scholarly journals Is Peer Review Fit for Purpose?

2022 ◽  
pp. 223-241
Author(s):  
Malcolm Tight
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
First Century ◽  
Doctoral Degrees ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Academic Employment ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
The Uk

AbstractPeer review is endemic to judgement in higher education. It is assumed that when we need to make a judgement on the quality of something—student performance, academic employment, teaching, research and publication—then we may rely on the assessment of peers, whether they be fellow students, lecturers or more senior academics. This chapter will illustrate and challenge this assumption, and assess how ‘fit for purpose’ peer review is in twenty-first century academe. It will focus on different practices of peer review in the contemporary higher education system, it will also question how well they work, how they might be improved and what the alternatives are. The examples to be discussed include refereed journal articles, the assessment of doctoral degrees and the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF).

scholarly journals “Diploma mill” issues in the higher education system: the case of the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-77
Author(s):  
A.N. Ospanova ◽  
◽  
Z.M. Sabitov ◽  
Z.E. Nurbayev ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Education System ◽  
Expert Advice ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Diploma Mills ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University

In the article, the authors explore the evolution of the formation of higher education institutions in the UK, analyze the formation of the education system as a whole. In the course of the study, the authors concluded that the reforms that were carried out in the 1960s in the UK higher education system led to accessibility among the general population and massification. And this, in turn, affected the quality of the educational services provided. An important fact in the reforms of higher education in the UK, was the lack of opportunities to compete with the “old”universities in terms of basic research and social prestige, “universities without pedigree”chose a different development strategy, in which the main role was given to the internationalization of learning. In order to avoid the emergence of “diploma mills”, the requirements for the activities of universities are being strengthened, and a number of measures are being taken. The external examination of the university is carried out by the State Council for the Financing of Higher Education. Experts check universities once every five years, conduct surveys of students and teachers according to a formalized methodology, as well as check the specific results of educational and scientific work and make their recommendations. Expert advice from employers is also a form of external expertise. One of the most important aspects of assessing the quality of a university is accreditation. Obtaining accreditation by the university is a prerequisite for the employment of its graduates. All the above-mentioned bodies conduct strict control and it is not profitable for universities to violate the requirements. All of the above measures have practically eliminated the problem of “diploma mills”.

Effects and Risks of Distance Learning in Higher Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Yu. M. Tsygalov
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
First Results ◽  
Spread Of Infection ◽  
The Cost

The forced work of Russian universities remotely in the context of the pandemic (COVID-19) has generated a lot of discussion about the benefits of the new form of education. The first results were summed up and reports were presented, the materials of which showed that the main goal of online education — the prevention of the spread of infection, - has been achieved. Against this background, proposals and publications have appeared substantiating the effectiveness of the massive introduction of distance learning in Russia, including in higher education. However, the assessment of such training by the population and students in publications and in social networks was predominantly negative and showed that the number of emerging problems exceeds the possible benefits of the new educational technology. Based on the analysis of the materials of publications and personal experience of teaching online, the potential benefits and problems of distance learning in higher education in Russia are considered. It is proposed to consider the effects separately for the suppliers of new technology (government, universities) and consumers (students, teachers, society). It is substantiated that the massive introduction of online education allows not only to reduce the negative consequences of epidemics, but also to reduce budgetary funding for universities, optimize the age composition of teachers, and reduce the cost of maintaining educational buildings. However, there will be a leveling / averaging of the quality of education, and responsibility for the quality of training will shift from the state/universities to students. The critical shortcomings of online education are the low degree of readiness of the digital infrastructure, the lack of a mechanism for identifying and monitoring the work of students, information security problems, and the lack of trust in such training of the population. The massive use of online education creates a number of risks for the country, the most critical of which is the destruction of the higher education system and a drop in the effectiveness of personnel training. The consequences of this risk realization are not compensated by any possible budget savings.

scholarly journals Effects of Socio-Academic Intervention on Student Performance in Vulnerable Groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7673
Author(s):  
Tarquino Sánchez-Almeida ◽  
David Naranjo ◽  
Raquel Gilar-Corbi ◽  
Jessica Reina
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Academic Intervention ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
University System ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Economic Support ◽  
Support Mechanisms ◽  
The University

In Ecuador, affirmative action policies enable students from vulnerable groups to preferentially enter universities. However, these policies are limited to admission and do not include academic or socio-economic support mechanisms that, according to the literature, promote student insertion in the higher education system. In this study, the effects of socio-academic intervention on the academic performance of vulnerable students are presented. For this, 41 students were selected among 164 vulnerable students entering the Escuela Politécnica Nacional in the second term of 2019. The 41 students attended a socio-academic intervention course for one term, while the remaining 123 attended the Escuela Politécnica Nacional levelling course directly. Once both groups of students finished the levelling course, their performance in each of the course subjects was compared. The results showed that the academic performance of the students in the intervention was significantly higher in mathematics and geometry compared to the students who had no intervention. These results show that the socio-academic intervention promotes the real insertion of vulnerable students in the university system.

scholarly journals Risk, Choice and Social Disadvantage: Young People's Decision-Making in a Marketised Higher Education System

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheryl Clark ◽  
Anna Mountford-Zimdars ◽  
Becky Francis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Disadvantage ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Tuition Fees ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
High Achieving Students ◽  
Risk Choice ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Rising tuition fees in England have been accompanied by a policy mandate for universities to widen participation by attracting students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This article focuses on one such group of high achieving students and their responses to rising tuition fees within the context of their participation in an outreach scheme at a research-intensive university in the UK. Our findings suggest that rather than being deterred from attending university as a result of fee increases, these young people demonstrated a detailed and fairly sophisticated understanding of higher education provision as a stratified and marketised system and justified fees within a discourse of ‘private good.’ Our analysis situates their ‘risk’ responses within the discursive tensions of the fees/widening participation mandate. We suggest that this tension highlights an intensified commodification of the relationship between higher education institutions and potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds in which widening participation agendas have shifted towards recruitment exercises. We argue that an ongoing effect of this shift has resulted in increased instrumentalism and a narrowing of choices for young people faced with the task of seeking out ‘value for money’ in their degrees whilst concurrently engaging in a number of personalised strategies aimed at compensating for social disadvantage in a system beset by structural inequalities.

scholarly journals Unwaged Posts in UK Universities: Controversies and Campaigns

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 533-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Forkert ◽  
Ana Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
Uk Higher Education

This article examines unwaged posts at UK universities, using recent examples of advertised job posts. While unpaid work is common in the UK higher education system, unwaged posts are not. The posts under scrutiny in this article differ from traditional honorary titles as they target early career academics, who are unlikely to have a paid position elsewhere, rather than established scholars. The article contextualizes the appearance of these posts in a climate of increasing marketization of higher education, entrenching managerialism in higher education institutions, and the casualization of academic work. We also discuss resistance to the posts, arguing that the controversy surrounding unpaid internships in the creative industries created a receptive environment for resisting unwaged posts in academia. We analyze the campaigns that were fought against the advertisement of the posts, mostly through social media and the University and College Union. We explore the tactics used and discuss the advantages and limitations of the use of social media, as well as the role of trade unions in the campaigns against these posts, and we reflect on what future campaigns can learn from these experiences.

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS SUBORDINATE TO THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE-A FORGE OF PERSONNEL FOR THE AGRO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ирина Ивановна Широкорад ◽  
Олеся Михайловна Фадеева ◽  
Елена Геннадьевна Пафнутова
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Education System ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Productive Labor ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

Система высшего образования развивается не в изоляции. Она находится в непосредственной зависимости от школьной системы и от рынка труда. С одной стороны, образовательные результаты, полученные в университете, зависят от уровня знаний и навыков, которые получили студенты на предыдущем этапе образования, с другой стороны, ожидаемое высокое качество жизни, которое является ключевой мотивацией для поступления в вуз для большинства населения, определяется состоянием и структурой рынка труда. Именно наличие спроса на продуктивную рабочую силу определяет результативность системы высшего образования. The higher education system does not develop in isolation. It is directly dependent on the school system and the labor market. On the one hand, the educational results obtained at the University depend on the level of knowledge and skills that students received at the previous stage of education, on the other hand, the expected high quality of life, which is a key motivation for entering the University for the majority of the population, is determined by the state and structure of the labor market. It is the demand for productive labor that determines the effectiveness of the higher education system.

The Role of Social Networking Sites for Language Learning in UK Higher Education

2014 ◽  
pp. 1745-1764
Author(s):  
Billy Brick
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Text Chat ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

This paper seeks to assess the potential for Social Networking Sites (SNSs) to play a role in language learning in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector. These sites are characterised by certain features including learning materials, synchronous and asynchronous video and text chat facilities, a peer review feature, and some sites also incorporate an award system, in the form of points (http://www.livemocha.com) or ‘berries' (http://www.busuu.com). This serves to motivate participants by rewarding them for their progress and for their peer review activities. In order to consider if, or how, to integrate SNSs into the UK HE curriculum it is important to consider the views of practitioners and learners towards such sites and whether they consider them to have a potential role in HE language education. The paper will report on the outcomes of two small research projects which have sought to establish the view of both practitioners and students towards SNSs in the HE context. When considered overall the practitioners were more positive about the site than the learners.

scholarly journals The Objectives and Practical Aspects of Quality Assurance System of Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Dora H. Ivanova ◽  
Olga V. Goray ◽  
Nadiia I. Horbachova ◽  
Iryna M. Krukovska ◽  
Svitlana D. Poplavska
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Education System ◽  
Educational Services ◽  
Quality Assurance System ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Assurance System ◽  
The World

Each country in the world has its own individual approaches to the quality assurance system of higher education, so the quality of educational services in each country is different. The developing countries should be guided by the standards and recommendations put forward by the world’s leading countries in the field of the assurance system of higher education in order to improve the quality of education services. The purpose of the scientific investigation is to formulate the objectives and analyze the practical aspects of functioning of the quality assurance system of higher education. In the study’s framework of the practical aspects of the higher education’s quality in European Union’s countries, the methods of general analysis have been used, including comparison and grouping; at the same time, the presentation of statistics is also demonstrated by graphical methods. The practical aspects of quality assurance of higher education in European Union’s countries have been analyzed, which is reflected in the dynamics of the number of students who have received higher education, the structure of higher education degree seeking applicants, the employment rate of graduates who have graduated from higher education institutions (Employment rates of recent graduates), the World University Rankings, the Europe Teaching Rankings, rating of the strength of the higher education system (the QS Higher Education System Strength Rankings). Proposals for ensuring the proper quality of higher education and a high level of educational services to educational institutions of the European Union have been presented.

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