Higher Education Policy最新文献

The idea of a third space, positioned between academic and professional domains, has proven useful in examining the evolving nature of higher education work. The continuing disruptions in higher education worldwide highlight the importance of the third space and the need for further exploration. A scoping review of third space work in the higher education literature from 2000 to 2022 was conducted. More than 2870 articles retrieved from nine databases were screened based on title, abstract, and keywords, resulting in 54 papers for analysis. Data were extracted to summarise the literature, including method, participant characteristics, and theoretical framing, implications. The articles revealed that the third space is an emerging area of study which, while valuable, is yet to influence policy and practice at the institutional or national level. Thus, third space presents a fertile space for more analytical and empirical investigations that go beyond descriptive case studies.

The paper analyses the motivations of academics to participate in advisory boards that are active within the German science system. Based on the results of an online survey and interviews, reasons for joining a board, staying active as well as reasons for disengagement are explored. The respondents of the survey and the interviewees include both members of advisory boards and their academic coordinators. In the final section of the paper, several possible changes in the work of boards that may influence members' motivation are discussed.

Notwithstanding the growing visibility in political and administrative positions, women are not sufficiently represented in higher education leadership in Ethiopia. The present study attempts to unravel why women do not take up leadership against the backdrop of “female leadership advantage’’ and favourable policy environment that purportedly exist. Based on re-analysis of secondary quantitative data and an in-depth interview with 20 current and former female academic leaders, it is found that more and more women in academia are less willing to take up leadership roles. Furthermore, the study is unable to confirm the widely advertised political will and policy promises to ensure gender inclusion in higher academic leadership due to the erratic trends of gender balance over the past half a decade.

This study addresses the dearth of theoretical stances on the professional status of research managers and administrators (RMAs) based at higher education institutions and at other science-related organizations. Using the lens of 'narrative identities’ theory, it explores their professional identity in contemporary neoliberal research and innovation ecosystems. Through semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, the study examines whether RMAs consistently articulate a distinct professional identity. Findings reveal that RMAs exhibit a strong sense of purpose, navigating dynamic professional trajectories influenced by both public management structures and personal motivations. Despite recognizing their unique expertise, RMAs face identity tensions that bridge academia and other professional spheres. The study highlights the growing need to professionalize RMAs and the potential for more formal recognition of their role.

The National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund (NPILF) policy is an important national policy initiative designed to enhance Australian university graduates’ job readiness. Using Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) methodology, this study critically analyses the NPILF policy. We find that the ‘problem’ of inadequate employment preparation among graduates in the NPILF policy is characterized by a lack of connection between universities and industry, a significant gap between curriculum provision and workplaces, and an insufficient number of graduates with STEM skills. This represents a shift in discourse and reflects the widespread influence of neoliberalism and New Public Management on the university sector, where market logics become the dominant approach to address the issue of graduate underemployment, with subsequent effects on student identity. However, while efficient- and benefit-oriented allocation of funds may incentivize market participation, it can also hinder effective engagement of small- and medium-sized enterprises and their collaboration with universities, limit the opportunities for economically disadvantaged students to participate in work-integrated learning, and overlook the impact of holistic knowledge development on students’ employability. Reevaluating the relationship between the government, the market, and universities, and focusing on the transformation of knowledge production/development, can assist policymakers in seeking comprehensive labor market development plans.

Research on the current state and potential of shared governance is limited. In this study, we utilize grounded theory to develop a new conceptual model that can be used to frame shared governance research and practice. Perspectives of 13 faculty senate presidents at 4-year public regional comprehensive universities are analyzed with a focus on understanding how they define and experience shared governance. The resulting conceptual model of this exploratory study highlights four tensions evident in the data including opaqueness versus transparency in the process, limited versus inclusive participation, intransigent versus compromising orientation, and a proactive versus reactive approach. We discussed several implications for higher education leaders and outline directions for future research that can apply the new conceptual model.

Attempts to expand the availability of higher education frequently come with exorbitant expenses, heightening the gap between privileged and underprivileged students. Distributing scholarships to the higher education sub-sector is commonly seen as a viable means of promoting educational success, expanding accessibility, and addressing equity issues in higher education. Nevertheless, the problem of equity remains a long-lasting and unfair obstacle in Cambodia's higher education sub-sector, despite the presence of a national scholarship policy. This is based on the straightforward fact that there is no fundamental metric to evaluate the inclusion and equity of scholarship distribution. Moreover, the scholarship selection procedures may be inefficient, contrary to what policy documents indicate, resulting in students from lower-income households being left behind in the opportunities they were promised. Therefore, this study is the first ever attempt to profile Cambodian higher education scholarships from a socio-economic viewpoint that discusses how family background impacts the likelihood of students from low-income households accessing social investments, such as scholarships. All analyses point out that opportunities are heavily skewed toward students with better-off background, and therefore incorporating this understanding will help Cambodian universities better allocate scholarships to boost the country’s human capital and improve university representation from lower economically-secure communities.

This paper examines two under-researched aspects of the public university, that of its relationship with the state, and with private universities. Chile, the case study here, possesses both public and private sectors of higher education, and has witnessed an intense debate over what it is to be a public university. The research focuses on a publicly documented government-sponsored debate. Three discourses are identified, turning on participants’ views of the responsibilities of the state and the universities. The category of ‘public’ is seen to be fluid, attaching both to public—or state-owned—universities and to private universities. The conclusions are that, in a hybrid university system (of the Chilean kind), a university’s publicness may be depicted as a profile of orientations and aspects and is no longer being confined solely to ‘public universities’: private universities are being seen as possessing public features. As an institution with a definite identity towards the state and society, what has been understood as the public university is in process of dissolution. It is, nevertheless, a situation that is opening new possibilities for what it is to be a public university both as institution and as idea.

The rapid increase in international mobility in higher education has sparked considerable interest in the intersection between international higher education (IHE) and cross-border connections. Previous studies primarily center around the embedded national interests of IHE and suggest that IHE can strengthen the linkage between home and host countries through cultural diplomacy and enhance the host country’s soft power. What is neglected includes the agency and reciprocity of non-state agents in IHE. The mechanism between individual mobility and cross-border connection remains unclear. By focusing on the non-state agents in IHE, this paper underlines the importance of multi-lateral communication and collaboration in IHE. It highlights global connectedness and the potential of IHE in promoting reciprocal cross-border cooperation and addressing pressing global issues. Through this lens, this paper investigates an IHE leadership program in Asia, with the objective of revealing how IHE may contribute to institutional development and cross-border collaboration. Based on qualitative data collected from various agents of the program, the paper finds that individual IHE will not automatically lead to institutional connections, but with careful design and governance, international mobility programs are well placed to facilitate cross-border communication and contribute to the development of institutional collaborations. It particularly highlights the important roles played by “other” agents in addition to the host and home institutions of the program participants.

Numerous countries have implemented excellence initiatives designed to establish world-class universities, boost research productivity, build up staff capacity, and thereby reform doctoral education systems as part of this agenda. To date, the relationship between excellence-driven initiatives and leading universities’ doctoral education enhancement remains understudied in Russia. This study seeks to examine how seven top-ranked Russian universities responded to the Excellence Initiatives (5-100 Project and Priority 2030) at the institutional strategy level from 2012 till 24 February 2022. To explore this relationship and change in research education, documentary research was applied to a corpus of institutional strategies for excellence accompanied with governmental texts. Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was adopted and complemented with analytical lenses to understand and examine how university excellence is recontextualised and operationalised in doctoral education structures across these strategies. This CDA was enhanced with theoretical lenses to research how multiple forces behind governmental policies for globalisation, innovation, and international competitiveness shape this change in Russian doctoral education in relation to global trends, national priorities, and local needs. The paper presents and discusses emergent processes (with mechanisms and practices) and the universities’ meaning-making behind the normative and performative ‘enhancement’ in doctoral education constructed with the state’s dominant understandings of university excellence.