The Changing Faces of Higher Education [PDF, E-Book

For those concerned with teaching and scholarly work in higher education now, talk of 'academic leadership' is everywhere. In the UK, at any rate, it seems so: scanning academic jobs pages, looking at Research Councils' funding schemes, examining government policy documents on higher education, consulting university promotions and appraisals procedures, mulling academic workload calculations, and listening to deliberations in university committees—all these suggest that the phrase academic leadership has, so to speak, gone viral in a contained way. There are more scholarly sounding publications on the subject than specialists can keep up with; numerous well-endowed firms offer academic-leadership training and guidance; think tanks constantly urge the need to nurture more academic leaders and corporations that can cultivate them; newspapers inform of the privileges of top-level academic leaders with grudging admiration.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is the lead United Nations (UN) agency in the field of education. As its website proudly proclaims, UNESCO is: “the only UN body with a mandate in higher education.”1 However, UNESCO’s work in higher education has always operated at the margins of its education program (Daniels 2003, 22). Higher education has long been overshadowed by the organization’s focus on popular access to basic education, especially over the past decade, when UNESCO has made achieving “education for all” the central pillar of its educational activities (Mundy 1999). Nonetheless, a strong argument can be made about the need for a UN presence in higher education, particularly in the context of the globalization and internationalization of higher education. Massification of higher education, the growth of private and trans-border service provision, and new information and communications technologies are each transforming the global organization of higher education. In higher education, these processes of globalization have created new types of within-country inequality, and new regional and interstate forms of competition (Robertson and Keeling 2008; Marginson 2008). UNESCO’s mandate within the UN requires it to defend and promote the idea of equality of opportunity within an increasingly globalized higher education policy arena. Its own constitution also requires UNESCO to promote the sharing of knowledge and to defend cultural diversity. This chapter explores the effort within UNESCO to translate its mandate as the UN body in the field of higher education into an effective program of action. Based primarily on document review, this chapter also draws on private communication with 10 higher education experts either involved in UNESCO initiatives or on staff. The chapter is structured as follows: a historical review of UNESCO activities, suggesting how these activities have been shaped by the changes in the organization and in the wider UN environment; UNESCO activities in higher education over the past decade, assessing inparticular UNESCO’s response to the rapid globalization of higher education and its efforts to define a unique role for itself in the international higher education policy agenda; exploring the challenges posed to UNESCO’s work in higher education by current UN and UNESCO; and concluding with some preliminary thoughts on the key opportunities for UNESCO in the governance of higher education as a policy arena.

<span lang="EN-US">This research aimed to build a quadruple-helix partnership model between universities, government, industry, and community from the higher education (HE) perspective in creating various innovations to support sustainable regional socio-economic development. This study used exploratory quantitative research to develop, predict the model, and explain the empirical evidence. In addition to the model, this study found that institutional sustainable entrepreneurial culture (SEC) could be developed by transforming the university into an entrepreneurial university (EU) and applying sustainable development goals (SDGs) principles to teaching-researching-community service activities, management and governance, and institutional leadership. This study also confirmed that universities with an SEC cannot directly affect the emergence of various innovations sourced from knowledge and research results but must be mediated by internal consensus within academia and external consensus among partnership actors. The research contributions are aimed at: i) HE policymakers who will transform their institutions into EU as a first step in carrying out the university’s third mission; ii) HE will build quadruple helix partnerships; and iii) Micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) which will take advantage of the innovations offered in the quadruple-helix. In addition, this research deepens the Etzkowitz partnership path model in which HE, a source of knowledge for innovation, becomes more focused in the form of SDGs-based EU.</span>

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic took a sledgehammer to the education sector, shattering the established structured systems, norms and rituals of practices and procedures. To ensure continuity whilst adhering to the pandemic-induced containment measures, higher education institutions adopted a remote work model to address the needs of a dispersed workforce. Amidst the uncertainty and continuous changes posed by the pandemic, remote working arrangements gradually dominated the higher education workspace, thereby increasing demands on institutions and employees. Consequently, the notion of resilience as a crucial constituent of Crisis Management has never been more salient. Yet surprisingly, there has been a paucity of literature in this domain. Whilst research on resilience is gaining interest, there is a need for a comprehensive overview of what the concept means for academics during an emergency and its application in the Crisis Management framework. This article addresses this research gap using a systematic Literature Review method to unearth the current state of scientific research regarding resilience in Crisis Management in the context of remote work during COVID-19. The findings of the study provide a research agenda that centers on understanding how resilience in Crisis Management and its strategic use in remote work can advance the research streams.

Think global, think local: The changing landscape of higher education and the role of quality assurance in Singapore

Relationships are central to the processes and outcomes for both decolonizing work in higher education and communities of practice that support faculty learning and professional development. Yet the development of these meaningful learning relationships is in direct tension with the isolation, precariousness, and impermanence of contract teaching faculty who make up more than half the academic labor force in Canadian universities. Our chapter describes a multidisciplinary online Contract Teaching Faculty (CTF) learning community called “Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Classroom.” Our community set out to challenge power relationships in interconnecting systems in higher education to make space for decolonizing work by building, deepening and expanding new and supportive learning relationships between CTF and with our students. As nine participants we look at the value of CTF learning communities by assessing the ongoing impacts of our commitment to transformative learning—our own and our students. We highlight the role CTF learning communities can play in inspiring and sharing pedagogical innovations. We outline the benefits of CTF learning communities for nurturing community and helping overcome the institutional isolation of CTF and our physical isolation exacerbated by the pandemic. We also recognize the challenges and limitations our CTF learning community faced. As precarious workers who are marginalized by this system that exploits and devalues CTF, how can we teach, model, and learn within the colonial systems at work in higher education when we are relatively powerless to affect change?

This co-produced study explores the experiences of autistic staff working in higher education in Ireland, a group largely overlooked in existing research. While much attention has been given to autistic students, little research has explored how autistic academics navigate their professional roles. This study investigates the challenges and strengths autistic staff encounter within academic environments. Eleven autistic participants took part in semi-structured interviews, conducted flexibly to respect individual preferences and communication needs. Data were analysed using the Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Four key themes emerged: (1) Discovering being autistic, (2) Role ambiguity and institutional invisibility, (3) Stress, burnout, and workplace unpredictability, and (4) Autistic strengths. Participants described strengths such as hyper-focus, problem-solving, and deep commitment to teaching while also highlighting barriers such as unclear expectations, a lack of visibility, and high emotional labour. The findings underscore the need for more inclusive institutional practices that reduce the pressure to mask and protect against burnout. Supporting autistic staff through affirming environments not only enables individuals to thrive but also enriches the wider educational community by fostering diverse approaches to teaching, learning, and communication.Lay AbstractThis study explores the experiences of autistic people who work as academic staff in universities. Autistic staff often face challenges such as unclear job expectations, misunderstandings from colleagues, and barriers to being open about their identity. Through interviews, we learned that many autistic academics care deeply about their work but feel unsupported in environments that reward constant social interaction, speed, and competition. Despite this, participants found creative ways to make space for themselves and others. This research helps us understand what autistic staff need to thrive in universities and shows why workplaces should value different ways of thinking, working, and communicating. Making these changes could benefit not only autistic staff but the wider academic community as well.

This chapter is an educational approach to online collaborative work in higher education, considering both the digital tools and the strategies for the e-assessment. We can observe the evolution of digital learning: from e-learning to m-learning and u-learning, through blended-learning and new other models like adaptive learning. In every model, we can try to promote collaborative work and we need to assess these group strategies. Thus, our main objectives are answering what type of digital tools we can use to promote virtual collaboration, which are the main strategies to implement, and finally considering different models of e-assessment in relation to the previous issues. Educational research shows the possibilities of digital tools like social networks, e-portfolios, collaborative environments, or traditional tools inside LMS from an assessment approach that considers the formative processes as the key to online collaboration.

Public engagement is recognised as having an increasingly important role in the changing landscape of higher education in the United Kingdom (UK), and is promoted as a ‘pathway to impact’ by many higher education funding bodies. However, there is limited evidence to support the outreach and impact gained by higher education institutes that undertake international public engagement activities. Similarly, little is known about higher education staff and student’s experiences of participating in such public engagement activities. This study focusses on a Global Festival of Learning (GFoL) in delivering public engagement on an international stage through an integrated approach involving the fusion of education, research, and professional practice, and the perceived impact on staff and students. This paper proposes an adaptive model for public engagement founded on five strategic public engagement areas that can be transferred to other higher education institutes with an interest in developing their international outreach and impact.

PurposeThe main purpose is to analyse the effect of academic leadership competencies (LCs) on student learning outcomes (SLOs) in terms of cognitive, skill and affective aspects.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilised quantitative research that focussed on correlation design by randomly distributing questionnaires containing 53 items to a total of 496 faculty members in Saudi Arabia public higher education institutions (HEIs). The data was analysed using SPSS (V.24) and SEM-AMOS.FindingsResults show a direct and significant effect of academic LC on students' cognitive, skill and affective learning outcomes in public HEIs.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation was that the participants of public HEIs were from Saudi Arabia. However, the findings have provided valuable understandings and a comprehensive conclusion about the impact of academic LC on SLOs in terms of cognitive, skill and affective aspects. The study recommended that different LC should be further developed. Future studies proposed to investigate the factors that support academic leaders to affect SLOs directly in HEIs.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the significant and direct effect of academic LC on SLOs in HEIs. The findings have the potential to reflect positively on the academic leaders in public HEIs. The findings act as a guide for HEIs in terms of the importance of academic LC for having desirable SLOs. This study is crucial for educational policymakers and practitioners of academic leadership as the academic leaders' effort will greatly contribute to the HEIs as well as the nation's development in general.

Monograph English for Specific Purposes: Theoretical and Educational Perspectives in Higher Education deals with the theoretical approaches concerning specific needs of learners and improvement of the effectiveness of professional communication in a foreign language with regard to English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It analyzes the needs in ESP that is essential for strategic planning of ESP courses, the objective of which is to enhance professional lexical competence. The needs analysis in ESP helps meet the requirements for professional communication in specific disciplines, international research, education and the dissemination of research outcomes at international level. The second part of the monograph presents several practical and evidence-based research examples of academic skills development with emphasis on academic writing in synergy with effective reading methods. The monograph is also concerned with the use of modern computational technologies in the analysis of academic texts in terms of lexical density and lexical diversity and correlation between the variables. The analysis also presents the possibilities of using the tools of corpus linguistics to define strategies in the field of foreign language teaching and learning.

The transformation of the teaching methodology in European universities is connected with the increase in the proportion of self-study according to the method of consultative-individual form involving the platform of the simulation center, which is one of the conditions for the introduction of the fundamental educational principle of continuous education throughout of life in the modern realities of globalization and transformation into the postindustrial environment.Information and communication technologies (ICT) develop the ideas of programmed learning, provide completely new technological options for assimilating information related to the unique capabilities of modern computers and telecommunications. An example of this is the introduction of telemedicine, which allows to provide high level consultations and real time debate with the participation of a wide range of diverse specialists in the format of «medical debates». The perspectives of higher education are «cloud technologies» which cease limits of time and space. This is facilitated by the creation of a broad library network, a significant expansion of the presentation of scientific literature on Internet resources with free access to electronic information media.Conclusions. The difficult period of educational integration processes and reforms requires the effective implementation of the experience of developed countries to prepare a mobile, creative highly qualified specialist with extensive involvement of the potential of cognitive-creative and intellectual-creative directions through the introduction of an consultative-individual form of education with a wide application of the possibilities of simulation medicine to the higher education system of Ukraine. The creation of electronic resource centers is an effective tool for simulation training and for an objective assessment of professional competence, and is also the basis for management decisions to monitor the quality of provision and performance of medical services.

This chapter departs from a general acknowledgement that collaborative activities in small groups are productive for students’ learning. A range of so-called ‘student-centred’ approaches include elements of group work, in which students are required to engage in collaborative investigations, problem solving or knowledge co-construction. However, what it means for teachers to organize and support such learning, what students experience as challenging, and what support they might need is to an extent overlooked in the pedagogical practice in higher education. This chapter uses observations, interviews with teachers and students, course documents, and findings from case studies in two higher education courses wherein group work was a prevalent activity, to identify aspects what matter for the quality of collaborative learning in small group settings. Furthermore, the chapter highlights ways in which such learning activities are and can be pedagogically designed and enacted in order to support student engagement, and what are challenges accompanying this endeavour. Based on the insights gained through the aforementioned studies and analyses, the chapter discusses ways to inform quality work in higher education with a focus on the processes of teaching and learning.

This paper presents a qualitative research of the case study type that was held with professionals from various fields of knowledge (law, nursing, administration, education, accounting, medicine, physical therapy, journalism, economics, engineering, etc.), undergraduates who participated in a continuing education course, specifically, a specialization in continuing education to work in higher education in a community institution. The research problem that guided the research was: What are the contributions, implications and impacts of continuing education for teaching in higher education from the perceptions of professionals from various fields of knowledge? The research aimed to analyze the professionals’ repercussions of the process of continuing education for the practice of teaching in higher education. The research involved three classes of specialization of the following years: 2013, with 25 students; 2014 with 22 students and 2015 with 23 students, totaling 70 subjects investigated. Data were collected from a questionnaire with open and closed questions which has enabled content analysis from the perspective of Bardin (2011) with the help of Atlas Ti software. The results showed that the participation in the continuing education course contributed to teaching in higher education through the possibility of obtaining pedagogical knowledge and practical application of these, which culminated in a reflection on pedagogical practice, impacting directly on the professional work of these teachers, who only felt the lack of a more detailed work with the education of the distance mode.

In the transition from COVID-19 back to regular life, hybrid collaboration has gained increased attention. Currently, hybrid collaboration settings in higher education are not sufficient to support equal participation between co-located and remote students. In a first step, we conducted a literature review on the characteristics of co-located, remote, and hybrid collaboration settings involved in successful collaboration. The characteristics of these three types of collaboration were then used to identify design elements for hybrid collaboration settings that support equal participation in small-group work in higher education. In a second step, we designed an initial hybrid collaboration setting for higher education and implemented it in an exploratory study to identify additional features that support equal participation and to analyze collaboration between co-located and remote participants. From the results of this analysis, we identified 16 requirements to support equal participation in hybrid collaboration settings in higher education, which can serve as the basis for implementing and evaluating proposed solutions in a next step.