scholarly journals Motivations And Barriers In Undergraduate Students Decisions To Enroll In Placement Courses In The UK

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Elisavet Balta ◽  
Jane-Lisa Coughlan ◽  
Peter Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Key Performance Indicator ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Work Placement ◽  
The Uk

Due to recent changes in higher education and the increased demand for highly qualified candidates in the labor market, the employability of U.K. graduates has become a key performance indicator for universities. Institutions of higher education attempt to address employability by delivering a skilled workforce that will ensure the U.K.s competitiveness in a global context. Placements are a proven mechanism for developing employability and, as such, this study aims to investigate the reasons behind students decisions to take a placement or non-placement course. Based on a self-administered, online questionnaire completed by 71 placement and 117 non-placement students from three schools, the study explores the reasons why students take or do not take a placement course. Finally, recommendations are made for ways to overcome potential work placement barriers and to promote placements to students, parents, and academic tutors as well as to advertise the benefits of work-based learning for employability.

scholarly journals Talking the Talk and Fitting In: Troubling the Practices of Speaking? ‘What you are Worth’ in Higher Education in the UK

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Addison ◽  
Victoria ◽  
G. Mountford
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
University Staff ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
The North ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Fitting In ◽  
Uk Higher Education

In this article we raise questions about fitting in pertaining to various classed identities within two UK Higher Education Institutions (HEI). We discuss the pains and privileges attached to accent and ways of speaking worth: Who is able to mobilize and capitalize on inscribed values, as they come to be attached to ways of talking? Accents and ways of talking are part of embodied class identities and whilst some carry connotations of intelligence, other ways of talking are positioned as lacking value, as well as other cultural meanings ( Sayer 2002 ; Spencer, Clegg and Stackhouse 2013 ; Lawler 1999 ; Skeggs 1997 ; Southerton 2002 ; Taylor 2007 ; Macfarlane and Stuart-Smith 2012 ). In this article we discuss our empirical research carried out in two separate qualitative ESRC-funded research projects in the north of England with undergraduate students (Victoria Mountford) and university staff (Michelle Addison). Focusing primarily on white British ways of talking, we examine how embodying particular accents or ways of talking affect classed notions of ‘fitting in’ or ‘standing out’ (Reay et al 2009: 1; Abraham and Ingram 2013 ) in HE. In a climate of uncertainty in Higher Education we are concerned that the importance of demonstrating one's impact, value and worth comes down to more than just productivity, it is becoming demonstrably about being able to ‘talk the talk’. Here we trouble the practices of speaking ‘what you are worth’.

Determination of criteria for assessing the quality of training future specialists for higher education

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludmila Sokorutova ◽  
Natalia Prodanova ◽  
Inna Ponomareva ◽  
Oleg Volodin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Professional Employee ◽  
Professional Fields

PurposeThe most important problem for higher education in the post-COVID period is the production of highly qualified specialists for the labor market. The purpose of this study is to determine effective criteria for assessing the quality of training of future specialists and the adequacy of their readiness to solve real problems of the future specialty.Design/methodology/approachA study was carried out among students in order to determine some of the most important characteristics of them as future specialists. Based on the survey results, non-academic indicators were identified that participants perceive as significant for a highly professional employee. The empirical study included 300 undergraduate students from four universities (66% women and 34% men aged 20–21). All participants represent full-time training.FindingsThe survey showed that the participants identified the ability to learn and personal development as the most significant personal qualities.Originality/valueMany criteria for assessing the quality of training of specialists in different professional fields have not been precisely defined. Several ways of solving this problem can be proposed: developing criteria for assessing quality in hiring; revising the methods of work of universities; presenting to students the criteria for development in the profession or adopting international criteria for assessing pedagogical quality.

scholarly journals Supporting students during the transition to university in COVID-19: 5 key considerations and recommendations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Pownall ◽  
Richard Harris ◽  
Pam Blundell-Birtill
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Educational Provision ◽  
Success Model ◽  
Student Success Model ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Academic Year

As COVID-19 continues to disrupt pre-tertiary education provision and examinations in the UK, urgent consideration must be given to how best to support the 2021-2022 cohort of incoming undergraduate students to Higher Education. In this paper, we draw upon the ‘Five Sense of Student Success’ model to highlight five key evidence-based considerations that Higher Education educators should be attentive to when preparing for the next academic year. These include: the challenge in helping students to reacclimatise to academic work following a period of prolonged educational disruption, supporting students to access the ‘hidden curriculum’ of Higher Education, negotiating mental health consequences of COVID-19, and remaining sensitive to inequalities of educational provision that students have experienced as a result of COVID-19. We provide evidence-based recommendations to each of these considerations.

scholarly journals Reconceptualising fair access to highly academically selective universities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikki Boliver ◽  
Pallavi Banerjee ◽  
Stephen Gorard ◽  
Mandy Powell
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Distributive Fairness ◽  
Selective Universities ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Time ◽  
Fair Access

AbstractThe higher education regulator for England has set challenging new widening access targets requiring universities to rethink how merit is judged in admissions. Universities are being encouraged to move away from the traditional meritocratic equality of opportunity model of fair access, which holds that university places should go to the most highly qualified candidates irrespective of social background, in accordance with the principles of procedural fairness. Instead, they are being asked to move towards what we term the meritocratic equity of opportunity model, which holds that prospective students’ qualifications should be judged in light of the socioeconomic circumstances in which these were obtained to enhance distributive fairness, a practice known in the UK as contextualised admissions. In this paper, we critically discuss the theoretical underpinnings of these two competing perspectives on fair access and review the existing empirical evidence base, drawing together for the first time insights from our ESRC and Nuffield Foundation funded studies of fair access to highly academically selective universities in England. We argue that reconceptualising fair access in terms of distributive fairness rather than procedural fairness offers a more socially just set of principles on which to allocate valuable but scarce places at the most academically selective universities in England, unless or until such time as the vertical stratification of higher education institutions is reduced or eliminated entirely.

Music Theory Clubs and their Roles in School and Community

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Beavers
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Community Based ◽  
School And Community

A Music Theory Club is an extra-curricular activity, found primarily in institutions of higher education, that provides mostly undergraduate students with exceptional experiences geared toward deepening their understanding of music. Because the membership of these clubs need not be limited to students majoring or minoring in music, or even to those who are enrolled in a music theory class, they may be considered examples of public music theory. Additionally, the members may choose to engage in community-based public music theory projects. In the following chapter, the author explores what a music theory club is, how it benefits students, faculty, and community alike, how to start one, and the types of activities a music theory club can be involved with.

Data Analysis and Study on Relationship between Adjustment of Hierarchical Structure of Higher Education and Economic Growth

2014 ◽  
Vol 971-973 ◽  
pp. 2313-2316
Author(s):  
Jin Lian He
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Chinese Higher Education ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Reform And Opening Up ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Current Stage

Since the reform and opening-up policy was implemented, Chinese higher education has experienced the process of recovery, adjustment, and rapid development; currently, the higher education has been popularized and the scale of Chinese higher education has been listed at the forefront in the world. However, compared to developed countries, there still exists great difference, and the “difficult employment” and “difficult recruitment” are good reflection. While the higher education is continuously enhanced, the structure of higher education is also continuously adjusted. At the initial stage of reform and opening-up, Chinese institutions of higher education mainly recruit undergraduate students; however, at current stage, the enrollment proportion is same; the postgraduate enrollment scale is also expanded; Chinese higher education has entered into transformation period.

scholarly journals Integrated Reporting Implementation and Core Activities Disclosure in UK Higher Education Institutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Mahalaxmi Adhikariparajuli ◽  
Abeer Hassan ◽  
Mary Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Research Quality ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Through integrated reporting (IR) and integrated thinking (IT), higher education institutions (HEIs) can engage future students, staff and other key stakeholders. This paper examines the impact of IR framework implementation on core activities disclosure within the UK HEIs. In particular, the authors explore the influence of the integrated thinking approach, intended to enhance the extent of the IR content elements, teaching and learning, internationalisation and research activities disclosure. The study is based on the annual reports of 123 UK HEIs over 3 years—2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017–18. Consistent with the predictions of legitimacy theory and the integrated thinking approach, the results show the extent that integrated reporting content elements and HEIs core activities disclosure practices have increased over the study period. The results also indicate that adoption of the IR framework, league table ranking position, key performance indicator reporting, size, research quality and graduate prospects all have significant positive influences on HEIs core activities disclosure. Based on the findings, the recommendations are that UK HEI governing and other regularity bodies, such as British Universities Finance Director Groups, Leadership Foundation in Higher Education and the Higher Education Funding Council, should consider development of voluntary integrated reporting guidelines and a core activities disclosure framework.

scholarly journals Exploring the “At-Risk” Student Label Through the Perspectives of Higher Education Professionals

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Dix ◽  
Andrew Lail ◽  
Matt Birnbaum ◽  
Joseph Paris
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
At Risk Students ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
Higher Education Professionals ◽  
Risk Definition ◽  
At Risk Student

Institutions of higher education often use the term “at-risk” to label undergraduate students who have a higher likelihood of not persisting. However, it is not clear how the use of this label impacts the perspectives of the higher education professionals who serve and support these students. Our qualitative study explores the descriptions and understandings of higher education professionals who serve and support at-risk students. We use thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) to interpret our data and develop our themes. These themes include conflicting views of the “at-risk” definition, attempts to normalize at-risk, fostering relationships, and “at-promise.”

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