This article analyzes the People's Republic of China's elite-making higher education policies that began in the early 1990s, notably with the 211 Project and then 985 Project, which led to the formation of the C9 League, a group of nine leading institution's dubbed China's "Ivy League." This elite grouping is compared with other Chinese…

Journal rankings are increasingly being used as proxies for assessing the quality and worth of individual faculty and their contribution to institutional performance. Problematic within this agenda is the historical mapping and projection of current journal rankings. Individual papers are being assessed against criteria far…

In 2015, the Australian Government's Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment of research quality declined to rate 1.5 per cent of submissions from universities. The public debate focused on practices of gaming or "coding errors" within university submissions as the reason for this outcome. The issue was about the…

This research tests whether Holderness Jr., D. K., Myers, N., Summers, S. L., & Wood, D. A. [(2014). "Accounting education research: Ranking institutions and individual scholars." "Issues in Accounting Education," 29(1), 87-115] accounting-education rankings are sensitive to a change in the set of journals used. It provides…

The focus of recent Australian political and media reports on the selection of candidates for initial teacher education programs has focused on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) score as one of the key indicators of worth. This narrative study conducted in an Australian regional university focuses on the life stories of twelve…

Peer assisted learning (PAL) is one method of teaching which involves peers, or people from similar social groups, in reciprocal learning where one peer educates another and in return learns through the teaching experience. There have been many reported benefits of PAL programs. PAL has a long history of use in healthcare education; however, for…

This paper examines the achievement levels of students undertaking the Tertiary Enabling Program (TEP) at La Trobe University. The TEP is an alternative pathway program that traverses multiple institutions, campuses, and disciplinary areas, and is designed to prepare a diverse student cohort for tertiary study. The Program integrates several…

As the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region becomes increasingly intertwined in the global economy, investment continues to be made in the educational sector. Multidimensional approaches to higher education have greatly influenced the state of business and government in the region. The "Handbook of Research on Higher Education in the…

Journal ranking systems are becoming more commonplace and receiving increased attention from academics and their senior managers. The study reported below was designed to examine the relationship between particular background factors (e.g., gender and qualifications) of academics and the rankings of what they perceived as their most significant…

The current main world university rankings broadly group the leading research universities of nations. Australia's Go8 universities are generally within the top 250 ranked universities, with several institutions in the top 50-100 on some measures. This recognition is commendable, however imperfect the individual rankings may be. Use is made of…

It has often been suggested that actual or anticipated final grades may influence the ratings given by students in student experience surveys but few studies have been able to test this using actual grades. A study was carried out involving six courses over all four year levels of an undergraduate engineering programme, where students were asked…

The importance of constructively aligned curriculum is well understood in higher education. Based on the principles of constructive alignment, this research considers whether student perception of learning achievement measures can be used to gain insights into how course activities and pedagogy are assisting or hindering students in accomplishing…

This is a mixed methods investigation of consistency in PhD examination. At its core is the quantification of the content and conceptual analysis of examiner reports for 804 Australian theses. First, the level of consistency between what examiners say in their reports and the recommendation they provide for a thesis is explored, followed by an…

Many studies of immigrant students in education focus on a single point in time. As a result, explanations of the performance of immigrant and minority students tend to be static, emphasising enduring socioeconomic, school or cultural factors. This article examines the dynamics of the differences in educational outcomes between immigrant and…