This doctoral study explores the learning that occurs in higher education institutions within differing social and informal contexts, and how this learning can contribute to shifting thinking and actions (within the institution) towards sustainability. The research refers to this learning as ‘social learning’ and acknowledges its potential to influence the sustainability performance of a higher education institution. The study proposes indicators as a key research outcome to assist institutions in improving their contribution to social learning for sustainability. The study is unique in that social learning for sustainability in the higher education sector has been subject to little scrutiny. The originality of the research is underpinned by its focus on staff learning in higher education, but also by the research methodology used which has not been employed in this context or with this focus before. The empirical study was undertaken between 2008 and 2011 at three higher education institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) which were chosen for their explicit commitment to improving the university’s sustainability performance. The pilot study was conducted at the University of Gloucestershire and the main findings were derived at the Universities of Bradford and Bristol. Located within a critical social theory paradigm, the study used innovative research methods such as collective memory-work to capture staff experiences of social learning for sustainability. In each university, the research involved a group of members of staff in (i) writing and critically reflecting on their stories of social learning for sustainability within their institutions; and (ii) identifying contextual factors influencing this learning process. The data generated was triangulated with information captured through institutional documentary reviews, semi-structured interviews with members of staff and a research journal. The research demonstrates that social learning for sustainability in higher education tends to occur as both a facilitated and unfacilitated process. The first includes staff participating in extra-curricular activities, partnerships and networks, multi-stakeholder dialogues, mentoring, or action and participatory research. The latter tends to occur as a spontaneous face-to-face process or through online social networks. There is evidence that social learning processes which are non-hierarchical, involving learning from each other and occurring within comfort zones, are more effective in shifting the thinking and actions of staff in the area of sustainability. The study identifies physical space and academic cultures as key determinants of the frequency and quality of these processes. It also suggests that opportunities in this area need to be provided to all the different sub-cultures which exist in a higher education institution. Finally, whereas the research identifies how institutional culture influences social learning for sustainability, it concludes that a longitudinal study is needed to establish whether this learning process can shape the culture of a higher education institution.

The aim of this thesis was to identify factors at the commencement of university study that may enable prediction of both estimate of gains and experience of stresses. This was done in order to provide information that may enable early identification of risk factors in respect to student attrition. To this end, the thesis examined individual differences amongst students that relate to perception of both estimated gains and stress early in the university experience. Initially, the individual differences studied were those relating to student demographics of age, gender, whether the student performed additional part-time work and the number of hours of work performed and the influence of finances. This first round of testing was performed by distributing questionnaires examining the aforementioned via student welcome packs at commencement of university study. The results of this first round of testing suggested particular importance of intrinsic values on estimated gains. In addition to some influence of finances, gender and hours of work. From open questions present in this first round of testing, focus group questions were formulated in order to further develop the questionnaire. From the findings of study two, this was then expanded to include the influence of perceived demands, control and support and locus of control on estimated gains and subjective perceived stress. This was again performed by distributing a questionnaire at inception, albeit personally to help response rate and answer any queries. This third round of testing, as implied by the focus group responses, found an additional influence of locus of control and the perception of demands, control and support on estimated gains and stress. Finally, the fourth round of testing included biological indicators of stress, namely salivary cortisol levels through the use of analysis of levels of salivary cortisol, collected using a salivette. This final study suggested a difference in the effects of perceived demands, control and support on both perceived and biological responses to stress The study in all found that there is a definite prediction of estimate of gains from the university environment by the work values studied. Although it was found that gains were primarily influenced by intrinsic values (achievement, advancement, autonomy, personal development), an influence of extrinsic values (economics, prestige, social interaction) was also evident. In addition to work values, demographics of gender, age and hours of work were also found to influence differences in estimated gains and stress. None of the values studied were found to predict perceived stress, however the distinction between perceived and objective biological measures of stress was highlighted. In particular, with regard to the perception of demands, control and support from the university environment. The results of the study also suggested that the extent to which students perceive demands, control and support from the university environment may also have an impact on the student experience of stress, particularly biological stress, which can result in potential harm to physical well-being.

This PhD thesis is structured in two phases. The first phase looks to an enhancement of the current operations in the development of quality through creating a systematisation of quality of higher education in the world. The second phase theorises this systematisation using systems analysis and design methodology based on seven levels of analysis: individual; programme; department/faculty; institutional; national; regional; and the world level. This analytical approach generates theories about systems and applications. The investigation reaches the conclusion that establishing a United Nations Organisation for Systematisation of Quality would constitute a final stage in the systematisation process of international quality and accreditation of higher education in the world. However, the proposed organisation would not be a substitute organisation for national and/or regional agencies and networks of quality but would complement them by creating systematic understanding of quality in the world. The thesis offers a practical contribution to the international improvement of higher education institutions across the globe.

Plagiarism is a worldwide problem that is widely recognised in developed countries. There is increasing plagiarism awareness in developing countries such as Nigeria. Problems can arise when students with a low level awareness of plagiarism move from developing to developed countries for further studies. Given their previous academic background which differs from that of the western education system, some students contend with issues of plagiarism for most of the period of their study overseas. This thesis identifies a need to explore issues related to the Nigerian university system including Nigerian students studying in Nigerian universities and those travelling overseas for further studies. This investigation into student textual plagiarism was aimed at exploring the awareness, perception and attitude of Nigerian students to plagiarism. Furthermore, the research aimed to determine the types and causes of student plagiarism and Nigerian universities’ responses, policies, guidelines and prevention mechanisms. The thesis proposes a conceptual model for managing the occurrence of student plagiarism that can be consistently used across the Nigerian universities as an approach to the deterrence of plagiarism amongst students. A mixed methodology was adopted to harness the advantages of both qualitative and quantitative methods with a greater leaning on the qualitative data collected using a phenomenographic approach. Findings from this research confirmed the perceived occurrence of student plagiarism in Nigerian universities studied, showing that a significant proportion of students were unaware of the concept, and where they claimed awareness and understanding, their understanding was partial. This research revealed that the major causes of the perceived occurrence of Nigerian students’ textual plagiarism were associated with the students, staff, universities and the society. The thesis discusses these findings in the context of existing literature. Findings related to the students revealed issues in relation to the lack of: awareness, study skills, mastery of requisite academic writing skills, previous experience with virtual learning environments, mastery of information and communication technology skills. Findings also identified inadequate perception of the concept and inability to acquire and effectively transfer the skills from the learning outcomes of the ‘technical writing’ course offered in their first or second year to other courses offered. Issues identified in relation to the lecturers were: perception and disposition towards teaching the requisite skills, the degree of emphasis they placed on the concept, poor monitoring of the students’ use of the skills acquired and the type of roles they modelled. Regarding the institutions, issues identified were related to the academic learning environment. This was with respect to the: academic climate and culture, infrastructure, pedagogy, perception of the institutions’ views about the importance of plagiarism and institutional policies, procedures and guidelines on dealing with student plagiarism. On the part of the government, there were issues regarding inadequate financial commitment to the education sector. The proposed conceptual model for managing the occurrence of student plagiarism is designed around the findings of this research. Findings from the research impacted on the Nigerian universities in several ways, particularly in the area of raising student plagiarism awareness and highlighting the need for upholding academic integrity which has contributed to the recent adoption of Turnitin as a standard tool for checking text matching in 115 Nigerian universities.

This qualitative research on task motivation is based on a four-month fieldwork in a university context in China, with myself performing dual roles as a teacher researcher working closely with two classes of final-year English majors (about 120 students in total). Positioning this research in an authentic classroom setting aims to explore task-intrinsic features perceived to be motivating (`motivating tasks'). and learner-intrinsic motivational processes during task engagement ('task motivation') in this particular context. Throughout the process, my research perspectives experienced an interesting movement: macro - micro - macro. I began my research with a broad interest in the motivation area, and increasingly narrowed my focus on `task motivation' which corresponds to the recently advocated `situation-specific' approach to motivation research. However, my following involvement in the teaching/data-gathering fieldwork pushed me to bring back the macro perspective into my research, as I found that the complex concept of task motivation could not be fully understood without taking the broader motivational influences into consideration. That is, apart from investigating how the immediate task situation influences learners, it is also very important to understand how the wider institutional, social, educational, and cultural factors influence learners' various motivational perspectives in the classroom, which may in turn shape their specific task-engagement motivation. Based on content analysis of qualitative data including written task feedback, personal letters, and group interviews, it was found that in this context there are three underlying dimensions of task motivation, that is, academic motivation, personal development motivation, and affective motivation. The study also explored what aspects of task design could effectively motivate students and why. In general, this research contributes to our understanding of Chinese university students' task motivation. It implies that adapted tasks can be appropriately integrated into the traditional English class in China and perhaps in other similar EFL contexts, and can certainly facilitate the teaching of the prescribed textbooks. It also implies that the researcher's personal involvement in the authentic teaching context is a very valuable point for both motivation research and task-oriented research.

This research examines English language and literature essays written by First Year students of the English Department at Dhaka University (Bangladesh) using multi-method genre analysis. The first method used was text analysis. Essay topics were analysed from the two contexts to identify their topic fields and main rhetorical functions. This helped develop the two models to analyse the structure of essays: an Exposition-Discussion model and a Description-Recount model. Then, a total of 100 essays from the two contexts were analysed on the basis of Move-strategy structure to see what structural patterns the essays possessed, what tactical choices the students took to express the moves and what was presented in terms of content matter within those moves. The second method was a questionnaire that was distributed to students in the department to discover their perceptions of the writing tasks given. And the third method was interviews conducted with teachers and students of the department to find out about their perceptions of student writing. This, then, is a genre-based study which draws both on written data and on interaction with community members. The multi-method approach to genre analysis revealed that students of the English Department write three different kinds of essays, Description-Recount language essays, Exposition-Discussion language essays and Exposition-Discussion literature essays. The study further revealed that although students wrote these different kinds of essays, they were unable to make connections between their language essay writing tasks and literature ones because of the disciplinary variations. Moreover, the literature essays were found to be much more challenging to write than the language ones. In the light of this, the need for a fourth type of essay writing is identified. This research contributes to the fields of applied linguistics and education in several ways. Firstly, the models developed not only give insights into the generic structure of the essays students write in the English Department at Dhaka University, but they could also function as a starting point for other researchers working with similar texts. Secondly, the analyses of the high and low grade essays explain how some features of writing are more highly valued than others in this context. Thirdly, the study has pedagogical implications that can benefit students and teachers who would use genre based approach to teaching language and literature essay writing. Fourthly, this research demonstrates a multi-method approach to genre analysis which brings out complementary and sometimes contradictory perspectives on the same written products. Fifthly, it can help university planners and policy makers to consider the relationship between main discipline courses and support courses and minimise any gaps. Finally, it can raise awareness among the global applied linguistics community about the kind of student writing produced in contexts such as the English Department of Dhaka University.

This study reviews a series of theoretical models and educational experiences, in order to examine how some of the claims made in the existing literature regarding the role of IT - mainly computer technologies - in writing instruction play out in the case of Italian as a Foreign Language (IFL). With this purpose in mind, this study examines a specific context - three IFL modules taught at the University of Warwick - and uses relevant teaching and learning experiences as a case-study and data sample. By using qualitative analysis supported by some quantitative methodologies, this study triangulates data from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, focus-groups, field notes, classroom observation rubrics, as well as classroom artefacts, including online resources and educational software used over the course of the academic years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. The data collected is filtered through a tripartite framework - learning/instructional environment, IFL tutors, and IFL students - designed to address the need expressed in the literature for analysis of multiple dimensions in complex interactions (Abbott, 1997; Athanases and Heath, 1995; Ramanathan and Atkinson, 1999; Snyder, 1997). The salient themes which emerge from the study are the critical roles of IFL tutors' and IFL students' expectations as well as the framework of values underlying these, along with particular features of information technologies themselves, in shaping participants' experiences and practices with respect to IT and writing, sometimes in unanticipated ways. Finally, the study considers the ways in which the results of the present research support, contradict, or expand existing literature, especially in relation to a number of specific factors, such as: the type of IT used in writing instruction; the physical configurations of IT-enhanced classrooms; and students' as well as tutors' approaches to learning and teaching IFL writing with and without technology. While the present work, like many other studies in the field of SLA and L2 writing, does not provide complete answer to the complex questions of language learning, it highlights the importance of both the instructional environment as well as the participants' framework of values. Only then, IT will be able to potentially enhance language instruction and become an integral component of learning. This research raises new questions, providing the basis for further research in the area of SLA theory and pedagogy.

The main goal of this study was to improve the contribution of higher education to sustainable development in Vietnam, specifically in the area of engineering education. The study mapped the current scenario of sustainable development and engineering in higher education in Vietnam as well as investigated how a cultural perspective may influence change strategies in higher education for sustainable development. This study addressed the need for empirical research on the education for sustainable development experience in Vietnam. It argued for and contributed to an emerging international dialogue about how to accelerate progress towards engineering curriculum transformation for sustainable development in different cultural contexts. Located in the interpretivist tradition, the study utilised a wide range of qualitative research techniques to collect and validate data including open-ended questionnaires, interviews, group discussions, participant observation and documentary review. Empirical data was generated between May 2010 and August 2012 in both Vietnam and the UK through three research stages. The first stage was informed by a qualitative survey which captured baseline data collected through a large group of stakeholders from different sectors and various levels of governance. The study mapped the current responses to sustainable development in Vietnam, and confirmed the need and expectation for change in Vietnamese engineering education towards sustainable development. Case study research was carried out at three Vietnamese engineering universities during stage two. The focus was on understanding the current processes and opportunities for curriculum change for sustainable development, as well as investigating how the specific contextual and cultural factors might influence the desired change. The study found evidence of issues which hampered the current efforts in education for sustainable development in the engineering universities in Vietnam. The analysis also provided insights into the Vietnamese values, attitudes and expectancies, and behavioural preferences which contributed to explaining why these issues existed.

<p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore student engagement in higher education by evaluating training provided by experienced faculty members for those faculty desiring to implement a flipped classroom. A case study was utilized; data were collected in the form of online observation, in-class observation, student focus group interviews, faculty individual interviews, and artifacts. The researcher used the utilization-focused evaluation (Patton, 2008) as an implementation evaluation framework for the study. Data were analyzed using deductive analysis that depended on five implementation evaluation elements as general components (effort, monitoring, process, component, and treatment specification). The participants in this study included three trained faculty members from three different disciplines (anthropology, sociology, and business) and 14 students from these three faculty participants&rsquo; classes. The findings indicated faculty experiences of successful implementation of a flipped classroom were related to whether these faculty members fully provided the main flipped classroom elements for the lesson or only tested a partial implementation. Faculty and student perceptions of student engagement were positive and supportive of the idea that the flipped classroom enhanced student engagement. Students who experienced all the elements of the flipped classroom in the lesson extended their engagement from just inclass activities to embedded online activities. The findings also provided valuable recommendations from faculty and student participants related to improving student engagement in the flipped classroom. The study presented limitations of the study and recommendations for future research. Generally, this qualitative study with all the resources used to collect the data reflected successful practices and components of flipped classroom examples that could benefit educators in terms of enhanced student engagement.</p>

<p> The time has come for community colleges to realize the potential of alumni private funding gifts. While some community colleges have developed alumni associations with success as a source for private fundraising, there are many that have not been successful. Today leaders are still perplexed as to the strategies and factors that contribute to the success of alumni fundraising in the community college environment. Alumni associations can be a funding source and alumni can be advocates, volunteers, and recruiting ambassadors for the colleges. Many community colleges do not know how to engage former students as alumni or begin the process of grooming current students for their role as alumni. Community colleges must begin to realize how its alumni can be a source to address the needs of the college. </p><p> The purpose of this study is to analyze the literature to determine the most effective strategies to create successful alumni associations. Evidence based research was be used to analyze how community colleges can identify and engage former students as alumni, what the role of the community college president and chief development officer is in establishing successful community college alumni associations, and what factors are important in developing successful alumni programs to realize the potential of private fundraising gifts. Invest, communicate, engage, and then make the ask! This study will contribute to the community college literature and provide community college leadership with the strategies and factors for success in creating alumni associations to assist with the needs for additional funding sources and to utilize alumni as advocates, volunteers, and recruiting ambassadors for the colleges</p>