This thesis critically examines the discourse of government funded computer based learning (CBL) materials which have been introduced on undergraduate courses at UK universities with particular reference to CBL materials from the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP). My study is based on a sample of pedagogic legal discourse from two undergraduate courses for law, one at Warwick University and one at the London School of Economics, and it presents a comparative analysis of the discourse of the TLTP materials for law and the established pedagogic legal genres which are used on these courses. The critical perspective on the analysis of the discourse seeks explanations of discursive change, represented by the introduction of the CBL materials, in the context of institutional and broader social change. The introduction of CBL materials in the 1990s has come at a time of extensive institutional change in UK higher education with large increases in student numbers at a time of static funding. This study explores the justifications for the introduction of such materials, academic, pedagogic and administrative and evaluates these in the light of the analysis of the discourse. The study shows that the academic justifications and the claims of the producers' of the CBL materials for a constructivist pedagogy are exaggerated, and that it is the economic and administrative imperatives of the funding bodies which predominate. The thesis goes on to argue that the CBL materials in this study both reflect and realise the marketisation of higher education and a commodification of pedagogic discourse itself.

This researcher investigated the professional experiences and development of trainee dental technicians and undergraduate dental students during a shared learning exercise in a combined UK university dental school and hospital. Two purposes framed the investigation: 1. To gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of trainee dental technicians and undergraduate dental students during shared learning opportunities and 2. To examine whether interprofessional learning between trainee dental technicians and undergraduate dental students offered any professional and occupational specific disciplinary developmental benefits or disadvantages. Using a qualitative approach with a phenomenological framework, data sources included reflective diaries, focus group interviews and other salient material. Dialogue between the researcher and participants played a major part in ensuring the rigour of the study, participants having the opportunity to review the central concepts and excerpts within the thesis. Results indicated that both trainee dental technicians and undergraduate dental students were pragmatic but positive in terms of their expectations of shared learning. In particular, they regarded the exercise as useful in terms of communication and understanding each other‟s role. Overall there was little evidence arising from the data to support issues of power and perceived social and interprofessional hierarchies as impediments to learning. Findings from this study are consistent with previous research into interprofessional education, which demonstrate the significance of preconceptions based upon traditional and perhaps stereotypical perceptions of their own professional status. The students regarded the processes of shared learning as having a positive impact on future interprofessional teamwork. This empirical study assists in creating understandings about the benefits and limitations to shared learning between these two groups within the dental team. It also contributes to a currently under-theorised account of how relationships developed between these two groups may affect longer-term professional development. Implications are offered for future research involving the investigation that such learning may have on patient care.

Inadequate funding of higher education in sub-Saharan Africa is a perennial problem. The inadequacy of financial resources is undermining the efforts of universities to produce educated citizens to engage in productive careers. Public universities' reliance on their governments for funding when there are many competing needs for public resources calls for attention. This thesis is an exploration of perceptions of university academics and administrators and government officials of current and future strategies for funding higher education in the small Commonwealth countries: Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. A combination of human capital and social capital theories was used as a guide for the development of this study. It is a qualitative study whose data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis between March and June 2005. The data were analysed using a thematic comparative method. The findings reveal that government funding, student tuition fees, residence and meal fees and bank interest are the main sources of funding for each of the universities. The governments allocate funds to the universities in simple block grants for manpower development and for providing access to higher education. This is in a range of 54 to 68% which is significantly different from trends in sub-Saharan Africa. Each institution centrally allocates funds to its faculties and departments in accordance with prepared budgets. Budget holders in the offices of Deans of Faculty and Heads of Department control the resource spending at their levels. The universities prepare annual audited financial statements as a means of being accountable to stakeholders. The study also found that there are some innovations that are either in place or due to be implemented as future funding strategies. In each case government funding will continue, with governments planning to introduce cost-sharing with parents/students. Each university has ventured into revenue diversification or income generating activities in order to meet the shortfall in government funding. Notably, the University of Botswana and the University of Swaziland have each established a foundation to fundraise with the private sector, international organisations and alumni. Thus, social capital is built onto the universities' fundraising activities. There are challenges facing the three universities. University strategic plans are not being implemented in all three universities. All three universities cannot increase student fees at will. Government requires all parastatal organisations to declare unused funds at the end of the year in Botswana. This has implications on funding for the following year. The establishment of a second university in Botswana poses some funding uncertainties at the University of Botswana. Similarly, future funding may be negatively affected at the University of Swaziland and the National University of Lesotho because the former sometimes approaches the Chancellor for extra funding, a thing that could sour relations between the Government of Swaziland and the University. The National University of Lesotho's delay in producing and submitting audited financial statements to Government is cause for concern in Lesotho.

The Humanities Value Chain: A Framework for Knowledge Transfer in the Modern University PhD Abstract from Lisa Mooney Smith Nov 2009 ABSTRACT The research described in this thesis presents a body of material generated over four years of close observation of research and knowledge transfer practices in one Russell Group university institution. It attempts to contextualise knowledge transfer (hereafter KT) within the arts and humanities environment, as well as situate learning about the reception and adoption of KT with reference to the individual scholar and the organisation in which they operate. Within this context, little has been written explicitly about the character of the arts and humanities, and particularly the historical antecedence of the disciplines and their close relationship to current KT challenges. In the early chapters of the thesis we address the growing interest in KT specific language, the key words that have become landmarks in the extension of the ‘Two Cultures’ debate. In defining some of the parameters by which KT has come to be recognised, we also begin to signal changes in both the lexicon and landscape in which KT has evolved. We suggest that both the institution and their academic inhabitants play an intrinsic part in this evolution, framed by both the political and scholarly tensions of the time. In the latter part of the thesis there is a distinct shift in emphasis from the foundations of the KT debate, to its current inflections at a more grass roots level within the academic institution. We frame this shift in the context of the key investor in research within these disciplines and suggest that the Arts and Humanities Research Council is equally challenged to articulate and underpin the adoption of KT and its impacts at the heart of academic practice. In order that we might better animate how these practices are emerging, we observe one particular case study that lays down a possible framework for closer observation of KT in what we term the ‘Humanities Value Chain’. In focusing on a collection of players connected in the successful pursuit of collaborative research, we attempt to uncover an in-depth perspective of individuals and the way in which organisations might support or hinder their pursuit of KT based research.

This was a mixed-method study investigating factors which might affect newly-qualified teachers’ continued motivation to teach in the post-compulsory sector during the period 2000-2004. It aimed to identify the nature of demotivators and to measure the extent and impact of these on intentions to remain in teaching. Research would suggest that nation states’ changes to the management of education to address the challenges of globalisation have caused tension between teachers’ motivation to teach and outside interference to control the process of teaching. Consequently, retaining teachers in both the compulsory and post-compulsory sectors is a significant concern, not only in the UK but internationally. However, despite being described as ‘pivotal’ to government objectives of social justice and economic success, the post-compulsory sector has tended to be under-researched. Although studies have explored the impact of New Public Management and Incorporation on the working conditions for experienced teachers and investigated trainees’ perceptions of the sector, there appeared to be a gap in the research focussing on newly-qualified teachers (NQTs) during this time. It is hoped that this research will contribute to this body of literature. This was an exploratory study followed by a confirmatory enquiry and was conducted in two phases. A qualitative approach was adopted for the first phase to re-interrogate data collected for a MA in Research Methods. Data collected from NQTs using focus groups and reflective essays written as part of the assessment for their initial teacher training course, was re-interrogated to identify the nature of demotivators in the sector. The subsequent findings informed the second phase and the design of a survey instrument to investigate the prevalence of these demotivators and the impact of these on intentions to continue teaching with a much larger sample of NQTs. Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (1959) and Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (1975, 1985, 1992, 2000) formed the theoretical framework for this investigation. Ten higher education institutions from the East Midlands, Yorkshire, South-West and South-East of England, who had delivered training provision to meet the standards of the Further Education National Training Organisation since their introduction (FENTO, 1999), assisted in this project by forwarding the instrument to 2,235 NQTs. The survey was self-administered and 308 completed questionnaires were returned (13.8% return rate). Research would suggest that the first three to four years after training will determine whether teachers stay in the profession; it is hoped that the findings will highlight factors responsible for the fragility of a long-term teaching career in this sector.

During one of the many discussions that I often have with my classes, it became apparent to me that some students had varied views regarding teaching and learning. In fact, what was basically a good teaching practice to me, apparently to many of my students it was not so. At the same time, in the last few years lecturers began expressing their disappointment concerning their students' outcomes and their evident lack of interest as regards their introductory courses. This creates some of the most immediate challenges for lecturers and teacher education designers to question the purpose of their teaching and the ways in which they teach. Indeed, what is the aim of university and college teaching and how should it be carried out? The study explored the conceptions of learning and teaching brought by a group of Cypriot students and their lecturers in their everyday introductory Business courses, carried out in one of the three largest private colleges of Nicosia, Cyprus. Data was gathered through interviews with five lecturers and 12 students in one of the three departments of the college, the School of Business, and analysed using the phenomenographic approach. On the basis of analyses of the data, six conceptions of teaching and six conceptions of learning were identified. It was possible to summarise the conceptions under distinct levels of categories. A three - set - order categorisation of teaching and a two - set - order categorisation of learning were developed. Comparisons were made between the two sets of categories. The findings showed that most participants developed comparatively traditional conceptions of both learning and teaching in a limited range of categories. Relationships between the categories indicated interesting similarities worth exploring further. The overall aim of the research is to offer a more defined understanding of the students' early conceptions of their learning and the lecturers' conceptions of teaching those students.

In the thesis I examine international student decision-making arguing that there is a gap in knowledge about the theoretical frameworks which have been applied to understanding this issue. A comprehensive review of the literature showed that thus far the foremost theory utilised for explaining international student decision-making is the Push-Pull Theory of Migration, a theory which is primarily quantitative. This research innovatively uses a theoretical framework combining three influential capital theories based on a qualitative methodology. Using this theoretical framework, I sought a deeper, and potentially new and different understanding of why international students choose to study abroad and why they select particular host countries – the two questions traditional Push-Pull Theory seeks to answer. The three capital theories used are Human, Cultural and Social Capital. Using these to understand the decision-making of international students begins with the premise that individuals invest in international education in the hope of achieving some aim or reaping some benefit. As these theories originate from two different disciplines, I argue that such an approach provides a more multifaceted perspective for understanding students’ decision-making. Each of these theories, including their strengths and weaknesses, is discussed in detail in the thesis. The context for the study is provided through an examination of the impact of globalisation and neo-liberalism on the political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological trends of recent decades. It also considers the growing internationalisation and marketisation of higher education, including a greater emphasis on and expansion of international student recruitment and mobility. The research notes that individuals are increasingly responsible for their own success in the global knowledge economy. International education is one way in which students can make themselves competitive in the labour market as well as obtain valuable socio-cultural benefits. The research emphasises that higher education is becoming a privately rather than publicly-funded activity in which individual students (and often their families)make the decisions about whether or not to study abroad and where. Host country, source country, and student perspectives are considered. The research focused on international postgraduates originating from five Asian source countries, studying in six disciplines, and enrolled at universities in three different English-speaking host countries. Data on why students decided to study abroad and why they selected their host country was gathered using questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The student participants in the research were already enrolled in their host universities at the time of data collection thus enabling me to investigate post-enrolment the reasons for their decisions. The combined theoretical framework was used to analyse and categorise the data based on whether students’ answers referred primarily to human, cultural or social capital. The analysis revealed that for each form of capital, the decisions made by these students were based on both the capital they possessed and had access to prior to international study (existing capital) and the capital they hoped to gain from going abroad (potential capital). Existing and potential capital were broken down further into relevant themes and sub-themes. The analyses also showed that human capital factors were most influential, followed by cultural capital and then social capital factors. In addition there was significant overlap among the forms of capital. Finally, the implications and limitations of the research are considered along with recommendations for further research.

The core of this thesis is to investigate the perceptions of teachers in Further Education (FE) when dealing with the continuous change caused by the expansion of information and learning technology (ILT). This thesis also identifies the potential links between the increase in the range and availability of learning technology and the development of self- directed and student-centred learning. It explores the perceptions of practicing teachers with reference to their personal development and if such development indicates compliance with adult learning theory. It also analysis the external pressures placed on FE colleges and their teaching staff due to the development of ILT and the related governmental policy. The thesis regards teachers in the FE sector as a unique group of adult learners with a wide range of experience, qualifications and entry routes into the profession. It investigates a sample of teachers using questionnaires and focus groups analysing their perceptions of ILT, preferred learning styles, identified needs and self evaluation techniques and analysis any correlation between these factors and the biographical parameters obtained from the questionnaire responses. An aspect of the investigation was to analyse how teachers became proficient in the use of ILT, routes staff use to obtain the skills and knowledge required and if the aspects of adult learning theory are being applied. A related aspect of this research is the investigation of whether the perceptions of teacher of their personal development experiences related to ILT indicate if an FE college is or can become a “learning organisation” and if such a concept is valid for the FE sector.

Set in the context of a Post-92 university college Education Studies department, this thesis investigates how new undergraduates might be supported in the transition to Higher Education. It describes an intervention informed by research into Academic Literacies that was undertaken in a first year, first semester module. The intervention aimed to scaffold participation in academic practice, and in particular academic literacy practice, in collaborative workshops within the context of the module content. The methodological approach combines action research with aspects of ethnography to produce ‘ethnographic action research’. Drawing on the work of Lave & Wenger, students working in groups are conceptualised as academic student communities of practice, and audio recordings of students engaged in collaborative activities provide evidence of their lived experience of the module in three domains: what they do; what they know; and how they position themselves in relation to academic practice. The findings show how talk about practice, within the context of participation in practice, is instrumental to change in all three domains: the negotiation of distinctly ‘academic’ ways of working in groups; the construction of meaning in the relationship between what is known about academic practice and what is done; and, the construction of the self as academic. I conclude that Higher Education pedagogical arrangements need to build communities that talk about practice and consider how such an approach responds to future challenges.

E-Learning perhaps is the exciting topic related to higher education in the current decade. Large numbers of researchers devote their enthusiasm to this area. The early days of E-Learning were product-driven, and the dialogue about E-Learning took place primarily among vendors who were heavily funded by investment capital. Most of the E-Learning vendors promoted their technology, but less attention was paid to the issues surrounding implementation or to the usage of E-Learning by the end users. However, the behaviour of end users or of the organizations which had introduced E-Learning should be the main concern of an innovation in the management process. Included in an entire E-Learning development strategy should be a detailed analysis and action plan to obtain a comprehensive overview of three aspects of innovation processes: organizational, technological, and products/services. A successful E-Learning launch should also pay close consideration to all of the interactions during the triple innovation process, a proposal which will be addressed in this research. Given the multiple objectives of investigating the processes of E-Learning innovation, the interaction between different aspects of innovation and the issues which influence those processes, a qualitative case study approach is appropriate for establishing empirical evidence and describing the phenomenon of the E-Learning innovation process in higher education. The fieldwork started in March 2004 and finished in August 2008. It comprised one pilot study at National Chung Cheng University Taiwan, and the main research context at the University of Nottingham. The data collected were used to analyse and conceptualise the E-Learning innovation process with three sub-processes, outlined in detail in a following subsection: research methodology and design. This research contributes to the understanding of E-Learning innovation processes by providing triple aspects of organizational, technological and service innovation individually, and maps the E-Learning innovation processes in its different aspects. The relationships and interactions in the E-Learning innovation process within organizational, technological and service innovation are conceptualized in order to explain their complexity, and they also summarized the main interaction categories for different interactions. The series of detailed analyses indicates that organizational, technological and service innovations are inseparable and show a strong link with one another. Moreover, a framework of simplified triple E-Learning innovation with triple interactions is proposed.