scholarly journals An Unnecessary KIS? The UK’s Key Information Set, was it Really needed and What was its Real Purpose?

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Andrew Gary Darwin Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Informed Choice ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Information Set

This paper provides a critical analysis of the United Kingdom’s higher education Key Information Set (KIS), which was implemented following the 2011 UK White Paper ‘Students at the Heart of the System’. It argues that one of the central tenets of the KIS – providing information that students within a free market can make an informed choice and, through this process of consumer choice improve the quality of teaching, is untenable because a central component of the KIS, the National Student Survey (NSS), is unreliable when used for comparing university courses. Further, it argues that the KIS reified a neoliberal perspective about the worth and value of higher education qualification, positioning it as a commodity of value only to the paying individual rather than being something of value to society as a whole. It will be of particular interest to academics and policy makers from outside of the United Kingdom, where governmental and regulatory agencies may be implementing similar policies.

Analysing Public Expenditure: (I) Planning, Control and Price

1981 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Copeman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Expenditure ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Future Issue ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Cash Basis

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses the different cost bases in which public expenditure can be analysed as a policy problem related to the differing requirements of planning, authorising and controlling the various components of public expenditure. The analysis is applied to the United Kingdom, where in 1981 changes were announced in the method of making public expenditure decisions which had evolved over the previous two decades. The various components of public expenditure in the United Kingdom are described, and the decision-making process which led to the March 1981 Public Expenditure White Paper is outlined. The significance of the different price bases used in public expenditure (cash (at current or at expected prices), volume, cost, and constant) is then explored. The advantages and disadvantages for policy-makers of attempting to reduce the number of price bases used are analysed; it is shown that there is no cost-free route to reducing complexity. The significance of government's decision in 1981 to make greater use of the cash basis in decision-making is assessed. The analysis is applied specifically to the United Kingdom, but the issues raised are of policy relevance to the choice of price bases for public expenditure decision-making in any country in a time of inflation.(A second paper in a future issue of the Journal will examine the political purposes behind gross or net measurement, the earmaking of receipts, and the more precise relationships between figures used in the planning of public expenditure, in macro-economic analysis and forecasting and in Parliamentary and local control.)

scholarly journals Student Perceptions of the ‘Best’ Feedback Practices: An Evaluation of Student-Led Teaching Award Nominations at a Higher Education Institution.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-135
Author(s):  
Tom Lowe ◽  
Cassie Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Student Perception ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Teaching Awards ◽  
Teaching Award ◽  
Emerging Themes ◽  
The University

The construction of what students constitute to be “good” feedback often plagues the minds of academics, who seem to continuously search for the holy grail of what it is exactly students want from their feedback in Higher Education. This aspect of the student experience in assessment and feedback continues to elude institutions by the nationally lower average scores in the United Kingdom annual National Student Survey questions on timely/prompt feedback (NSS, 2017, Gartland et al 2016) which makes this a topical area for exploration and discussion. To investigate student perceptions of feedback in an alternative method, this article examines the qualitative data from three years of Student-Led Teaching Awards (STLA) nominations for the category “Best Lecturer for Constructive and Efficient Feedback” at the University of Winchester. From this study, new revelations in regards to the student perception of the ‘best’ lecturer(s) feedback practice have come to light including terminology, language and emphasis on email turnaround, rather than the actual format of the feedback itself (handwritten, e-submission etc.). In order to tease out the repetitive emerging themes for what students are perceiving to be “good” feedback, this paper will outline the findings of this study, including the methodology and nomination process of the SLTAs at Winchester. 

scholarly journals TOP CEOs, FINANCIALIZATION, and the CREATION of the SUPER-RICH ECONOMY

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aeron Davis
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
News Media ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Financial Assets ◽  
Real Economy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The United Kingdom

This piece takes a close look at top CEOs in the United Kingdom. CEOs are not only among the ranks of today’s super-rich, they have played a vital part in the evolution of an economic system that supports the super-rich generally. As the article argues, they have done this in two key ways: first, by promoting to news media and policy makers a set of financialized free-market ideas about managing the economy, and second, by managing large companies as financial assets for the benefit of financiers and the super-rich. In both ways, they have encouraged financialization and the funneling of capital away from the real economy and ordinary employees, and upward toward the super-rich. The article is based on thirty interviews with top UK business leaders, including twenty Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 CEOs, as well as other demographic and qualitative data.

Psychology and Neoliberalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Clegg ◽  
Richard Lansdall-Welfare
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Free Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Society Business ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Von Mises

Neoliberalism is a transatlantic free market ideology based on individual liberty and limited government, developed by Hayek and von Mises. In its third wave (1980–2008), commitment to deregulation, privatization, and individual freedom moved beyond the economy into politics and culture. The citizen was recast as a consumer, and public servants became required to satisfy consumer choice. This addressed 1970s social turmoil and improved economies, but the increased wealth went to elites while resources declined for the poor. Hayek had argued for social welfare safety nets initially, but these were rejected by peers in the Mont Pelerin Society. Business-funded transatlantic think tanks promulgated the neoliberal tenets that markets are wiser than any government and state interference makes things worse. Yet, despite these rhetorical claims, neoliberalism has actually been imposed, driven, and underwritten by governments that claim their policy is nonintervention. Neoliberalism soon influenced the political economies of most countries in the developed world, but the degree of separation engendered between rich and poor is a political choice: most extreme in the United States, with the United Kingdom a close second. Establishing neoliberal values like autonomy and choice as taken for granted occurred by “hollowing out” organizations and communities in ways that block dissent and drastically narrow the scope for debate. Psychology is both an academic and applied discipline, with applied psychologists significantly outnumbering academics throughout the 20th century. Expansion was particularly marked during third-wave neoliberalism (1980–2008) in the United Kingdom, when the British Psychological Society grew more than fivefold to over 40,000 members. Two special editions of journals in 2018 and 2019 raised concerns about the relationship between psychology and neoliberalism. In sum, they argued that applied psychology’s self-presentation as a discipline that can solve the problems experienced by individuals glosses over the social origin of most human difficulties, and that modern psychology’s alienated and individualist epistemology makes it a potent neoliberal institution rather than a discipline that can generate alternatives.

Can Bitcoin be the Future of Digital Payments?

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 489-500
Author(s):  
Andrea Valente ◽  
◽  
David Atkinson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Price Volatility ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Innovative Technology ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Future ◽  
Key Drivers ◽  
Digital Payments ◽  
Robust Regulation ◽  
Stakeholder Acceptance

This study aimed to investigate the conditions in which Bitcoin has developed as a leading cryptocurrency and, according to Nakamoto (2008), could become an instrument for everyday payments around the world. In comparison to other digital payment solutions, Bitcoin is based on a peer-to-peer electronic cash system using “the blockchain”. This innovative technology allows for decentralised storage and movement of currency in a fully anonymous way, introducing advantageous methods for encrypted security and faster transactions (Hagiu & Beach, 2014). Scepticism regards Bitcoin’s foundation, energy consumption and price volatility, however, did not take long to arise (Holthaus, 2017). Ten years from its white paper release, Bitcoin is further supported by the same drivers which could sustain its growth as the future of digital payments (Russo, 2018). In order to investigate the key drivers and feasibility of acceptance, a London based survey was used to understand the desirability of Bitcoin as a day-to-day tool for digital payments. Additionally, this research analysed Bitcoin’s stakeholders and forecast drivers of sustainability for its application to become the future of the payment industry. A space which relies on policies that involve multiple layers of society, governments, regulators and tech-firms, all on a global scale. The findings confirmed how the increasing lack of trust of political and financial institutions, coupled with the increasing cases of data-breaches by tech-firms, encouraged over 70% of respondents to consider more decentralised and anonymous methods for their day-to-day actions; like payments. Policy makers need to cope with societies increasingly separating politically but gathering together digitally (LBS, 2017). For Bitcoin to truly establish itself as a global digital payment solution, key stakeholder acceptance must converge alongside the introduction of more robust regulation.

scholarly journals A Free-Market Environmentalist Transition toward Renewable Energy: The Cases of Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4659
Author(s):  
William Hongsong Wang ◽  
Vicente Moreno-Casas ◽  
Jesús Huerta de Soto
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Free Market ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Market Environmentalism ◽  
The Uk

Renewable energy (RE) is one of the most popular public policy orientations worldwide. Compared to some other countries and continents, Europe has gained an early awareness of energy and environmental problems in general. At the theoretical level, free-market environmentalism indicates that based on the principle of private property rights, with fewer state interventionist and regulation policies, entrepreneurs, as the driving force of the market economy, can provide better services to meet the necessity of offering RE to protect the environment more effectively. Previous studies have revealed that Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have made some progress in using the market to develop RE. However, this research did not analyze the three countries’ RE conditions from the perspective of free-market environmentalism. Based on our review of the principles of free-market environmentalism, this paper originally provides an empirical study of how Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have partly conducted free-market-oriented policies to successfully achieve their policy goal of RE since the 1990s on a practical level. In particular, compared with Germany and Denmark, the UK has maintained a relatively low energy tax rate and opted for more pro-market measures since the Hayekian-Thatcherism free-market reform of 1979. The paper also discovers that Fredrich A. Hayek’s theories have strongly impacted its energy liberalization reform agenda since then. Low taxes on the energy industry and electricity have alleviated the burden on the electricity enterprises and consumers in the UK. Moreover, the empirical results above show that the energy enterprises play essential roles in providing better and more affordable RE for household and industrial users in the three sampled countries. Based on the above results, the paper also warns that state intervention policies such as taxation, state subsidies, and industrial access restrictions can impede these three countries’ RE targets. Additionally, our research provides reform agendas and policy suggestions to policymakers on the importance of implementing free-market environmentalism to provide more efficient RE in the post-COVID-19 era.

scholarly journals Does teaching qualification matter in higher education in the UK? An analysis of National Student Survey data

MethodsX ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 788-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Nurunnabi ◽  
Abdelhakim Abdelhadi ◽  
Rehab Aburas ◽  
Samaher Fallatah
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
The Uk
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