Many studies have been conducted about academics' approaches to teaching, professional development and perceived departmental culture, but their interconnectedness has been considered to a lesser extent. The research presented here examined these patterns comparatively by disciplinary fields and years of teaching experience. Three inventories were…

Universities of applied sciences in Finland are higher education institutions with emphasis on practical working life skills and strong links with working life. Students typically study in field-specific groups where they receive language and communication instruction alongside their professional courses. The development of language and…

Management is one of the most studied phenomena in higher education. Most of these studies are conducted in the framework of higher education policy, academic work and quality of education and research. The management is often seen as an independent variable explaining the changes in higher education in the context of New Public Management and…

Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers' experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland's multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal…

The boundary work approach has been established as one of the main ways to study controversies in science. However, it has been proposed that it does not meet the power dynamics of the scientific field sufficiently. This article concentrates on the intertwining of boundary work and power. It combines the boundary work approach developed by Thomas…

In Europe, national quality assurance systems of higher education have begun to be established. In Finland, this development has had the consequence of forcing universities to take notice of assessment procedures. However, little is known about the procedures taking place in individual academic departments as a result of this pan-European trend.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out which factors contribute to the decisions of the students when they choose their place of study among the six psychology departments of the Universities in Finland. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved a survey questionnaire. Responses were received from 1,668 people. Findings: It was…

The study styles employed by a sample of Finnish university students were investigated. In the first study phase, 238 students described general study styles/approaches, using a questionnaire developed by Entwistle, which included 30 Likert-type items from the following dimensions: achievement orientation, reproducing orientation, meaning…