The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in 14 home countries in the MENA region and 13 host countries from 2007 to 2021. Panel-estimated generalized least squares, robust least squares MM estimation, dynamic panel data estimation, and one-step difference generalized method of moments…

Social acceleration, the rapidly increasing speeding up of the pace of life, has been described and theorised by contemporary social theorists including Paul Virilio, Ben Agger, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, and Hartmut Rosa. While these theorists use illustrations from education, and others such as Foucault and Adam have considered the relationship…

This article explores how an integrated concept map of student engagement could improve its use in higher education (HE). In doing so it addresses three problems: (1) there is no consistently accepted understanding of student engagement; (2) no meta-theory integrates engagement's diverse and complex concepts, nor does the literature identify a…

The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is a process by which achievements gained through work or other experiences can be formally recognised and accredited in higher education. It has a role to play in providing accelerated routes for mature students and is particularly relevant to part-time learners. Despite studies showing the potential…

In UNESCO's 2021 report, "Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education," futures emerge as a key orientation for establishing not just improved educational systems but for creating liberatory worlds for everyone. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, social and economic instability, and the climate crisis, the future of…

Courses: This unit activity applies critical theories from the fields of communication, sociology, and gender studies and therefore can be used in any course that discusses gender studies, qualitative research, content analysis, media effects, film analysis, or LGBTQ studies. This can be modified as an activity for graduate or undergraduate…

Activity theory is a relatively young methodology for researching higher education teaching practices. Beyond systemic analyse of workplace activities and their development, activity theory used in its full interventionist capacity can foster practitioners' transformative agency to initiate practice change. Nevertheless, this is not an easy…

This article explores reality TV's value in teaching sociological concepts and theories for a better understanding contemporary society. Reality TV serves as a rich canvas for illustrating key tenets of major sociological theories such as structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. By analyzing reality TV through a…

Foucauldian critical studies are cornucopian in illustrating how policy as discourse normalizes and yields human beings into made subjects in modern societies. However, Foucault's own slide from the 'terminal stage of discourse' pays little attention to the linguistic elements, and thus weakens the theory's potency in explaining the reality.…

Reference to Knowledge Exchange (KE) in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has become common place, reflecting the continued changing role of universities within society. Arguably, KE draws together notions of HEIs as purveyors of knowledge, with students helping to create a tripartite relationship with HEIs and the wider community as well as…

Key to a new contract for education is understanding that knowledge is not scarce, it is not a commodity, and it does not belong in a market economy. Instead, knowledge exchange is gift exchange, and education, when not thwarted or constricted, demonstrates its abundance. The abundance of knowledge operates in ways similar to the abundance of…

This critical autoethnography interprets my internal migration experience in China. Using Bourdieu's capital, field and habitus toolkit, I investigated my cultural capital transformation and habitus formulation when being educated in secondary schools and universities after internal migration to the city. Taking my lived experience as an example,…

The United Kingdom's (UK) goal of a 20% increase in participation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups in higher education (HE) by 2020 has not been met. Pakistani and Bangladeshi students are some of the most underrepresented BAME groups in UK HE institutions. This systematic review included 20 papers that identified barriers and…