This thesis explores the gendering of entrepreneurship education in Higher Education in light of increasing government emphasis on the embedding of entrepreneurship education across the higher education curriculum in the UK. It argues that issues around the historical masculinisation of entrepreneurship are not acknowledged in current policy and education approaches and that this is problematic given an increasingly female HE cohort and that female graduates are still less likely than their male counterparts to consider entrepreneurship as an option on graduation. I take a three-phase, qualitative, multiple-method case-study approach - informed by Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice - to explore gendered discourses of entrepreneurship and enterprise education in the UK and how these play out in one post-1992 UK HE institution. The study highlights the choices, positions and struggles of the social space of HE and how staff and students respond to institutionally-framed policy and historically masculinised discourses and their teaching and learning practices in light of this. It suggests that, contrary to current education and entrepreneurship policy discourses, HE institutions and staff are not disinterested purveyors of neutral and uncontested 'facts' but are highly invested in their arbitration of the entrepreneurship education curriculum within disciplines, such as Health, Sport and Hospitality, that have not traditionally had an enterprise or entrepreneurship focus. It also suggests that female undergraduate students - although positioned in policy and practice as 'not-knowing' - bring a range of entrepreneurial experiences and expectations to HE which they can struggle to draw on and make sense of within an HE sector that positions them as deficient and unable or unwilling to take advantage of entrepreneurial opportunities.

Active Learning in Computing was the first Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning project for Computing Science in England. Facilitating a shift towards far higher levels of active learner engagement in the HE computing curriculum, the project’s primary objectives sought to enhance the student learning experience by placing a far greater emphasis on both industry-relevant group work and independent problem solving. As part of this initiative, Newcastle and Durham University partners extended their traditional team-based software engineering programmes to address the emerging commercial adoption of Global Software Development (a practice whereby virtual teams of distributed domain experts use ICT-mediated systems to work collaboratively across spatial, temporal and organisational boundaries). Running over the course of an entire academic year, participating undergraduate students were placed into “virtual companies” and encouraged to collaborate both locally and cross-site to create a variety of complex software solutions for real-world industrial clients. Supported by considerable investment in ICT infrastructure, this approach sought to generate active interaction between team members and foster the development of both interpersonal and vocational skills significant to the requirements of employers. However, despite the best efforts of the Active Learning in Computing team, students continually reported substantial difficulties interacting and communicating with their peers both locally and cross-site; this in turn led to frequent duplication of work and increased team member frustration and isolation. Motivated by a desire to resolve these important issues, a new stream of research was established at Newcastle University to explore new, innovative and cost-effective ways to generate and maintain student interaction across all aspects of the group programming activity. Based upon the initial results of this work and an investigation into informal team communication strategies, an Internet-based Web 2.0 social application named CommonGround was developed and deployed on the Facebook platform. Conceived of as a means to reduce geographic and temporal barriers to student interaction and community formation, the tool combined project-centric planning facilities with Facebook’s built-in communication affordances. By doing so, the tool helped to foster the generation of social capital and the inclusion of “peripheral” team members who often presented difficulties forming and maintaining offline relationships with their colleagues. Representing the main contribution of this Active Learning in Computing was the first Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning project for Computing Science in England. Facilitating a shift towards far higher levels of active learner engagement in the HE computing curriculum, the project’s primary objectives sought to enhance the student learning experience by placing a far greater emphasis on both industry-relevant group work and independent problem solving. As part of this initiative, Newcastle and Durham University partners extended their traditional team-based software engineering programmes to address the emerging commercial adoption of Global Software Development (a practice whereby virtual teams of distributed domain experts use ICT-mediated systems to work collaboratively across spatial, temporal and organisational boundaries). Running over the course of an entire academic year, participating undergraduate students were placed into “virtual companies” and encouraged to collaborate both locally and cross-site to create a variety of complex software solutions for real-world industrial clients. Supported by considerable investment in ICT infrastructure, this approach sought to generate active interaction between team members and foster the development of both interpersonal and vocational skills significant to the requirements of employers. However, despite the best efforts of the Active Learning in Computing team, students continually reported substantial difficulties interacting and communicating with their peers both locally and cross-site; this in turn led to frequent duplication of work and increased team member frustration and isolation. Motivated by a desire to resolve these important issues, a new stream of research was established at Newcastle University to explore new, innovative and cost-effective ways to generate and maintain student interaction across all aspects of the group programming activity. Based upon the initial results of this work and an investigation into informal team communication strategies, an Internet-based Web 2.0 social application named CommonGround was developed and deployed on the Facebook platform. Conceived of as a means to reduce geographic and temporal barriers to student interaction and community formation, the tool combined project-centric planning facilities with Facebook’s built-in communication affordances. By doing so, the tool helped to foster the generation of social capital and the inclusion of “peripheral” team members who often presented difficulties forming and maintaining offline relationships with their colleagues. Representing the main contribution of this Active Learning in Computing was the first Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning project for Computing Science in England. Facilitating a shift towards far higher levels of active learner engagement in the HE computing curriculum, the project’s primary objectives sought to enhance the student learning experience by placing a far greater emphasis on both industry-relevant group work and independent problem solving. As part of this initiative, Newcastle and Durham University partners extended their traditional team-based software engineering programmes to address the emerging commercial adoption of Global Software Development (a practice whereby virtual teams of distributed domain experts use ICT-mediated systems to work collaboratively across spatial, temporal and organisational boundaries). Running over the course of an entire academic year, participating undergraduate students were placed into “virtual companies” and encouraged to collaborate both locally and cross-site to create a variety of complex software solutions for real-world industrial clients. Supported by considerable investment in ICT infrastructure, this approach sought to generate active interaction between team members and foster the development of both interpersonal and vocational skills significant to the requirements of employers. However, despite the best efforts of the Active Learning in Computing team, students continually reported substantial difficulties interacting and communicating with their peers both locally and cross-site; this in turn led to frequent duplication of work and increased team member frustration and isolation. Motivated by a desire to resolve these important issues, a new stream of research was established at Newcastle University to explore new, innovative and cost-effective ways to generate and maintain student interaction across all aspects of the group programming activity. Based upon the initial results of this work and an investigation into informal team communication strategies, an Internet-based Web 2.0 social application named CommonGround was developed and deployed on the Facebook platform. Conceived of as a means to reduce geographic and temporal barriers to student interaction and community formation, the tool combined project-centric planning facilities with Facebook’s built-in communication affordances. By doing so, the tool helped to foster the generation of social capital and the inclusion of “peripheral” team members who often presented difficulties forming and maintaining offline relationships with their colleagues.

The aim of this study is to explore the tensions and relationships between male physiotherapy students' sense of masculine identity and the dominant feminised discourses of the profession. The theoretical background of this research is founded in theories of the social construction of masculinity and in the existing knowledge base about the experiences of men working in feminised professions. Exploration involves the impact of their experiences on the men's sense of identity and the strategies that they use to negotiate the tensions which they encounter during their professional education. A social constructionist feminist research approach is used in this exploratory research which involves 3rd year students from one cohort in a university in the North West of England. In-depth one-to-one interviews are conducted with 11 male undergraduate physiotherapy students. Focus group interviews and one-to-one interviews are also held with academic staff and with 3rd year female students in order to provide additional perspectives. Interviews are audio-taped and verbatim transcripts are produced. Analysis of the students' narratives is used in order to identify themes and sub-themes. A range of masculinities are identified within the male students. Analysis of the students' narratives shows that their experiences during clinical placements are particularly significant with reference to their masculine identity. Students use a range of strategies in order to negotiate the tensions and challenges which they encounter. The implications from the findings are that staff working with male students need to have a greater awareness of the impact on men of working in a feminised context. This would help them to better prepare male students for some of the challenges which they may face during their learning due to their gender.

This thesis investigates links between the Environmental Technologies and Services (ETS) sector in the North West of England and the four universities in Greater Manchester. UK government policy has developed over the last 20 years to try and encourage such links in strategic areas of science and technology, and the ETS sector in the North West has been identified as one such area that has the potential to grow. Development of this sector would help both the economic prospects and the general environment of the region. The aim of the thesis is to study the current situation, including the range of collaborations, the types of government funding initiatives and the role of intermediary organisations, and to suggest ways in which such collaboration could be made more effective. It addresses specific research questions that progressively focus on the general features of these linkages between academia and industry, to the regional and environmental aspects specific to the ETS sector in the North West. The work is based primarily on case studies, with additional input from both archival sources and surveys. The case studies have been selected to cover different types of collaboration, the use of formal and informal networking, and the involvement of student projects and training. The analysis has been carried out to identify the separate perspectives of the academic, industrial and government actors involved. Although the analysis does consolidate much of the general literature, some additional points have been raised by this work. These relate primarily to the advantages and disadvantages that the individual parties to the collaborations have identified, and to the general confusion caused by the range of government initiatives. There is also a general view that communication between the academic and industrial sides still needs to be improved so that easier contact can be made between the relevant research and user groups. Several proposals are made which could help to improve the level and effectiveness of collaborative links between the strong science base in the Greater Manchester universities and the extensive range of industrial and commercial companies in the region's ETS sector. Specific suggestions are aimed at each of the university, industry, intermediary and government sectors involved in the overall collaboration process.

Background: The healthy settings approach is well-established in health promotion, yet the concept of a healthy university has been slow to be adopted. Universities are large workplaces, they have an important role in enabling students to develop and flourish and their impact extends to wider society. Aims: This study explored and clarified the meaning of the concept of a healthy university and investigated the concept from the perspective of those who will be affected by it. Methods: A two stage study design was used. The first stage used a theoretical and colloquial concept analysis to describe the characteristics of a healthy university. The second stage explored these characteristics through two instrumental case studies of universities in England. These were identified as potential exemplar or contrary cases. Data collection was through 48 interviews with staff and students to understand how the university operationalises and manifests the characteristics of a healthy university and how a university either produces or inhibits health and wellbeing. Findings: Staff and students understood the characteristics of a healthy university to pertain to management processes relating to communication and to a respectful organisational ethos. Enhancers of health and wellbeing were feeling valued, being listened to, having skilled and supportive line managers and having a positive physical environment. Inhibitors of health and wellbeing were having a sense of powerlessness and a lack of care and concern. Discussion: A healthy university is a widely used concept within the field of health promotion but this is the first time that the concept has been subject to a concept analysis and the first time that the perceptions of staff and students have been explored.

This research considers the applicability of a generic quality model (the EFQM Excellence Model (the Model)) that has been used extensively in the private sector and increasingly in the public sector. To enable me to test out the applicability of the Model I employed four research methods including a self-assessment against the Model criteria (an intrinsic part of the Model process) in an institution with which I was familiar. Having recognised the utility of the Model through both a desk research process whereby I used my knowledge of both the Model and higher education to relate the former to the latter and the process of self-assessment I decided to consider the cultural features of higher education institutions to test out what factors play a part in the possible implementation and use of the Model in the higher education sector. To do this I identified a sample of twenty higher education institutions and looked at both their printed materials working on the basis that what they say about themselves in such documented materials will provide some clues to how they function. I also visited nine of the institutions in the sample and so was able to compare and contrast that which they said in their printed materials with what seemed to be the case on the ground. The conclusion I reached was the Model was applicable to higher education in that both I and others had used it to some effect. However, I could also identify aspects of higher education institutions which might get in the way of this being an effective tool. These were: the view of leadership how students were perceived the fragmented nature of higher education institutions the focus on external quality assessment rather than internal quality enhancement and sector approaches to change which tend to be risk-averse.

Recent science policy has stressed the need for academic research to be 'relevant' to the needs of society. Greatest emphasis has been placed on research that supports wealth creation, but other goals such as supporting the quality of life and the effectiveness of public policy have also been highlighted. University research is increasingly seen as a key resource in addressing challenges such as global environmental change. Connected to these developments in science policy, academic commentators have suggested that a new 'mode' of research is emerging - research conducted 'in the context of application'. However, there are significant questions over whether the current organisation of research in the university sector can facilitate this 'relevant' mode of research. This thesis investigates the tensions around the conduct of socially relevant research in British universities. It puts forward a novel conceptual framework for investigating the factors affecting the conduct of relevant research, arguing that researchers are influenced by five factors: academic disciplines, research institutions, research funding sources, personal motivations, and wider policy 'discourses'. The thesis analyses the pressures towards relevant research and the characteristics of such research, which tends to be inter-disciplinary, problem-centred and interactive. The thesis details how the factors identified in the conceptual framework affected the work of a group of social scientists involved in global environmental change research during the 1990s. The thesis demonstrates that 'relevant' research may bring not only a range of benefits but also certain potential 'hazards' to researchers conducting relevant research. There are therefore significant tensions around its implementation, tensions that the thesis suggests can be traced to the institutionalisation of academic research in universities. These tensions have significant implications for the implementation of relevant research in universities

The Subjective elements of music became a philosophical football which was kicked about by amateurs and professionals alike towards the end of the nineteenth century. Much time and mental energy was spent in fruitless attempts to evaluate the affectiveness of music. Was music 'a language of emotion'. How a subjective experience can be expressed, or embodied in an objective art form is still debated. Fortunately, the affectiveness of music in the class-room is relatively uncomplicated, seldom arousing real emotion, but those of a tertiary order. Theorists have readily invented numerous scientific tests to evaluate children's responses to music. Historically, music education can be traced to the ecclesiastical schools of the Middle Ages, but for centuries it remained in a peripheral area, dependent upon the personal interest of the Headmaster, though often recognised as having ethical and recreational value. Educational thought in England slowly accepted its rightful place in education, but the support of religious, philanthropic, and social reformers was necessary before sight-singing was introduced in the National schools in 1870, but not as an integral part of the curriculum. The nationwide success of simple sight-singing won official approval but did nothing to formulate a systematic method of tuition. This was eventually achieved by Curwen, whose Tonic Sol-fa became the accepted medium for teaching music in schools, giving them, and thousands of uneducated adults, 'an experience from within'. Other countries have successfully implemented the music methods of Kodaly, Orff, Ward and Suzuki in their schools; these have largely been ignored in Britain. In official reports, the criticisms of music in our schools, particularly in secondary schools, are devastating. The quantified success of objective thought, reason, clear objectives and continued application is conveniently forgotten in order that the English tradition of non-direction in music education may be preserved.

In any organisation people are crucial to its success and universities are no exception. The successful operation of an educational institution requires competent administrators working alongside the team of academics who are employed to deliver the teaching, to enable the learning, and to carry out important research activities. In all work situations groups of staff have to work together for the good of the organisation, but in higher education there are often fractious relationships between diverse communities of staff which can impact on their professional lives. For many years the boundaries between academia and administration have been blurring due to the changing nature of roles undertaken by university staff, and many administrators are now taking on aspects of work which were historically undertaken by academics. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is an academic/administrative divide in universities in the United Kingdom, and if there is, how it operates, and to explore whether professional transitions are possible within the confines of structural boundaries. The study aimed to address four research questions which evolved from the title and a number of themes and questions emerged from these. ' These were: • Is there an academic/administrative divide in universities and if so, what is its nature and what are the factors underlying this? • In what ways do administrators in higher education form identities through their work and roles within their institutions? • To what extent do administrators in higher education inhabit hybrid roles and are these shaped by organisational factors (including line management and organisational culture)? • In what ways are administrators supported in making the transitions to academic work (or taking on academic roles) and gaining acceptance within the academic community? In trying to answer these questions a number of recommendations have been considered, some of which may be seen by university management to be radical, that could address this perceived imbalance of professional values between communities of staff and to start to deconstruct the divide. Key words: Divide, Relationships, Identity, Transitions, Hybridity, Esteem, Status, Credibility, Third Space, Culture, Partnerships

This work brings a relational perspective to the analysis of student experience. The study examines two important aspects of the relational paradigm, commitment and word-of mouth communication (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Fullerton, 2011). Deploying a quantitative methodology to data derived from undergraduate students studying in four post-1992 universities, the research employs structural equation modelling to develop a framework which satisfactorily represents the relationship between students' commitment and word-of-mouth intentions within higher education. The research uses a multi-dimensional, multi-focus approach to commitment and develops a hierarchy of commitment for higher education. The research proposes and examines a new commitment-related concept, commitment balance, the balance between the commitment students feel towards the relational partner, be that institution or academy and the commitment they perceive the partner extends to themselves and the broader student body. The research finds that commitment balance between students and institution is a relevant construct within a relational approach to higher education. The research finds that undergraduate students have reasonably high levels of intention to talk positively about their institution and tutors. The good news for universities is that students strongly disagree that they have intentions to talk negatively about their institution and tutors. The outcome of the research is a model which suggests that intention to emit positive wordof- mouth is positively related to affective commitment towards academy, affective commitment towards institution and commitment balance between students and institution. The model also suggests that there is a weak but significant negative relationship between calculative commitment towards institution and intention to emit positive word-of-mouth. The paper provides a number of implications for practice, including the importance of investing in pedagogic strategies which develop students affective commitment towards academy. The research suggests the potential for H.E.I.s to develop an online platform to allow discussion of institutions in a similar manner to Trip Advisor, providing a more agile alternative to the N .S.S. The paper identifies a range of scholarly opportunities which emerge from this research, including further study of commitment balance and concludes with a proposal for a potential framework representing a relational approach to students' experience of higher education.