Bloomsbury Higher Education Research – serie

Book of the Week, Times Higher EducationForms of institutional governance critically shape the culture, creativity and academic outcomes of higher education. The book provides a new, updated and research based account of the changing face of the governance of British higher education. Historically, British universities were deemed amongst the most, if not the most, autonomous in Europe, with governance rooted in their collegial disciplinary structures. This assessment must now be decisively revised, although the belief systems deriving from it remain buried deep in university culture.Drawing on the authors’ investigation of the governance of higher education in the four UK nations, including extensive on-site interviews, and discussions with government policy-makers, the book shows how global, national and system level pressures have changed the face both of the external governance of higher education institutions and how universities govern themselves. Government priorities, new funding methodologies and marketisation have all played a part in this process. Since the mid-1980s, there have been drastic changes in the external environment, reinforced by the increasing diversity within the higher education system as a whole and between the national sub-systems. In addition a new private sector of higher education has been created. New forms of institutional governance are emerging which may have profound effects on research and teaching and on academic creativity and innovation. The study discusses the effects of a state regulated system compared with the more heterarchical system which preceded it. It offers a comparison of the effects of devolved governance to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on the respective higher education systems and their impact on institutional governance. The study concludes that England is becoming increasingly an outlier, and discusses the long term implications for the coherence of a British higher education system.

Published open access, Changing Higher Education for a Changing World draws on the outcomes of the cutting-edge research programmes of the UK-based Centre for Global Higher Education, the world’s largest social science research centre focused on higher education and its future. In countries with incomes at European levels, the majority of all families now have connections to higher education, and there is widespread popular interest in how it can be made better. Together, the contributors sharply illuminate key issues of public and policy interest across the world:Do research universities make society more equal or more unequal?Are students graduating with too much debt?Who do we want to be attending universities?Will learning technologies will abolish the need for bricks-and-mortar higher education institutions?What can countries do to improve their scientific performance?How can comparative teaching assessment and research assessment become much more effective?The book explores higher education in the major higher education regions including China, Europe, the UK and the USA.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

Higher education is vital to India’s future, creating democratic citizens and a modern economy, building communities and cities and conducting research the country needs to continue its advance. Yet, with two thirds of people of India living in rural areas and urban incomes below the world average, in a culturally diverse country, the tragic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and profound problems of regional, social and gender inequalities, higher education faces many challenges. This book brings together experts and emerging researchers from India and the UK to discuss these issues and to explore positive solutions. The team shine the spotlight on financing and funding, governance and regulation, sector organisation and institutional classification, equity and social inclusion, the large and poorly regulated private sector, Union-State relations in higher education, student political activism, and internationalisation.

Higher education is vital to India’s future, creating democratic citizens and a modern economy, building communities and cities and conducting research the country needs to continue its advance. Yet, with two thirds of people of India living in rural areas and urban incomes below the world average, in a culturally diverse country, the tragic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and profound problems of regional, social and gender inequalities, higher education faces many challenges. This book brings together experts and emerging researchers from India and the UK to discuss these issues and to explore positive solutions. The team shine the spotlight on financing and funding, governance and regulation, sector organisation and institutional classification, equity and social inclusion, the large and poorly regulated private sector, Union-State relations in higher education, student political activism, and internationalisation.

Published open access, Changing Higher Education for a Changing World draws on the outcomes of the cutting-edge research programmes of the UK-based Centre for Global Higher Education, the world’s largest social science research centre focused on higher education and its future. In countries with incomes at European levels, the majority of all families now have connections to higher education, and there is widespread popular interest in how it can be made better. Together, the contributors sharply illuminate key issues of public and policy interest across the world:Do research universities make society more equal or more unequal?Are students graduating with too much debt?Who do we want to be attending universities?Will learning technologies will abolish the need for bricks-and-mortar higher education institutions?What can countries do to improve their scientific performance?How can comparative teaching assessment and research assessment become much more effective?The book explores higher education in the major higher education regions including China, Europe, the UK and the USA.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

Book of the Week, Times Higher EducationForms of institutional governance critically shape the culture, creativity and academic outcomes of higher education. The book provides a new, updated and research based account of the changing face of the governance of British higher education. Historically, British universities were deemed amongst the most, if not the most, autonomous in Europe, with governance rooted in their collegial disciplinary structures. This assessment must now be decisively revised, although the belief systems deriving from it remain buried deep in university culture.Drawing on the authors’ investigation of the governance of higher education in the four UK nations, including extensive on-site interviews, and discussions with government policy-makers, the book shows how global, national and system level pressures have changed the face both of the external governance of higher education institutions and how universities govern themselves. Government priorities, new funding methodologies and marketisation have all played a part in this process. Since the mid-1980s, there have been drastic changes in the external environment, reinforced by the increasing diversity within the higher education system as a whole and between the national sub-systems. In addition a new private sector of higher education has been created. New forms of institutional governance are emerging which may have profound effects on research and teaching and on academic creativity and innovation. The study discusses the effects of a state regulated system compared with the more heterarchical system which preceded it. It offers a comparison of the effects of devolved governance to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on the respective higher education systems and their impact on institutional governance. The study concludes that England is becoming increasingly an outlier, and discusses the long term implications for the coherence of a British higher education system.

East Asia is a most dynamic region and its fast developing higher education and research systems are gathering great momentum. East Asian higher education has common cultural roots in Chinese civilization, and in indigenous traditions, each country has been shaped in different ways by Western intervention, and all are building global strategies. Shared educational agendas combine with long political tensions and rising national identities. Hope and fear touch each other. What are the prospects for regional harmony-in-diversity? How do internationalization and indigenization interplay in higher education in this remarkable region, where so much of the future of humanity will be decided?Experts from Australia, China mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK and Vietnam probe these dynamics, with original perspectives, robust evidence and brilliant writing. Changing Higher Education in East Asia deepens our understanding of internationalization and globalization agendas such as world-class universities and international students. It takes readers further, exploring the role of higher education in furthering the global public and common good, world citizenship education, the internationalization of the humanities and social sciences, geopolitics and higher education development, cross-border academic mobility, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on regional student mobility, and future regionalization in East Asia.

East Asia is a most dynamic region and its fast developing higher education and research systems are gathering great momentum. East Asian higher education has common cultural roots in Chinese civilization, and in indigenous traditions, each country has been shaped in different ways by Western intervention, and all are building global strategies. Shared educational agendas combine with long political tensions and rising national identities. Hope and fear touch each other. What are the prospects for regional harmony-in-diversity? How do internationalization and indigenization interplay in higher education in this remarkable region, where so much of the future of humanity will be decided?Experts from Australia, China mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK and Vietnam probe these dynamics, with original perspectives, robust evidence and brilliant writing. Changing Higher Education in East Asia deepens our understanding of internationalization and globalization agendas such as world-class universities and international students. It takes readers further, exploring the role of higher education in furthering the global public and common good, world citizenship education, the internationalization of the humanities and social sciences, geopolitics and higher education development, cross-border academic mobility, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on regional student mobility, and future regionalization in East Asia.

Against a background of changing patterns of academic labour in the UK and other English speaking countries, this book draws on empirical research which identifies a shift towards more open-ended approaches to roles and careers in higher education. This has resulted in what the authors describe as ‘concertina-like’ careers, in which individuals stretch the spaces and timescales available to them. Underpinning this process, the concept of ‘career scripts’ shows how the career paths of individuals may be informed by formal career structures (Institutional scripts) but also by activity associated with professional practice (Practice scripts), and by personal strengths, interests and commitments (Internal scripts). This has led to new forms of activity, within both the formal institutional economy, including promotion criteria and prescribed career pathways, and the informal institutional economy, represented by personal interests and initiatives, professional relationships and networks. The ‘concertina’ process enables individuals to address a series of common misalignments and disjunctures within formal institutional economies, including those associated with disciplinary and departmental affiliations, job profiles, progression criteria, and work allocation models. The book also explores directions that academic careers may take in the future, and how institutions might adapt to these changes.

Against a background of changing patterns of academic labour in the UK and other English speaking countries, this book draws on empirical research which identifies a shift towards more open-ended approaches to roles and careers in higher education. This has resulted in what the authors describe as ‘concertina-like’ careers, in which individuals stretch the spaces and timescales available to them. Underpinning this process, the concept of ‘career scripts’ shows how the career paths of individuals may be informed by formal career structures (Institutional scripts) but also by activity associated with professional practice (Practice scripts), and by personal strengths, interests and commitments (Internal scripts). This has led to new forms of activity, within both the formal institutional economy, including promotion criteria and prescribed career pathways, and the informal institutional economy, represented by personal interests and initiatives, professional relationships and networks. The ‘concertina’ process enables individuals to address a series of common misalignments and disjunctures within formal institutional economies, including those associated with disciplinary and departmental affiliations, job profiles, progression criteria, and work allocation models. The book also explores directions that academic careers may take in the future, and how institutions might adapt to these changes.

In this monograph, Lili Yang compares core ideas about the state, society, and higher education in two major world traditions. She explores the broad cultural and philosophical ideas underlying the public good of higher education in the two traditions, reveals their different social imaginaries, and works through five areas where higher education intersects with the individual, society, the state, and the world, intersections understood in contrasting ways in each tradition. The five key themes are: individual student development in higher education, equity in higher education, academic freedom and university autonomy, the resources and outcomes of higher education, and cross-border higher education activities and higher education’s global outcomes. In exploring the similarities, Yang highlights important meeting points between the two world views, with the potential to contribute to the mutual understanding and cooperation across cultures.

In this monograph, Lili Yang compares core ideas about the state, society, and higher education in two major world traditions. She explores the broad cultural and philosophical ideas underlying the public good of higher education in the two traditions, reveals their different social imaginaries, and works through five areas where higher education intersects with the individual, society, the state, and the world, intersections understood in contrasting ways in each tradition. The five key themes are: individual student development in higher education, equity in higher education, academic freedom and university autonomy, the resources and outcomes of higher education, and cross-border higher education activities and higher education’s global outcomes. In exploring the similarities, Yang highlights important meeting points between the two world views, with the potential to contribute to the mutual understanding and cooperation across cultures.

The Governance of European Higher Education: Convergence or Divergence analyses governance at state and institutional levels in five European higher education systems chosen as representative of European higher education as a whole: Germany, Hungary, Norway, Portugal and the UK (as in England, Scotland and Wales). Drawing on 180 detailed face-to-face interviews with policymakers and universities the book explores the extent to which governance and systems have been converging or diverging towards or away from a common European model over the last decade and records the evidence of growing directional controls exercised by the various states.

The Governance of European Higher Education: Convergence or Divergence analyses governance at state and institutional levels in five European higher education systems chosen as representative of European higher education as a whole: Germany, Hungary, Norway, Portugal and the UK (as in England, Scotland and Wales). Drawing on 180 detailed face-to-face interviews with policymakers and universities the book explores the extent to which governance and systems have been converging or diverging towards or away from a common European model over the last decade and records the evidence of growing directional controls exercised by the various states.

The rapid shift online during the Covid-19 pandemic has put online learning firmly on the agenda of universities everywhere and to realise fully the transformative potential of online learning this book argues the need for an evidence-based design approach. The evidence comes from the experiences of online learners who are professionals: educators, engineers, medics and researchers. Designbased research, learner contributions, survey responses and interviews with these learners demonstrate that open, online, collaborative learning experiences are not only feasible but effective for building professional community knowledge.Innovative online learning of this kind can help universities contribute to the global public good by achieving high quality learning at scale. The open online platforms being used in the book widen global access to professional education and create more porous boundaries between universities and the wider community. This is critical for achieving, for example, the full impact of the current policy discussions on the UN SDGs, such as climate and inequality. The evidence-base shows how co-designed, transformative digital education can be mobilised to support professionals such as teachers in crisis contexts, government officials investigating renewable energy solutions, or medics adapting treatments to local conditions. It also shows how to scale up professional development in areas where expertise is urgently required. The book concludes that scaled-up online learning can enable HE to deliver on the UN SDGs by equipping citizens and communities with the knowledge and skills needed to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

The rapid shift online during the Covid-19 pandemic has put online learning firmly on the agenda of universities everywhere and to realise fully the transformative potential of online learning this book argues the need for an evidence-based design approach. The evidence comes from the experiences of online learners who are professionals: educators, engineers, medics and researchers. Designbased research, learner contributions, survey responses and interviews with these learners demonstrate that open, online, collaborative learning experiences are not only feasible but effective for building professional community knowledge.Innovative online learning of this kind can help universities contribute to the global public good by achieving high quality learning at scale. The open online platforms being used in the book widen global access to professional education and create more porous boundaries between universities and the wider community. This is critical for achieving, for example, the full impact of the current policy discussions on the UN SDGs, such as climate and inequality. The evidence-base shows how co-designed, transformative digital education can be mobilised to support professionals such as teachers in crisis contexts, government officials investigating renewable energy solutions, or medics adapting treatments to local conditions. It also shows how to scale up professional development in areas where expertise is urgently required. The book concludes that scaled-up online learning can enable HE to deliver on the UN SDGs by equipping citizens and communities with the knowledge and skills needed to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

This book explores the impact of localities and regions on universities and shows how the diversity of the higher education landscape is critically affected by the geophysical character of regions and their differentiated economies and cultures; regional inequalities bear heavily on universities' strategy-making. A study of the interrelationship between higher and further education argues that from a regional perspective a change to a tertiary education system in England (following Wales) would create the conditions for better local and regional coordination. Universities make a significant contribution to 'levelling up' through technology transfer and the creation of innovation hubs but the contribution of locally or regionally based students who on graduation return to disadvantaged communities rather than seek employment elsewhere should be recognised also as a longer term step to redressing regional inequality. The book argues strongly that the time has come to decentralise the governance of a re-aligned tertiary system to regions and identifies the move to create metro mayors and combined authorities as providing the appropriate vehicle to release new initiative from regional sources. It cites the success of decentralisation to Scotland and Wales as offering relevant models for scrutiny. The authors draw on 12 UK widely differentiated university case studies, a survey of further education and a study of three continental European comparators (Germany, Ireland and Norway) to develop the argument.

This book explores the impact of localities and regions on universities and shows how the diversity of the higher education landscape is critically affected by the geophysical character of regions and their differentiated economies and cultures; regional inequalities bear heavily on universities' strategy-making. A study of the interrelationship between higher and further education argues that from a regional perspective a change to a tertiary education system in England (following Wales) would create the conditions for better local and regional coordination. Universities make a significant contribution to 'levelling up' through technology transfer and the creation of innovation hubs but the contribution of locally or regionally based students who on graduation return to disadvantaged communities rather than seek employment elsewhere should be recognised also as a longer term step to redressing regional inequality. The book argues strongly that the time has come to decentralise the governance of a re-aligned tertiary system to regions and identifies the move to create metro mayors and combined authorities as providing the appropriate vehicle to release new initiative from regional sources. It cites the success of decentralisation to Scotland and Wales as offering relevant models for scrutiny. The authors draw on 12 UK widely differentiated university case studies, a survey of further education and a study of three continental European comparators (Germany, Ireland and Norway) to develop the argument.

This open access edited collection brings together reflections on the fast-changing and crisis-ridden global context and develops new ways of conceptualising academic mobilities, and immobilities, against a backdrop of a conflicted and precarious future for global higher education. The result is a set of vivid cutting-edge contributions, some of which take a global view and others which explore a country perspective, including China, France, Malaysia, Philippines, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, and more. The book foregrounds critical approaches to academic mobility, with topics covered including blockages to mobility in the context of geopolitical tensions and the upsurge of national particularism and nativism, the intersection of academic (im)mobilities and power, political subjectivities and race, class and gender. Traditional understandings of academic mobility as physical mobility from global South to North are questioned as exclusionary and alternative models of mobility are offered. These include those appropriate to post-colonial national and regional contexts, those responsive to the changing needs of students, academics and their communities, those using online modes as well as those involving physical transfers of persons, and those about the mobility of knowledge as well as people and learning.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.

This open access book addresses the current disillusionment with mass higher education and argues that it is based on a profound misunderstanding of its educational potential. The authors analyse a seven-year longitudinal research project that tracked participants who studied chemistry or chemical engineering from their first year of university until up to three years after they graduated. Drawing on over 700 interviews with students/graduates from two English, two South African and two American universities, the book explores the educational intentions of their degree programmes, what participants wanted to get out of going to university and studying for a degree, how their views of knowledge and the world changed, and what they felt they had gained from going to university. The book argues that the educational potential of higher education lies, not in graduate salaries or employability, but in the ways in which engaging with structured bodies of knowledge changes students’ understanding of the world and what they can do in it. The authors consider the implications of this argument for how the educational role of higher education is understood by students, graduates, universities, and policymakers and how this understanding might be drawn upon to counter the damaging disillusionment with mass higher education that appears to be growing in many countries.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.

In this open access book, leading scholar Simon Marginson discusses the major trends, events, issues and dilemmas that have shaped and are still shaping global higher education.Higher education and research have grown rapidly, becoming more international and embroiled in the politics and economics of an increasingly conflicted world. The global research university has spread from the Euro-American West to the global East and South, becoming key to emerging multipolar and decolonial power. In the Anglosphere, however, the market model is failing. In highly unequal societies, education cannot universalise opportunity and employability. Neoliberal governments have defunded and emptied out the work of universities for the common good – and populist-conservatism is filling the vacuum with a backlash against cross-border students, against crucial East-West collaboration in research, and in the United States, where global research universities began, against university autonomy, climate science and academic freedom.In a tumultuous and unstable time in which old certainties are crumbling, Marginson makes an original and probing argument, supported by data-based review, theorising, and critical analysis, that pushes in a radically different direction to both neoliberalism and Trumpism. It is an ambitious call to sweep away the accumulative-competitive model of society and education, which positions us as sovereign individuals without collective responsibility, in nations likewise driven solely by self-interest (sovereign nationalism) in a war of all against all. The book pulls apart policies on student fees, human capital and employability, calling for negotiated education-work partnerships. It unpicks the neocolonial mindset in Western science and international education, suggesting that no single culture has all the answers; that respect for diversity and cooperation on shared problems are integral to the global common good.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.

This open access book examines the effects of Brexit on UK higher education, based on the largest academic research project conducted in the UK across 12 universities in all four nations.The Brexit decision in 2016 has brought about a profound transformation in UK higher education, with the decline in EU engagement reshaping the sector in many areas, including recruitment of academic staff, research collaboration, university facilities and the declining diversity of students in British institutions. This study, grounded in 127 interviews with university leaders and academic staff, focuses especially on the sharp reduction in EU student entry into UK universities and how this is being experienced in the UK.With an analysis of the impact of Brexit in three areas, revenue, diversity and competition, the book also offers a broader understanding of the internationalisation of higher education in the UK. The authors review developments in policy and practice in the internationalisation of UK higher education and research, including scholarly studies and perspectives. The argument is supported by rich data including up to date statistics on enrolment and well-crafted qualitative case studies. Significantly, Brexit, EU Students and UK Higher Education offers implicit and explicit wider lessons which can be expanded to other HE systems and global HE.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.