Key Issues in Higher Education – serie

Every business and organization today needs to impress stakeholders with its ethics policy. Universities, Ethics and Professions examines how this emphasis on ethics by the professional world is impacting universities, institutions that have long been key contributors to ethical reflection and debate, and shapers of ethical discourse. Changing objectives, globalization, and public concerns continue to bring professionalism, and commercialization, into the dialogue about what ethics mean on campus.Universities, Ethics and Professions offers an in-depth examination of the changing landscape of academic ethics, with case-study analysis from sociologists, educationalists, management specialists and philosophers. As professionalism becomes an integral part of university teaching, training, and research, this book considers the impact on the ethical practices of academics, and explores the importance of universities remaining sites of open discourse on ethics in the future.

What makes a university teacher 'excellent'? As debates rage about whether this is down to subject knowledge, communication skills, taking a research-led approach or being a technological whiz, this book provides the first in-depth examination of teaching excellence in higher education. Identifying and examining interpretations of teaching excellence, it considers what ‘excellent’ means and implies for practice.

What makes a university teacher 'excellent'? As debates rage about whether this is down to subject knowledge, communication skills, taking a research-led approach or being a technological whiz, this book provides the first in-depth examination of teaching excellence in higher education. Identifying and examining interpretations of teaching excellence, it considers what ‘excellent’ means and implies for practice.

What are the obligations of the university to society and its communities? What are the virtues of university education? What are the university's ethical responsibilities to its students?The role of citizenship and civic responsibility in higher education is a highly contested yet crucial element of any consideration of the role of university in society.This book offers thoughtful insights into this role, outlining the intellectual and practical tensions and pressures which come to bear upon higher education institutions. Wide ranging in scope, it offers perspectives from British, European, Canadian and North American educational environments.Citizenship and Higher Education will prove stimulating reading for anyone concerned with the ethics of education and the university's place in society - including educationalists, researchers, sociologists and policy-makers.

The Challenge to Scholarship is a lively and engaging investigation that seeks to establish what it means to be a scholar and the value of scholarship. It addresses current concerns and tensions including the scholarship of teaching and the relationship between teaching and research.Gill Nicholls gets right to the heart of the debate over scholarship and declares that a reconceptualization of scholarship within universities is required, outlining the changes involved and the practical implications for higher education institutions of the future.

A good university is invariably assumed to be one which is managerially effective in terms of its economic efficiency, and is judged in terms of entrepreneurialism, self-promotion and competitive innovation. This book argues that in the majority of institutions, these goals are being pursued to the exclusion of academic excellence and public service. It proposes that there is a marked lack of intellectual leadership at senior management level within HE institutions and that academic workers must assume responsibility for the moral purposefulness of their institutions. This will not be a retreat into the old values of an elitist 'ivory tower', but a rejection of the current deeply stratified university system which prematurely selects students for differentiated institutional streams.

With increasing focus on excellence in research and teaching, the service role of the individual academic is often neglected. This book calls for greater recognition of this important aspect of academic life, highlighting the importance of mentoring, committee work and pastoral care in the daily running of universities. Drawing from extensive examples from models around the world, The Academic Citizen points to the benefits of effective communication with colleagues in the faculty, across the university and in corresponding faculties across the world, as well as those in maintaining positive associations with the wider world.

A lot hangs on the summative grades that students are given. A good degree opens doors which otherwise might remain closed. Yet, as higher education is now a mass rather than an elite system, what is expected of its graduates is different from the expectations of previous generations. Students are expected not only to be able to demonstrate high standards of academic achievement, but also a variety of capabilities that have at different times been given labels such as ‘generic skills’ and ‘transferable skills’. These abilities are difficult to grade for a variety of reasons and some graduates may be losing out because their particular strengths are given insufficient acknowledgement in current summative assessment practices.Using the UK honours degree classifications as a case study, this book appraises the way in which summative assessment in higher education is approached and shows that the foundations of current practices (in the UK and elsewhere) are of questionable robustness. It argues that there is a need to widen the assessment frame if the breadth of valued student achievements is to be recognised adequately.

The ‘Key Issues in Higher Education’ series aims to raise both awareness and the standards of debate on the fundamental issues that lie at the very heart of higher education and intends to assist national and international debate.Higher Education and Sustainable Development examines whether it is actually possible to mandate, plan, monitor and evaluate the higher education sector’s route to the production of educated, innovative, independent, self-determining, critical individuals while at the same time achieving a range of wider policy goals on the side. This book examines this question in the context of a particular international policy issue – sustainable development – which is now seen across the globe as a necessary and urgent response to a range of social and environmental issues that threaten the integrity of the biosphere and human well being. The book concludes that the idea of sustainable development holds both opportunities and dangers for universities as they pursue their proper role in a free society.Illustrated by seven in-depth case studies this book considers the complex inter-relationships of a free society and sustainable development in the context of higher education, and aims to makes recommendations for realistic future development. It is essential reading for the international higher education research community, policy-makers, university managers, students and non-Governmental organizations in the development, environment and social policy sectors.

In this timely and innovative book scholars from Europe, the UK, North America and Australia, explore their own sense of identity, reflecting both on their research and scholarly interests, and their work experiences. Taking the form of a debate, Changing Identities in Higher Education helps to widen the contemporary space for debates on the future of higher education itself. The book is split into three parts:part one presents a set of essays each on a set of identities within higher education (academic, student, administrative/managerial and educational developers). part two includes responses to Part one from authors speaking from their own professional and scholarly identity perspective part three illustrates perspectives on the identities of students, provided by students themselves. With its original, dialogic form and varied content, this book is of interest to all those concerned in current debates about the state and nature of higher education today and those interested in questions of identity. It makes especially useful reading for students of higher education, lecturers in training, academics and managers alike.

The Challenge to Scholarship is a lively and engaging investigation that seeks to establish what it means to be a scholar and the value of scholarship. It addresses current concerns and tensions including the scholarship of teaching and the relationship between teaching and research.Gill Nicholls gets right to the heart of the debate over scholarship and declares that a reconceptualization of scholarship within universities is required, outlining the changes involved and the practical implications for higher education institutions of the future.

The ‘Key Issues in Higher Education’ series aims to raise both awareness and the standards of debate on the fundamental issues that lie at the very heart of higher education and intends to assist national and international debate.Higher Education and Sustainable Development examines whether it is actually possible to mandate, plan, monitor and evaluate the higher education sector’s route to the production of educated, innovative, independent, self-determining, critical individuals while at the same time achieving a range of wider policy goals on the side. This book examines this question in the context of a particular international policy issue – sustainable development – which is now seen across the globe as a necessary and urgent response to a range of social and environmental issues that threaten the integrity of the biosphere and human well being. The book concludes that the idea of sustainable development holds both opportunities and dangers for universities as they pursue their proper role in a free society.Illustrated by seven in-depth case studies this book considers the complex inter-relationships of a free society and sustainable development in the context of higher education, and aims to makes recommendations for realistic future development. It is essential reading for the international higher education research community, policy-makers, university managers, students and non-Governmental organizations in the development, environment and social policy sectors.

With increasing focus on excellence in research and teaching, the service role of the individual academic is often neglected. This book calls for greater recognition of this important aspect of academic life, highlighting the importance of mentoring, committee work and pastoral care in the daily running of universities. Drawing from extensive examples from models around the world, The Academic Citizen points to the benefits of effective communication with colleagues in the faculty, across the university and in corresponding faculties across the world, as well as those in maintaining positive associations with the wider world.

In this timely and innovative book scholars from Europe, the UK, North America and Australia, explore their own sense of identity, reflecting both on their research and scholarly interests, and their work experiences. Taking the form of a debate, Changing Identities in Higher Education helps to widen the contemporary space for debates on the future of higher education itself. The book is split into three parts:part one presents a set of essays each on a set of identities within higher education (academic, student, administrative/managerial and educational developers). part two includes responses to Part one from authors speaking from their own professional and scholarly identity perspective part three illustrates perspectives on the identities of students, provided by students themselves. With its original, dialogic form and varied content, this book is of interest to all those concerned in current debates about the state and nature of higher education today and those interested in questions of identity. It makes especially useful reading for students of higher education, lecturers in training, academics and managers alike.

What are the obligations of the university to society and its communities? What are the virtues of university education? What are the university's ethical responsibilities to its students?The role of citizenship and civic responsibility in higher education is a highly contested yet crucial element of any consideration of the role of university in society.This book offers thoughtful insights into this role, outlining the intellectual and practical tensions and pressures which come to bear upon higher education institutions. Wide ranging in scope, it offers perspectives from British, European, Canadian and North American educational environments.Citizenship and Higher Education will prove stimulating reading for anyone concerned with the ethics of education and the university's place in society - including educationalists, researchers, sociologists and policy-makers.

A good university is invariably assumed to be one which is managerially effective in terms of its economic efficiency, and is judged in terms of entrepreneurialism, self-promotion and competitive innovation. This book argues that in the majority of institutions, these goals are being pursued to the exclusion of academic excellence and public service. It proposes that there is a marked lack of intellectual leadership at senior management level within HE institutions and that academic workers must assume responsibility for the moral purposefulness of their institutions. This will not be a retreat into the old values of an elitist 'ivory tower', but a rejection of the current deeply stratified university system which prematurely selects students for differentiated institutional streams.

Every business and organization today needs to impress stakeholders with its ethics policy. Universities, Ethics and Professions examines how this emphasis on ethics by the professional world is impacting universities, institutions that have long been key contributors to ethical reflection and debate, and shapers of ethical discourse. Changing objectives, globalization, and public concerns continue to bring professionalism, and commercialization, into the dialogue about what ethics mean on campus.Universities, Ethics and Professions offers an in-depth examination of the changing landscape of academic ethics, with case-study analysis from sociologists, educationalists, management specialists and philosophers. As professionalism becomes an integral part of university teaching, training, and research, this book considers the impact on the ethical practices of academics, and explores the importance of universities remaining sites of open discourse on ethics in the future.