scholarly journals Adapting to a Dynamic Higher Education Environment – How the University of Glasgow Library Is Taking Up the Challenge

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Susan Ashworth
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Research Assessment ◽  
Institutional Repository ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Scholarly Communications ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University

The University of Glasgow Library is continuously developing space and services to meet the need of students and researchers in an evolving higher education landscape. We are an evidence-based organisation and have used tools such as ethnography, surveys and focus groups to understand how users interact with the physical and virtual library. We have also introduced new roles and created new partnerships across the University, particularly in the context of the United Kingdom Government’s policy on open access and funder requirements for the management of research data. This paper will focus on how the University of Glasgow Library is adapting to both the dynamic scholarly communications environment and the demands of our national research exercise and evidence from users and changing student needs. Every six years in the UK, there is a national research assessment exercise called the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and measurement of the performance of research outputs is a key part of that exercise. From 1st April 2016, in order to be eligible for the next REF, the accepted final version of journal articles and conference proceedings must have been deposited into an institutional repository within three months of the date of acceptance and made open access. Many research funders, such as the Wellcome Trust, also have policies on open access. The Library, in close partnership with the University’s Research Office, has taken the lead in publicising these policies to ensure that researchers are aware of their responsibilities. It has also developed new functionality in Enlighten, our institutional repository service to support compliance. In 2015, the Library commissioned an in-depth ethnographic study to help us more readily understand the changing needs of students and how they use library space. An overview of the results of this work and our next steps will demonstrate how we are “enabling progress”.

scholarly journals Open or Ajar? Openness within the Neoliberal Academy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Sanders ◽  
Simon Bowie
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Software Models ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Scholarly Communications ◽  
Research Environments ◽  
Societal Context

The terms 'open' and 'openness' are widely used across the current higher education environment particularly in the areas of repository services and scholarly communications. Open-access licensing and open-source licensing are two prevalent manifestations of open culture within higher education research environments. As theoretical ideals, open-licensing models aim at openness and academic freedom. But operating as they do within the context of global neoliberalism, to what extent are these models constructed by, sustained by, and co-opted by neoliberalism? In this paper, we interrogate the use of open-licensing within scholarly communications and within the larger societal context of neoliberalism. Through synthesis of various sources, we will examine how open access licensing models have been constrained by neoliberal or otherwise corporate agendas, how open access and open scholarship have been reframed within discourses of compliance, how open-source software models and software are co-opted by politico-economic forces, and how the language of 'openness' is widely misused in higher education and repository services circles to drive agendas that run counter to actually increasing openness. We will finish by suggesting ways to resist this trend and use open-licensing models to resist neoliberal agendas in open scholarship.

scholarly journals Educational Equality and International Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1191-1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minghui Hou
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Students ◽  
Educational Equality ◽  
Domestic Students ◽  
Equal Education ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Higher Education Organizations ◽  
The University

Educational Equality and International Students, recently published by Tannock (2018), explores and highlights how to conceptualize and promote principles of educational equality for both international and domestic students in the United Kingdom. Tannock’s book includes empirical research consisting of 60 interviews with higher education staff and students, as well as the use of higher education institutional documents and secondary statistics collected from universities and national higher education organizations around the UK. Tannock addresses the contradictions between the missions of higher education institutions (universalistic principles of human rights in equal education) and their practices regarding international students as “cash cows” that keep the university afloat (p. 110).

Work-Based Learning in the United Kingdom

2019 ◽  
pp. 268-292
Author(s):  
Jon Talbot
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Full Time ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Workplace Experience ◽  
Integrative Studies ◽  
Education Statistics ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
Uk Higher Education

The term work-based learning has been widely used in higher education in the UK since the 1990s, and there is evidence of a spread in practice. However, it is not recognized as a subject by the UK Higher Education Statistics Authority so that the extent of practice is unknown. A small unpublished survey sheds some light on the varieties and extent of practice in England and Wales, identifying five different approaches. Different pedagogical practices can exist within single universities, and most of the chapter outlines how the University of Chester incorporates two practices. Its work-based learning (WBL) module is available for all full-time second-year undergraduates regardless of discipline. Its purpose is to enable all students of the university the opportunity to gain real-world workplace experience and sensitize them to the requirements of experiential and lifelong learning. By contrast the work-based and integrative studies (WBIS) is an example of a fully negotiated whole program designed to facilitate the development of practice for those already working.

scholarly journals Open Access and Research Assessment in the United Kingdom

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Tate
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Research Assessment ◽  
Institutional Repository ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Research Assessment Exercise ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
New Association ◽  
Conference Papers

Beginning in April 2016, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will require that all journal articles and conference papers are deposited in a subject or institutional repository immediately at the point of acceptance for publication and made Open Access as the earliest possible opportunity, subject to publisher embargoes. This requirement is a prerequisite to journal articles and conference proceedings being weligible for submission to the next Research Assessment Exercise (REF). This new association between Open Access and research assessment is rapidly leading to a large-scale transition to Open Access in UK-based universities. This transition will bring many benefits, but the scale of UK universities’ Open Access operations brings a number of challenges to the implementation of this requirement. This poster will examine some of these challenges and explain how a number of universities are dealing with them.

Web Accessibility of the Top Research-Intensive Universities in the UK

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402110566
Author(s):  
Sophia Alim
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Web Accessibility ◽  
The Body ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Wcag 2.0 ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Text Content ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Future Technologies ◽  
The University

Although the web accessibility of universities around the world is well documented, much remains unknown about this aspect of higher education institutions in the UK. Using three automated web accessibility tools (TAW, WAVE and EIII Page Checker), this study explores the accessibility of the homepages of 66 research-intensive universities with respect to the WCAG 2.0 checkpoints. The results show that the most common checkpoint violations involve the provision of text alternatives for non-text content, contrast errors and the need to increase the computability of webpages with future technologies and tools. The results show that there are variations between UK universities, and there is some evidence of consistent compliance amongst the university homepages. However, when evaluated against results from similar studies of web accessibility in other countries, these web pages perform well. Overall, this study adds to the body of knowledge on web accessibility in higher education in the UK.

scholarly journals Understanding race and educational leadership in higher education

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 192-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Arday
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Senior Leadership ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Career Trajectory ◽  
Senior Leaders ◽  
Organizational Barriers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Leadership In Higher Education ◽  
The Uk

The dearth of representation regarding Black and Ethnic Minorities (BME) in senior educational leadership roles within higher education (HE) has become a salient issue as egalitarian notions associated with equality and diversity continue to be contradicted by university institutions, despite increased calls for greater diversification. Educational leadership in higher education within the United Kingdom (UK), particularly when aligned to the primacy of race, remains oblivious to some of the organizational barriers encountered by BME academics attempting to navigate a career trajectory towards senior leadership. The diversification of senior leaders within the Academy in the UK has increasingly become an issue that, although prevalent, has stagnated owing to the lack of visible BME senior leaders and penetrative change to address the disparity regarding recruitment and promotion of more BME academics to leadership hierarchies. This article draws on a collective biography methodology, which will utilize narratives from three BME academics in senior leadership positions within higher education in the UK, in an attempt to illuminate the challenges that saturate the Academy, concerning leadership opportunities and career pathways for BME academics. The issues drawn upon identify synergies between constructions of race and leadership, whilst considering the interplay between these two vehicles when situated within a higher education context.

scholarly journals Young People’s Services in an Age of Neoliberalism

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-206
Author(s):  
Graham Brotherton ◽  
Christina Hyland ◽  
Iain Jones ◽  
Terry Potter
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Youth Services ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Way

Abstract This article brings together four different perspectives which explore the way in which various policy initiatives in recent years have sought to construct young people resident in the United Kingdom within particular policy discourses shaped by neoliberalism. In order to do this it firstly considers the way in which the assumptions of neoliberalism have increasingly been applied by the new Coalition Government to young people and the services provided for them; it then considers the particular role of New Labour in the UK in applying these ideas in practice. Specific examples from the areas of young people’s participation in youth services and higher education policy are then considered.

Enabling New Market Exploitation by SMEs

1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceris Burns
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
International Collaboration ◽  
Market Research ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Medical Electronics ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
The Way

This article provides a practical case example of the way in which international collaboration between government, higher education and business can lead to new commercial opportunities for small companies which would otherwise lack the necessary resources for the extensive market research required, and also to enhanced knowledge and understanding for all participants. The author summarizes the results of her market research in France, undertaken as part of a TCS programme of the University of Stirling and Albyn Medical, a small Scottish-based company in the medical electronics business. The six-week visit to France was the result of a TCS scholarship supported by institutions in both France and the UK.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document