scholarly journals Decolonising the curriculum beyond the surge: Conceptualisation, positionality and conduct

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mai Abu Moghli ◽  
Laila Kadiwal
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Asymmetrical Power ◽  
Increasing Risk ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
Hearts And Minds

In recent years, there has been increased interest in, and work towards, decolonising the curriculum in higher education institutions in the UK. There are various initiatives to review university syllabuses and identify alternative literature. However, there is an increasing risk of turning ‘decolonisation’ into a buzz term tied to a trend. We fear that decolonisation within academia is becoming an empty term, diluted and depoliticised, allowing for superficial representations that fail to address racial, political and socio-economic intersectionalities. In this article, we examine several initiatives to decolonise the curriculum with a focus on the field of education as a discipline and medium. Based on our analysis, we engage with three main themes: conceptualisation, positionality and conduct. The article concludes that decolonisation cannot happen in a vacuum, or as an aim disconnected from the rest of the structure of the university, which leads to diluting a wider movement and turns into a box-ticking exercise. We argue that there needs to be a deconstruction of asymmetrical power relationships within academic spaces to allow for meaningful decolonisation in practice. This requires a real political will, a change in the structure, and in the hearts and minds of those in decision-making positions, and a shift in the practices of knowledge production.

scholarly journals Communities, universities and ethnicity: A conversation from Imagine: Connecting Communities Through Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-104
Author(s):  
Milton Brown ◽  
Paul WARD
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Community Groups ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
The Impact

Imagine: Connecting Communities Through Research was a large five-year project in the Connected Communities programme using methodologies of co-production to explore imagining different futures with community groups. This article, which takes the form of a conversation, offers the perspectives of two participants in Imagine to discuss how community organizations and communities work together and the impact of ethnic discrimination and disparity in universities. We set the conversation in the broader context of global discussions of knowledge production and power relationships. We consider how universities, as large institutions, often create difficulties for smaller community organizations by focusing on their own interests. We address power and decision-making in Imagine, especially in relation to ethnicity. We seek to think about what needs to be done, both at strategic levels in universities and on a personal level, to tilt the balance of benefit towards communities in collaborative relationships with higher education institutions.

Islam on Campus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Scott-Baumann ◽  
Mathew Guest ◽  
Shuruq Naguib ◽  
Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor ◽  
Aisha Phoenix
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
University Life ◽  
Western Scholarship ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
Muslim Identities

This book explores how Islam is represented, perceived and lived within higher education in Britain. It is a book about the changing nature of university life, and the place of religion within it. Even while many universities maintain ambiguous or affirming orientations to religious institutions for reasons to do with history and ethos, much western scholarship has presumed higher education to be a strongly secularizing force. This framing has resulted in religion often being marginalized or ignored as a cultural irrelevance by the university sector. However, recent times have seen higher education increasingly drawn into political discourses that problematize religion in general, and Islam in particular, as an object of risk. Using the largest data set yet collected in the UK (2015–18) this book explores university life and the ways in which ideas about Islam and Muslim identities are produced, experienced, perceived, appropriated, and objectified. We ask what role universities and Muslim higher education institutions play in the production, reinforcement and contestation of emerging narratives about religious difference. This is a culturally nuanced treatment of universities as sites of knowledge production, and contexts for the negotiation of perspectives on culture and religion among an emerging generation. We demonstrate the urgent need to release Islam from its official role as the othered, the feared. When universities achieve this we will be able to help students of all affiliations and of none to be citizens of the campus in preparation for being citizens of the world.

Evaluation of the Academic Setting in Spain 1This study was financed by the University of Oviedo.

1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Fernández ◽  
Miguel A. Mateo ◽  
José Muñiz
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Climate ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Academic Setting ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Evaluation Questionnaire ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
The University

The conditions are investigated in which Spanish university teachers carry out their teaching and research functions. 655 teachers from the University of Oviedo took part in this study by completing the Academic Setting Evaluation Questionnaire (ASEQ). Of the three dimensions assessed in the ASEQ, Satisfaction received the lowest ratings, Social Climate was rated higher, and Relations with students was rated the highest. These results are similar to those found in two studies carried out in the academic years 1986/87 and 1989/90. Their relevance for higher education is twofold because these data can be used as a complement of those obtained by means of students' opinions, and the crossing of both types of data can facilitate decision making in order to improve the quality of the work (teaching and research) of the university institutions.

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 Reliability of self-employment intentions instrument among international students in Indonesian university

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.10) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Mhd Subhan ◽  
Mas’ud Zein ◽  
Akhyar . ◽  
Mohd Hakimie Zainal Abidin ◽  
Sallehudin Ali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
International Students ◽  
University Students ◽  
Future Study ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
The University ◽  
College Personnel

This paper examines the validation instrument used to measure the psychometric status of the self-employment intentions. Self-employment intentions are crucial to identify the university students in order to confirm their decision making. They are a questionnaire to measure graduation in university to start choice on their careers. This instrument is composed of 11 items and was carried out to 115 international students studying in one Indonesian higher education. There were 49 male and 66 female respondents involved in this study. The Cronbach’s Alpha value was .94 which strongly suggest that the instrument has an excellent reliability. This study points out that self-employment intentions are suitable to be used by college personnel and counselors to examine and identify self-employment intentions among international students in Indonesian higher education. Implications for future study will also be discussed. 

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.

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.

scholarly journals Invisible Roots of Knowledge Production and their Role in Resistance to the Marketisation of Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-140
Author(s):  
Heather McKnight
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Pension Scheme ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Commons ◽  
The University

Recent, highly visible, struggles in Higher Education in the UK, such as the pensions strike, have aimed to recast such protests as part of a bigger struggle to maintain the public university. Viewing the shared pension scheme as one of the last defining features of a public institution. However, Federici in her recent book Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons warns us if we wish to change the university in line with the public construction of a ‘knowledge commons’ that there is a need to question “the material conditions of the production of the university, its history and its relation to the surrounding communities” (Federici, 2019) and not just the academics within it. There is a need to consider how debate on knowledge production is insulated from the invisible work that sustains academic life including cleaners, cafeteria workers and groundkeepers, as well as to consider the potential colonisation of land institutions are built upon (Federici, 2019). Narratives of resistance to marketisation in Higher Education, while well meaning, still create disproportionate invisibility on the grounds of gender, race and socio-economic status, ignoring the material and intellectual value of such contributions. This paper considers how Federici’s approach to the politics of the commons discredit, deconstruct and potentially transform approaches to resistance to marketisation in education. It argues that struggles against marketisation, or for academic freedom, should be seen in the broader scope of access to education for all, and a continuum of co-dependant knowledge production. It will consider how different structures of privilege and oppression structure what is represented, resisted and fought for within and by the institution. Issues that are seen as marginal or controversial can be avoided in increasingly legislated upon, and therefore risk averse, students’ unions and trade unions. Which in turn reproduces a student and staff body that similarly continue to propagate such damaging structures both within and out with the institution. A rethinking around who the knowledge producers are, can help us restructure the university as a commons that resists the violence of capitalist logic, rather than one that upholds it. Thus problematising and reconstructing how we view the idea of a future university commons, in a way that recognises intersectional oppression and a misuse of certain bodies as a commons in and off themselves.

Decision-making system for higher education university selection: comparison of priorities pre- and post-COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishnadas Nanath ◽  
Ali Sajjad ◽  
Supriya Kaitheri
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Mode Of Delivery ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
University Selection ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

PurposeUniversity selection in higher education is a complex task for aspirants from a decision-making perspective. This study first aims to understand the essential parameters that affect potential students' choice of higher education institutions. It then aims to explore how these parameters or priorities have changed given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning about the differences in priorities for university selection pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic might help higher education institutions focus on relevant parameters in the post-pandemic era.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a mixed-method approach, with primary and secondary data (university parameters from the website and LinkedIn Insights). We developed a university selector system by scraping LinkedIn education data of various universities and their alumni records. The final decision-making tool was hosted on the web to collect potential students' responses (primary data). Response data were analyzed via a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model. Portal-based data collection was conducted twice to understand the differences in university selection priorities pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. A one-way MANOVA was performed to find the differences in priorities related to the university decision-making process pre- and post-COVID-19.FindingsThis study considered eight parameters of the university selection process. MANOVA demonstrated a significant change in decision-making priorities of potential students between the pre- and post-COVID-19 phases. Four out of eight parameters showed significant differences in ranking and priority. Respondents made significant changes in their selection criteria on four parameters: cost (went high), ranking (went low), presence of e-learning mode (went high) and student life (went low).Originality/valueThe current COVID-19 pandemic poses many uncertainties for educational institutions in terms of mode of delivery, student experience, campus life and others. The study sheds light on the differences in priorities resulting from the pandemic. It attempts to show how social priorities change over time and influence the choices students make.

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