Threshold concepts
Pete Scales
Imagine you are a student in a metaphorical ‘room’ of learning. For example, students might have developed a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the history of World War One but feel…
Interdisciplinarity
Pete Scales
Disciplines – a colour metaphor Here’s an experiment – download a copy of the colour spectrum. The first thing you notice is that it’s a continuum. Blue shades gradually and…
Negotiation as a Core Skill for Universities
Carol Carey
Negotiation is now seen as a core competency in business, and is just as important in the running of the modern university. A key part of university mangers’ business is…
How to ensure wellness in the academe: teaching and learning
Lauren Clark
The word “wellness” appears at first sight to be a neologism synonymous with “wellbeing”, an antonym of “illness”, created in continental Europe and, according to some, overused ever since. In…
Education and ‘the artist’
Pete Scales
Herbert Read (1893–1968) proposed that the aim of education should be conceived as ‘the preparation of artists’ 1. He does not mean that all students should be trained and educated…
What’s Going on with Fees?
Carol Carey
This article discusses the possible changes to the fees landscape as a result of the government-commissioned review of post-18 education currently being conducted by Philip Augar, details of which were…
What’s A Degree Worth? Latest Data on Graduate Earnings
Carol Carey
In December, the Institute for Fiscal Studies released their study ‘Absolute Returns’, in which they analysed data relating to graduate and non-graduate earnings aged 29. The research used data from…
Integrating the Arts and Business
Carol Carey
Universities are increasingly looking to increase their connections with business, as a way of accounting for funding shortfalls, and their success in this regard may be measured by the fact…
Managing the Dispersed University
Carol Carey
Gone are the days when a university was a small physical entity located in one place with a clearly demarcated community of students and alumni. Universities today are complex and…
Building Systemic Resilience into Your University
Carol Carey
Universities are complex organisations that bring together extremely large constituencies – staff, students, visitors, local communities, businesses, service contractors, and stakeholders of a wide range – all with very different…
How can universities adapt to cope with the current political climate?
Mark Crowley
2016 was, for various reasons, considered to be a year of political shocks. While the consequences, both positive and negative, are ongoing, the key to the development and survival of…
Making research sustainable
Mark Crowley
With the growing marketisation of academia, the concept of ‘value added’ is now becoming synonymous with academic research. In other words, what is the wider value to society of your…
UKRI’s Strategic Priorities: A Quick Guide
Carol Carey
In May 2018 the newly formed funding ‘supra-body’ UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) launched its Strategic Prospectus. As of January this year, all seven research councils now come under the…
Do British universities need to change in order to survive?
Mark Crowley
Britain’s universities are facing an increasing number of challenges. It now means that the need to contemplate changes and diversification are possibly more necessary than ever. The discussions surrounding the…
A demand and need for new technologies
Mark Crowley
When I started as an undergraduate student in 2001, email communication was still a relatively new thing. Many lecturers still used the old style overhead projectors to provide their lecture…
How to Increase Your Chances of Being Headhunted
Suzi Warren
With headhunting commonly used by organisations recruiting for senior positions, if you are hoping to be approached regarding a new opportunity there are a few simple steps you can take…
Operating in a global market
Mark Crowley
The changing nature of higher education across the developed world now means that universities are increasingly operating in a global market. This aspect covers many areas, including the collaboration between…
Regional Identity and the Modern University
Carol Carey
Globalism and internationalism are key terms by which UK universities describe their achievements today. League tables and other assessment measures reinforce these values: for instance, the Research Assessment Framework places…
Branch Campuses, UK Universities, and Transnational Education
Carol Carey
Universities are one of the key drivers of the UK’s international engagement. In 2015-2016 some 20% of students studying in the UK were from abroad (including a remarkable 46% of…
SAFERjobs
Sammy Shames
SearchHigher takes active steps in helping to maintain the privacy and protection of our jobseekers from fraudsters when posting or responding to job adverts online. SearchHigher shares the information learned…
REF2021 – What’s on the Agenda?
Carol Carey
In August and September 2017 HEFCE published two important documents concerning the REF2021: a report entitled ‘Initial Decisions on the Research Excellence Framework 2021’, and a circular letter to Vice-Chancellors…
Current Issues in Postgraduate Provision
Carol Carey
Postgraduate provision can sometimes feel like the Cinderella of HE, a policy afterthought, drowned out by discussions of the TEF and REF, and excluded from the NSS and LEO (Longitudinal…
The new Trade Union Act and the university
Carol Carey
In March 2017 the Trade Union Act was passed into law. This Act marks a significant shift in the legal framework of industrial relations nationally. The Act puts in place a double hurdle requirement for industrial action, meaning that at least 50% turnout of eligible voters must be achieved, in addition to a majority vote among those who took part. How might the new legislation affect industrial action in universities? What challenges does this legislation present to management as well as union leaders?
A Look Forward at the Office for Students
Carol Carey
As of January 2018, The Office for Students (OfS) will be the new regulator for the Higher Education sector in England. As such it will be accountable to the Secretary of State for its governance and management of public funding. The establishment of OfS and UKRI are major changes in the landscape of higher education in England.
Schools, Universities, and the Social Mobility Agenda
Carol Carey
While the government’s preference for academy and grammar schools has been widely reported, there has been relatively little discussion in the mainstream press of the ways in which this is part of a social mobility agenda that will also affect universities in a key area – their fees income.
The role of executive search firms in increasing diversity in HE
Simonetta Manfredi
It is common practice for Higher Education Institutions to use the services of Executive Search Firms (ESF) when seeking to fulfil vacancies for senior roles. However, little is known about the interaction of these companies with their HE clients and to what extent ESF can help them to achieve greater diversity in these roles. An exploratory study commissioned by Leadership Foundation for Higher Education has tried to address this gap and some of the key findings from this research are reported in this post.
Brexit and the Humanities
Carol Carey
While it remains unclear what Brexit will do ‘for’ (or to) the humanities, Brexit provides a powerful opportunity for the humanities to re-assert the benefits of the mutually enriching study of and engagement with others as we move forward.
Strategic Outsourcing and the Modern University
Carol Carey
Carol Carey discusses the pros and cons of using external organisations in three key areas: for recruitment, for REF consultancies, and for external examiner roles.
SearchHigher at AUA Conference 2017
Martin Ward
SearchHigher Director Mark Holleran was delighted to attend and speak at the Association of University Administrators (AUA) conference 2017.
SearchHigher Director Mark Holleran speaks at HE Recruitment 2017
Martin Ward
SearchHigher Director Mark Holleran was delighted to be invited to speak at the first HE Recruitment 2017 conference on the 28th March and it was a huge success – here are some of the key things that we took away from the speaker sessions.
Managing Productive Cross-Sector Interactions
Carol Carey
Universities now look to interact across the private, public and non-profit sectors, working to build sustainable, reciprocal and widely beneficial partnerships in industry, technology, government, public policy, intelligence, NGOs, and many others. What are the implications of this turn outwards from the point of view of structure and governance?
How do you judge whether someone is a good teacher?
Mark Crowley
With the rising importance of research as the measurement of a department’s capability and the criteria that create an environment in which research counts heavily towards the allocation of external funding, it is easy to see how teaching has sometimes been regarded in a separate category. In his latest post, Dr. Mark J. Crowley argues why the reality is that research and teaching are mutually exclusive.
The Future of the REF
Mark Crowley
In our latest piece on the Research Excellence Framework, Dr Mark Crowley (Associate Professor of History at Wuhan University) discusses why many feel the REF necessary but also the many concerns that surround it.
The University Imprimatur and Open Access
Carol Carey
Carol Carey considers the old publishing models of universities, and how the idea of the University Imprimatur could help promote Open Access
Brexit’s Potential Impact on the Science and Research Budget
Mark Crowley
With many staff applying for, or in receipt of, European funding for their research, the question after Britain’s referendum on EU membership was simply “what happens now?" Mark Crowley identifies three issues the profession and the government will need to consider over the coming years.
Soft Skills as New Management Tools
Carol Carey
What are the benefits of new approaches to management (in particular, counselling, coaching, mentoring, for enabling supportive relationships and responsiveness to change across large institutions?
5 Pressing Issues for Senior Managers
Carol Carey
Academics at senior level face an increasingly complex set of circumstances but there are a number of domestic government and policy issues that senior managers can anticipate and respond to proactively.