some instances are prevented from mixing with ‘others’ through institutional arrangements. Moreover, the pressures posed by commercial forces on?campus also orientate certain students towards lifestyle choices and expectations which exclude others. The conclusion reflects on what can be learnt from this research and potential ways of promoting more inclusive campus environments in an era of globalisation. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download