This thesis critically reviews, evaluates and synthesizes theories of cross-cultural adjustment and international students’ sojourn activities, and develops a multi-layered and dynamic framework of cross-cultural adjustment. Empirical evidence, collected from the experience of Taiwanese postgraduate students in the UK, is used to build a grounded theory of cross-cultural adjustment. The process of cross-cultural adjustment is examined in terms of four key dimensions - self-identity, academic pursuit, affection and sojourn life-experience - each of which is broken down into more specific components (categories and sub-categories) according to the interview responses of the student sample. The result is an in-depth appreciation of the wide range of factors that contribute to the experience and challenge of cross-cultural adjustment for Taiwanese postgraduate students. For each of the four dimensions, certain core conditions are shown to give rise to specific adjustment phenomena which are shaped by certain contextual factors, and these phenomena give rise to a characteristic strategic response by the students, which then yields a specific consequence. The study shows that cross-cultural adjustment is a continuous process in which international students establish emotional alignment through social interaction and the articulation of their self-identity. The study provides a conceptual framework for future research into cross-cultural adjustment within different host countries, and also serves as a basis to help universities anticipate and manage effectively the adjustment problems faced by international students.

This study was aimed at providing a better understanding of academic socialisation. Informed by a biographical research approach, the study explored the career experiences of 12 professors from 12 academic departments at a UK university through a series of indepth, semi-structured qualitative interviewing interviews, documentary analysis and a literature review. It set out to highlight how the academics in the study reflexively construct their academic identities and to provide some answers to the question: What is the history of how people have come to be professors? This study suggests that the transformation of these individuals' identities as academics was the outcome of active participation in various communities of practice throughout their careers. Academics continuously learn to position themselves within the various communities of practice that they choose to participate in. The professors' career stories reveal how they make sense and negotiate their identities as academics through accommodating with the power relations, ideology, cultures and ways embedded within the communities of practice of which they are members. Instead of looking at academics as passive participants, the findings provide evidence of individuals' voluntarism and agency in constructing their academic identities. This study contributes to the continuing discussion on academic socialisation through describing the experiences of academics moving through different stages in their careers. The in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviewing approach offers a fuller appreciation of the challenges and opportunities involved in academic socialisation. Demystifying the career experiences of academics may benefit others in academia in navigating their future career undertakings.

This thesis examines the concept and practice of partnership in the context of post-16 learning. The study explores the process of partnership working through a qualitative case study of a sub-regional partnership that aims to widen participation in post-16 learning through its collaborative activities. The investigation seeks to learn about the basis of partnership and to identify characteristics that contribute to continued and effective partnership working. Drawing on understandings of partnership in policy, theory and in practice, I develop a more detailed conceptualisation of partnership than is currently available in the field of post-16 learning. The history, development and work of the case study partnership were investigated through a combination of methods including observations of partnership meetings, documentary evidence of partnership working and semi-structured interviews with participants in the case study. The interviews with senior managers of institutions and organisations that provide education, training and guidance for post-16 learners in the Black Country, a sub-region of the Midlands in England, focused on the reasons for participation in a partnership and the aspects of partnership working that contribute to sustainability in partnerships. The findings give a rich insight into the practicalities of working in partnership with individuals and organisations and provide a basis for theorising partnership as a heterogeneous concept and practice rather than a homogenous entity. The case study reveals both the potential of partnership and the challenges to partnership working, such as resource and power differentials. It also shows how social capital can provide the basis for sustained partnership and function as a resource that can be used in similar ways to other forms of capital. This insight is used together with characteristics drawn from the partnership literature to theorise partnership as a continuum of weak to strong forms of partnership, which function on the basis of different types and levels of trust, the operation of formal and informal networks and shared norms and values amongst actors.

China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong on I July, 1997. After being a British colony for more than 150 years, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China following the "one country, two systems" policy. This dissertation is concerned with the examination of the market changes in Hong Kong's university distance education in the transition period. Information about respondents' demographics, evaluation and intention to pursue further study through distance education programmes was collected by sending questionnaires to two types of subject: current students using distance education programmes and potential adult students in Hong Kong. A total of five groups were identified as representing the first type of subject: students of the Henley Management College/Brunel University (UK) - MBA programme, the Curtin University of Technology - Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Accounting programme (Australia), and the Open University of Hong Kong - Bachelor of Business Administration and MBA programmes. The second type of subject comprised Hong Kong adults who were interested in studying via distance education programmes. One group of subjects were visitors to the Hong Kong Education Expo 1996, and they were classified as potential students who wished to study in distance education programmes in Hong Kong. All the data were processed using the Statistical Package for Social Science software programme. The research questions were tackled by the resultant data and analysis. The important findings obtained from the subjects are: a) The need for higher-degree-level programmes is very great among Hong Kong's distance learners. The decision to undertake further study to distance Master degree level after completing a distance Bachelor degree aptly demonstrates this situation. Consideration should, therefore, be given to developing distance Master degree programmes for students currently studying distance Bachelor degree programmes, and distance Doctorate degree programmes for students currently studying distance Master degree programmes. The majority of distance students, particularly at the higher-degree-level, tend to be in the higher-income bracket. b) Hong Kong adults who are interested in distance education programmes come from different occupation segments. Their choice of further study varies according to their needs and occupations. Consideration should be given to repositioning the current distance education programmes, particularly at Bachelor's degree or Diploma level. In addition, a segment comprising housewives has been identified as potential students for Bachelor's degree programmes by this study. In the further discussion about Hong Kong during the transition period, Fägerlind and Saha's Dialectical Model is used to examine the development of Hong Kong's higher education system with three important dimensions: political, economic and social forces. Finally, this analysis provides three possible alternatives of development for the integration of Hong Kong's and China's higher education systems in the post-transition period: "One Country, One System", "One Country, Two Systems", and "One Country, Many Systems".

This thesis tests the hypothesis that problem-solving activities caused positive changes in students attitudes towards mathematics. A pilot test, carried out in a problem-solving course at the University of Warwick, tested possible questions that would indicate change of attitudes. The findings indicate that the course affected students attitudes to mathematics in what was considered a positive manner. Using that experience gained through the pilot study, the main study was carried out at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in which data was collected from 44 students who took the course in problem-solving taught by the researcher. A pre-test, post-test and a delayed post-test (six months later) were administered, which included interviews with selected students and staff. To establish what might be considered a positive change, the staff at the Mathematics Department were asked what attitudes they would expect students have as a result of the mathematics teaching at the University, and then specify the attitudes they would prefer students to have. The direction of change between the two responses were considered to be positive, and this is defined as the "desired direction of change". The results show that the problem-solving course affected students attitudes such that the change, identified as the difference between pretest and post-test results, was largely in the desired direction of change. However, when students return to normal mathematics lectures many of the indicators reverted in the opposite direction; away from what the staff preferred.

Evaluation is a term used to denote many different processes in Applied Linguistics and language education, from language proficiency assessment to materials selection to project management. In this study evaluation is taken as programme inquiry for the purposes of accountability and development (Rea-Dickins and Germaine 1992; Weir and Roberts 1994). The context of evaluation is EAP programmes in higher education, where a policy of programme evaluation by teachers provides base data for the institution's quality management system. Evaluation in this sense is a complex process, embedded in and potentially destabilising for the prevailing social order in classrooms, departments, and institutions. To capture this complexity and embeddedness, a qualitative methodology is developed from naturalistic inquiry and ethnography to study two EAP programmes and their evaluations. The classroom observation and interview data are used to explore the operation of the evaluation policy, its consequences in terms of programme improvement and teacher development, its quality assurance functions, and its impact on the programme experience of one particular student. The study shows that in this context the evaluation policy has beneficial and problematic consequences. It looks good, and thus enables a case to be made for rigorous quality management. It provides a space for students to negotiate the programme, and for the teacher, opportunities for reflection and development. However, the policy also risks being seen by teachers as intrusion, compromising teacher autonomy, and aggravating teacher-manager problems. Students provide feedback on teaching and inputs (including the teacher) rather than on learning or opportunities for learning in terms of the values underpinning the programme. The strong students can use the evaluation strategically, to further their own preferences, at the expense of the weaker students who are marginalised. The concluding chapter outlines some ways forward for this approach to evaluation in this context. These include realigning purposes and methods, building on teacher ownership of and responsibility for programmes, linking evaluation in the classroom to other forms of educational inquiry, and managing the programme in its widest sense in an ethical framework.

Most industrial countries have introduced a system of evaluation in the HE sector during the last two decades. Although the experience in each country is different, recent studies show that many countries have faced similar confusion and problems with regard to the application of evaluation. This study examines the validity of the present systems of evaluation for research in the UK and Japan, based on in-depth consideration of the factors behind the emergence of evaluation, political developments, policymakers' views, academic debates and institutional reactions in both nations. As an example of a response to the government's initiative, one case study in each country is undertaken, Warwick University in Britain and Nagoya University in Japan. Each case is analysed at three levels: institutional, departmental and individual. Some elements of the systems are then recontexualised in a comparative perspective, involving the analysis of background factors, development of the systems, details of the mechanisms and their impacts. An improved system of evaluation is suggested for each country. It is argued that evaluation intrinsically is an unseen but extremely powerful instrument. It has the dynamic force to be able to alter the original nature of all of those involved. When it is applied to academic research in the university, therefore, its effects could be immeasurable. Hence, it should be treated with prudent deliberation before implementation. It is pointed out that the current systems of research assessment in the UK and Japan have both produced a number of unintended effects, and both nations have not yet been successful in establishing a system which can judge quality appropriatel y. The study suggests that more serious consideration of the nature of 'evaluation' and its application to research will be required before developing further the present systems adopted in both countries. This should be backed by sufficient research studies on 'evaluation'.

This study is concerned with the leadership of the post-incorporation college of further education. The aim is to determine the leadership attributes and role of the principal/chief executive of the newly incorporated colleges and the influence of the corporation and external factors on this role. The 1992 Further and Higher Education Act gave a statutory duty to the principal to lead staff in the college; what it did not do was define that role. The Act was farreaching in its ramifications for the further education sector as it removed colleges from the management structure of the Local Education Authority and converted them into corporate, charitable organisations with autonomous governing bodies, variously called corporations, corporation members or, board members. These corporations were given responsibility for not only the financial status of the college but also for the selection and support of the principal. The principal in turn becomes the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) to the corporation, an unfamiliar business role as well as the traditional leader of the college. With reference to the literature the historical context of the Act and its impact has been researched and the influence and ideologies for the changes have been identified. The identity, reputation and responsibilities of the further education colleges have all been enhanced in part as a result of the Act and partly as the result of a demanding Further Education Funding Council(FEFC) which are at the interface between the government and the colleges and are the financial masters of the sector. The change models for further education have been led by college principals and their corporations. The leadership literature has also been reviewed to provide the empirical support for the identification of the leadership attributes of principals of colleges. The literature on leadership is very substantial and much of it theoretical, contradictory and lacking in application. Much of it is about non-college leadership but some is considered to be relevant to the leadership required in colleges. The identification of what is required was made up of the results of a survey of the attributes that were considered important for leading a college of further education by the principals themselves. The views of corporations were determined by analysing the application details for principal/chief executive posts. Since incorporation, colleges have had to face up to quite dramatic and considerable change. Within colleges, principals have had a major role to play in the leadership of such change. The factors that influence this leadership have been identified along with their responsibilities as leaders. The corporations' view of leadership is used both as a comparison and as a way of identifying their relationship with the principal. This relationship is considered in the light of new and developmental policies in further education on the election of a Labour Government in 1997.

This thesis aims to investigate the effect of the Government’s Higher Education White Paper 2011 on the provision of vocational undergraduate degree provision within the UK. In particular the provision of quantity surveying education in the English Higher Education sector will be used as an exemplar. The intention of the study is to glean the potential impact and effects on professionally focused education in the 21st Century. There were two prongs to this study, one reflecting the experience of Australian quantity surveying provision to give some hindsight, the other reviewing the on-going debate between professional education and strategic education as raised by Cardinal Newman (1852). There was attention on the changing role of the state and the rise of individualism, in HE provision. Underlying this study was the anticipated role of knowledge in the form of professional knowledge and competencies. The methodology undertaken was pragmatic and employed mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative data collection. Future studies (Ratcliffe 2008) had an influence on the data collection methods and a Delphi technique tool was designed to harvest the data, the use of thematic analysis (Brown and Carasso 2013) enabled the construction of themes. Philosophical lens of Bourdieu’s cultural capital (1973) and Bhaskar’s critical realism (1978) were employed to provide a basis from which to explore the findings of the thesis. The themes which arguably arose were uncertainty, inequality, barriers, quality, marketization, conflict and power. The findings indicated a withdrawal of state from funding professional HE programmes, rise of individualism which acknowledges the cultural capital of professionally accredited courses and a study of power within the community of practice (Wenger 1998) of chartered quantity surveyors. Surprisingly, it is the lack of awareness surrounding the role of knowledge in favour of competencies which may indicate the schism between professional and generalist HE provision.

This study explored how a cohort of undergraduate primary student teachers gathered, understood and interpreted feedback through their personal and professional social networks. It considered the extent to which feedback influenced their ‘reflective practice’: defined here as a ‘threshold concept’ (Meyer and Land, 2003) of Qualified Teacher Status in initial teacher education (DfE, 2011a). While the UK’s National Student Survey (NSS) (HEFCE, 2016) consistently identified ‘feedback’ in higher education as weaker than ‘assessment’, Evans (2013) noted that students’ ‘feedback landscapes’ went beyond their ‘academic learning communities’. Structured upon Blumer’s (1969: 2) three premises of symbolic interactionism, where meaning ‘is derived from social interaction’, this study combined 3-year, longitudinal social network analysis data at cohort [n=115] and ego-levels with seven students’ diary-interview data and related statistics. Cumulative analysis revealed students’ use of trusted, informal networks of peers and family members for emotional and academic feedback. Complex stories of students’ feedback journeys exposed students’ making meaning of tacit ‘tutor-constructed artefacts’ (Orsmond and Merry, 2015) and identified peer feedback networks that aided information flow and social capital growth through communities of practice. Tunnel metaphors illustrated students’ journeys through light, darkness, obstacles and ‘personal epiphanies’ (Denzin, 1989) with collegial explorations and prompt feedback usage facilitating progress. Models identified that production-level and content-level peer feedback, when used with tutor feedback and artefacts, enabled deeper interpretation. Informal feedback networks influenced individuals’ reflective practice which then ‘filtered back’ to benefit other students’ feedback journeys. Through its auto/biographical discussion, the study contributed new knowledge, exposing the existence and use of students’ personal and professional feedback networks. Three inter-related professional practice recommendations to improve feedback were made: firstly, through identifying overt cross-course connections; secondly, through cross-course feedback moderation; thirdly, by empowering students’ engagement with professional and academic reflective practices.