Going With the Flow: First-Cycle Higher Education in a Lifelong Learning Context

Higher education is in flux asgovernments around the world seek to use it asan instrument to enhance national economies,and the half-life of knowledge steadilydecreases. Lifelong learning is presented ascritically important to the development ofhuman capital, but its implications forfirst-cycle higher education have yet to befully appreciated. It is argued thatfirst-cycle higher education is evolving in thelight of changes in the relationship betweenthe academy and employers. Students' part-timework is a significant component of theirexperience in higher education, yet itspotential for learning is generallyunder-exploited. The argument is made thatpart-time work can be drawn into the formalcurriculum without prejudice to traditionalacademic concerns, particularly if a lifelonglearning perspective is taken.     

Degree Classifications in English, Welsh and Northern Irish Universities: Trends, 1994–95 to 1998–99

In order to determine trends in the percentages of good degrees awarded, data showing the awards profiles for the five academic years 1994–95 to 1998–99 for universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were analysed by institution and by subject area. Although earlier research had shown a rise in the modal class of honours degree over the period 1973 to 1993, the present analyses demonstrate that, although there is an overall upward trend in the percentage of good degrees, the direction of the trend has varied from subject area to subject area. In seven of 17 subject areas, the upward trend is, statistically, reasonably robust. The trends in individual institutions have varied, probably as a result of differing combinations of influences.     

Gold in them there hills? Extracting and using data from existing sources

Data residing in institutional and system-level record systems are often under-exploited as a resource for decision-making. Whilst the data might neither have the characteristics, nor meet the quality demanded, of formal research projects, their relative availability offers advantages to the policy-maker and practitioner. This article illustrates with a number of examples the potential of available data for informing policy and practice at different levels within an education system.     

Formative Assessment in Higher Education:Its Significance for Employability,and Steps Towards Its Enhancement

Research shows that formative assessment can exert a powerful effect on student learning, yet the complexity of formative assessment is not well understood and some curricular structures and practices do not fully exploit its potential. This article outlines the background to the political promotion of employability and shows that institutional responses are influenced by multiple considerations. It discusses formative assessment and models it as a complex signalling system before considering the implications, for students’ employability, of accentuating the attention given to formative assessment. The potential for action is discussed with reference to three levels: those of the institution, the department, and the individual academic.     

Gold in them there hills? Extracting and using data from existing sources

Abstract

Data residing in institutional and system‐level record systems are often under‐exploited as a resource for decision‐making. Whilst the data might neither have the characteristics, nor meet the quality demanded, of formal research projects, their relative availability offers advantages to the policy‐maker and practitioner. This article illustrates with a number of examples the potential of available data for informing policy and practice at different levels within an education system.     

Book reviews

H.R. Kells Self‐Study Processes: A Guide to Self‐Evaluation in Higher Education (4th Edition). Phoenix, AZ: The Oryx Press, 1995. Paperback. ISBN 0 89774 903 0 Price $34.95 (North America) 194pp

David Warner and David Palfreyman (eds) Higher Education Management, The Key Elements. Buckingham: The Society for Research on Higher Education and Open University Press, 1996. Paperback. ISBN 0 335 19569 5 Price £19.99. 239 pages.     

Self‐help in research and development relating to assessment: a case study

This article briefly chronicles nearly a decade of research and development activity undertaken in the area of assessment by a group of committed volunteers, ‘The Student Assessment and Classification Working Group’ (SACWG). However, greater attention is given to demonstrating what a self‐help approach can achieve in respect of research and development in higher education, and to identifying the factors that contribute to success in this respect. It is suggested that the approach has transfer value, provided that certain conditions are met.     

Indicators of institutional achievement: some theoretical and empirical considerations

This article outlines a number of general approaches to organisational effectiveness, and three approaches to effectiveness in the more specific field of higher education.The literature survey is used to derive a broad framework suggestive of the main causal relationships likely to exist between various areas of institutional achievement, and this framework is used as a background to discussion of empirical evidence.Empirical findings in the field of institutional achievement are sparse and poorly interconnected. The article summarises findings from product portfolio matrix studies and Cameron's work on effectiveness, discusses some aspects of institutional management, and outlines some differences between British and American universities regarding the acquisition of funds.The article concludes with comments on some methodological aspects of assessing institutional achievement.Revised version of a paper prepared for Jornadas Internacionales Sobre Demanda de Education Superior y Rendimiento Academico en la Universidad, Madrid, 9–11 April 1986.