Learning from my students is the particular privilege of my being a teacher. Through them I have gained much insight into how they fare while studying for their Master's degrees in a country and culture very different to their own and this led to my research puzzle here: what are Latin Americans' experiences of studying and living here in the UK and why have they not been researched? In order to research these experiences, in particular those of their transition, I needed an appropriate methodology - narrative inquiry. This interpretivist perspective foregrounds the telling of stories as a way of giving meanings to our experiences. It also emphasises my reflexivity as the practitioner researcher in this context. Writing about five Latin American students' experiences, as well as my own research journey, I have been able to incorporate more creative styles of writing than that more typically associated with social sciences to construct narratives which aim to provoke empathy and resonance in the reader. In joining me on my research journey, readers are invited to not only bring with them their own interpretations but also their responses. What I have learned is that previously I have acted on perceived experiences of the Latin American students I teach - here revealed as erroneous - rather than their actual ones. I have dived into these five students' worlds and surfaced with a new understanding that although previously successful in their chosen professions, none has had a smooth transition to studying again and thus has a unique transition experience. This has both transformed me and impacted on aspects of my teaching. Without such reflective practices and informed understandings of our students are not bypassing the potential for a more responsive, diverse and colourful teaching and learning environment?

No description available.

The thesis is a study of the nature and extent of institutional diversity in the further education sector in England. Unlike for institutions in the higher education sector, the pattern of further education colleges has been less systematically investigated and the standard classification of colleges adopted by the central authorities has remained largely the same since the 1990s. Analysis of administrative data on course and student characteristics for the academic year 2011/2012, the dimensions and patterns of institutional diversity are reported using descriptive statistics and cluster analysis. The findings demonstrate a greater level of diversity among and between colleges than is captured by the standard classification. This is substantially so within the category of general further education colleges which accounts for the majority of colleges, courses and students in the sector. Even within the specific categories of sixth form colleges and specialist colleges there are notable variations in their course profiles and student populations. Based on these findings, an argument is made for a review and overhaul of official categorisations in order both to better inform policymaking in England and to underpin current and future research on tertiary education.

Theories involving the metaphor of 'capital' in both the economics and sociology of education are frequently used to explain progression to Higher Education (HE). However, in employing these theories there is often a lack of consideration given to the role of educational institutions, such as Further Education (FE) colleges. In particular, FE colleges may have their own objectives that impinge upon student progression. Following Gillborn and Youdell's (2000) work on schools, they ration access to HE. Through a mixed methods approach employing multivariate analysis, interview and ethnography it is shown that the ways in which FE colleges ration access to academic courses is vital in understanding educational progression. Considerations of capital are important, but there are limitations to how far they provide a complete explanation of progression. Although human capital considerations partly explain the intention to attend HE they are found not to predict actual attendance nor are they explicit in students' own accounts of their decision making. Similarly, cultural and social capital are important, but limited when faced with the countervailing demands of FE colleges. Indeed, through rationing, what may appear to depend upon one's individual or community characteristics, such as human or social capital are ascribed value within institutions. For example, there have been recent concerns with the academic potential and community cohesion of white, working class communities. Through ethnographic analysis it is shown how this manifests itself in one FE site in tenns of the students in the study being particularly pathologised as 'white trash'. This has particular consequences for their progression to HE. Because institutions, particularly FE colleges, have a key role in rationing opportunity and classifying students they are a key site in the 'widening participation' debate. According to my research, to 'widen participation' in its fullest sense, those who work in FE will need to take actions which would lead to institutional change across the sector.

The 2012/13 academic year saw the introduction of the most significant changes to the funding of higher education in England for over fifty years. This followed the publication of the Browne Review in October 2010 (Browne, 2010), which recommended that the cap on tuition fees be removed and that universities be allowed to charge fees that they felt were appropriate. It further recommended that the funding of England’s higher education system shift away from one that is largely funded by the taxpayer to one that is, for the most part, funded privately by graduates from their future earnings. The subsequent government White Paper published later in 2011 incorporated some features of Lord Browne’s recommendations: loans would be offered to all students to cover fees, to be repaid only when graduates were earning over a certain threshold. However, the government proposed an absolute cap on fees of £9,000 per year. Those universities charging fees of over £6,000 per year would be obliged to contribute to a national scholarships programme, and there would be a tougher regime of sanctions encouraging these universities to widen access. These new measures were challenged at the time from a variety of sources: politicians, the press and academic research all suggested that this change in funding would ostracise students who came from backgrounds that did not traditionally access higher education. Two years after the introduction of higher fees, this thesis investigates whether there has been any change to the nature of the student demographic accessing Nottingham Trent University (NTU). For some, going to university is seen as a method of ensuring social mobility, so if there is any change in the demographic of the student accessing university following the change in funding, this could have a far-reaching impact across the whole of society. Additionally, given that universities are now increasingly run as businesses as well as places of learning, any changes to the student demographic could have a disruptive impact on the business model of universities. Given that the change in funding was relatively recent, there has been limited work in this field of research. This thesis examines a number of hypotheses in order to understand whether there has been a change in the student demographic accessing NTU following the introduction of higher fees. The analysis looks at not only the socio-economic composition of the student population, but also students’ academic credentials on entry, the distance between their home and the place of study, their choice of subject, and what actions and interventions the University has taken in light of its increased fees. Using secondary data from the University’s student data system, supplemented by other external data, this investigation looks at the composition of the first-year England-domiciled undergraduate student population from the 2008/09 academic year to the 2013/14 academic year to test a number of hypotheses that emerged from a review of current literature relating to the student decision-making process. In order to ensure validity and reliability, the records of the entire cohort for each year of entry were used rather than a sample approach. The findings suggest that, contrary to the popular opinion that was so vociferous at the time of the Browne Review, there has been no erosion in the number of students from deprived backgrounds accessing university. Instead, for NTU at least, the proportion of students from the most deprived backgrounds has actually increased following the introduction of higher fees. Aligned to this slight change to the socio-economic composition of the student population is a potential decline in the average tariff points on entry to the University. However, there has been little change to the other aspects of the demographic of the student population, namely the distance travelled, the subjects studied, and the shift in university policy with regard to the academic attainment it requires from its students to access its courses. Whilst the results noted above are specific to NTU, the University shares a position in the English higher education market with other similar universities offering similar courses to a similar demographic of student. In terms of geographical location, NTU shares a region with a number of these similar higher education institutions, so it may be valid to generalise the findings of this thesis to other similar universities in England.

No description available.

This empirical study of the organisational identity of a newly titled university provides an insight into how identity is constructed, maintained, deconstructed and reconstructed in the higher education sector in England. The purposes of the university sector, and the higher education sector of which it is a part, are being increasingly challenged following significant legislative and environmental changes over the past century. Through these changes what it means to be a university is shifting. Increased complexity and diversity has given rise to a university sector that now encompasses much of what was previously defined as non-university higher education, resulting in what many argue is a crisis of sector identity. Whilst recognising that organisational identity does more than provide a definition of membership, this crisis of sector identity impacts upon the identity development and understandings of those who are now part of it. Research on identity in the higher education sector has been focused on professional and academic identities, the concept of what it is to be a university in a policy-driven, mass participation higher education system or the interaction between the two subject areas. This thesis has a different focus, concentrating on the relatively under-researched area of change and continuity in organisational identity particularly focussing upon a period of change in legal definition and organisational positioning. During the period 1998 to 2013, the University of St Mark & St John (Marjon) moved from being a college of higher education, to a university college and finally, through a change in legislative criteria, to a university. This thesis explores change and continuities in its identity through its journey and various incarnations. It investigates how definitional constructs and sectoral positioning interface with who the organisation is; its identity. The thesis is based on an interpretive mixed methods case study, focussing on the strategic development of the University during this period. Existing theoretical models of organisational identity have informed the analysis of the data which include documentary sources, a small number of key informant interviews and participant observations. The latter exploited insights gleaned from working as a senior manager in the University for part of the period in which the research was undertaken. The research findings reinforce the existing theories highlighting the importance of organisational identity to organisational health, but challenge existing theory in respect of identity development and change. The research highlights the significance of the relationship between ‘what’ an organisation is, which is a definitional and spatial construct, and ‘who’ an organisation is, which is a reflection of its identity. This relationship has previously been considered as inconsequential to organisational identity development. The findings also challenge the assumption that identity change is a change management process brought into effect through a strong leadership narrative and strategic planning tools. The study makes evident the interplay of organisational history, and the strength of internal and external influences on the capacity and willingness of an organisation to undergo identity change. This has resulted in the development of a conceptual framework to support leaders in the exploration of an organisation’s identity, highlighting the interrelationship of specific factors on identity development.

The expansion of Higher Education has a long history, however, the specific policy of widening participating in Higher Education to those who would not normally enter Higher Education, and in particular those from lower socio-economic groups, was emphasised by Dearing in his 1997 report. The policy and its implementation have produced much literature but little of this studies the perceptions of and responses to this policy This study does precisely that and seeks to determine the attitudes of a range of staff in Higher Education, not just academics, to the widening participation policy as it has been articulated since 1997. The study took an ethnographic methodology and focused on one group of staff within a post-1992 English university. Through an analysis of the related literature a number of themes surrounding the widening participation agenda were established. A combination of focus group, interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis were used to collect data which was subsequently analysed to determine themes arising. These themes were then compared to those that were derived from the literature review. Hence the hypotheses presented were developed from the data analysis. It is concluded that gap exists between the expectations of staff in Higher Education, particularly academics, and current Higher Education students, not necessarily from widening participation backgrounds. This gap takes a number of forms including differences in belief regarding the purpose and value of Higher Education. Taking Bourdieu’s theory on habitus and cultural capital, a hypothesis is presented which explains many of the issues emerging from the data analysis in terms of a gap in the habitus and educational capital between academics and current students.

This thesis, located within the field of student transition to university, investigates several aspects of the understanding of prospective students about learning and teaching in higher education; it does this within a geographical setting relevant to my own practice, which involves responsibility for students within a faculty of a large English medium-tariff university. The research is prompted partly by developments in higher education public information requirements, particularly those relating to information about the balance of class contact and independent study, and partly by the relative lack of empirical research amongst UK students before they enter university into what they are expecting. The primary research tool was a short questionnaire completed by just over 500 prospective university students in their final year at post-16 institutions in the city region of my university. The questionnaire contained predominantly closed questions relating to expectations about aspects of learning and teaching at university and about the information which they had taken from the website of the university at which they were hoping to study. Subsidiary research tools were a content analysis of a sample of university websites undertaken to assist in the formulation of the questionnaire and a further email exchange with a few of the questionnaire respondents. The main findings suggest that, even within a sample skewed towards traditional and academically high achieving students, there are very varied understandings of the nature of independent learning and a substantial minority of students have inaccurate expectations about university study. The entry tariff for the university which the respondents were hoping to attend and the level of higher education participation of their post-16 institution appeared to be more important variables in terms of levels of understanding than demographic differences. The new public information requirements relating to class time and independent study appeared to have little impact.

Post-occupancy evaluation provides a mechanism for systematically evaluating facilities performance. However, the effectiveness of existing models within HE is subject to question with few institutions fully embracing its application. The research sought to establish the extent to which POE models are utilised and the degree to which they satisfy the needs of HE in England and Wales. The outcome of the work was to propose a POE model that addresses the needs of Higher Education institutions. The research found that development of POE models has been driven by numerous factors resulting in creation of sophisticated POE frame-works. However the extent to which they are considered effective is limited. Earlier work focuses on the identification of factors that influence user satisfaction and development of complex quantitative models. Users of such models seek to learn lessons from projects to improve the design and delivery of facilities and enhance their performance in use. However, the extent to which existing POE models facilitate this is subject to question. The study adopted a mixed methods approach to establish whether existing models reflected the factors influencing user satisfaction in the specific context of HE. It revealed that physical and internal environmental factors influenced user satisfaction in varying patterns with varying results in differing situations. The perception of quality consistently correlated with users' overall perceptions of satisfaction with buildings. The term 'quality' is a made up of several discrete factors; further work could be developed to allow these to be fully defined. The research concluded that a single POE model would be inappropriate and a frame-work is proposed based on a balanced scorecard, reflecting four performance dimensions tailored to the context of HE and allowing linkage of POE to strategic institutional plans. The project liberated contribution to theoretical knowledge and professional practice. It established that within HE the concept of a consistent set of factors correlating with overall satisfaction is flawed. It went further to identify the construct of 'quality' as a key factor influencing satisfaction and established user satisfaction is a construct that is time related. It also found that application of POE is inconsistent across the HE sector in terms of purpose and extent of connectivity to institutional objectives. These findings indicated that adoption of a standardised POE model within HE is unlikely to liberate consistent, useful data to enhance building and facilities performance. The adoption of the proposed approach offers a vehicle cost effective development of tailored POE solutions.