Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the way "moderation" is defined and operationalised at UK universities. It is hoped that this investigation provides pointers for modifications in university documentation and practices, as well as indicates possible areas for future research. Design/methodology/approach: This paper begins…

Over recent years, the professional development review process has risen in importance in universities with such exercises being shown to have a positive effect on student learning, staff motivation, recruitment and retention. However, they may also be perceived as a controlling mechanism and part of a culture of 'performativity', which implies a…

The global pandemic prompted universities to rethink how assessment might be reconfigured to better support student learning across different modes of delivery resulting in unprecedented, large-scale, and rapid institutional change. Significantly, there has been a dearth of empirical studies examining the nuances of staff experiences of how they…

Reviewing institutional governance arrangements through a European lens has the benefit of broadening the argument away from differences between pre-1992 and post-1992 constitutions or between research-intensive and teaching-led university perspectives. In the last two decades in Europe is a massive increase in student numbers and institutional…

This article discusses the intensification of research performance demands in UK universities in relation to the complex terrain of academic identity formation. It considers whether a demand for academic researchers to produce and evidence economic and societal impact -- in the rewards game of the UK's performance-based research funding system,…

The UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) introduced impact as an indicator in the evaluation of higher education research quality in 2014. Impact case studies (ICS) are the basis of this evaluation. ICS use "narrative" explanations of how research causes 'benefits to society'. This article analyses the evolving roles of the ICS and the…

The current demands on higher education institutions (HEIs) to become more efficient and effective have led to increasing performance pressures on researchers, and consequently on the practices and outcomes of researcher collaborations. In this paper, based on a qualitative study of collaborative experiences of management and organisation studies…

Some see research as an esoteric, other-worldly, practice only to be completed by those unable to do anything 'real'. Others--including some academics working in universities--see it as 'just another thing to do', a burden on already overworked staff, used as an excuse to set even more performance goals. Within initial teacher education, the…

Performance-based funding (PBF) for public colleges and universities is increasingly prevalent worldwide, as a part of a broader pattern of marketisation in public education. This study focused on developing an empirical view of how, and in what contexts, policy makers use the concepts of neoliberal economics to design and support PerformanceBased…

Drawing on Foucault's elaboration of neoliberalism as a positive form of state power, the ascendancy of neoliberalism in higher education in Britain is examined in terms of the displacement of public good models of governance, and their replacement with individualised incentives and performance targets, heralding new and more stringent conceptions…

Universities have a special status in society because of the position they hold within their communities and their responsibilities for civic leadership. Consequently, there are increasing calls on universities to make their processes, teaching and finances more transparent to the general public in order to promote greater accountability. Guidance…

Today's universities are, accordingly to Clark's entrepreneurial model, sustained by managerialism, whereas collegialism may remain in contrast or work in a different way. More recent literature suggests the clash such as the potential for coexistence between managerialism and collegialism. The study analyses data from a survey of 26 universities…

A review of the literature on corporate universities finds that the peak for research and publishing on the topic occurred between 1998 and 2002 and fell away considerably after 2005. Given the apparent lack of research during the past decade, the purpose of this paper is to present an insight into what has been happening to corporate…

This article seeks to compare the characteristics of the academic profession as described historically by Perkin in 1969 against the definitions of a profession derived from the published views of sociologists and others. It then measures the position of the academic community today against these definitions: a common range of professional tasks…

Managing by performance indicators (PIs) is an important and controversial issue for many stakeholders concerned with higher education in the university systems all over the world. This study analyzes the voluntary disclosures of PIs by Canadian universities. The sample consisted of the 44 universities used by Maclean's Canadian Universities…