There is a dissonance between the formal role of head of academic department represented in institutional discourses and the reality of heads' working practices. This paper provides insight, from the perspective of heads, about how the role is experienced and enacted in one institution. Data are derived from 20 semi-structured interviews with…

A university's mission and vision statements guide its strategic planning process. This ensures that the institutional goals are met, and the institution's identity and purpose are fostered and preserved. However, the challenge lies in translating these broad, often aspirational, statements into actionable and measurable objectives at the…

The purpose of this article is to explore how social forces related to the corporatization of universities play out at the granular level of institutional mission and vision statements in the racialized context of Canadian Kinesiology. The stated aims of Canadian Kinesiology academic units (N = 36) were collected from their public-facing websites,…

This book focuses on the status and work of full-time non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF) whose ranks are increasing as tenure track faculty (TTF) make up a smaller percentage of the professoriate. NTTF experience highly uneven and conditional access to collegiality, are often excluded from decision-making spaces, and receive limited respect from…

Universities are classically understood as segmented organizations. In the USA, ties between the university and law and medical schools may be particularly loose because these units have powerful ties to communities of practice and are linked to particular resource streams. Because of these ties to different social fields, medical and law schools…

Ethics education is an important goal in higher education overall. It is not clear how well psychology programs are meeting this goal. The American Psychology Association's "Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major" (APA 2013) were created to support high-quality education in psychology. The Guidelines focus on five goals…

Though understudied, academic structure reflects and shapes the central work--education, research, service--of higher education organizations (HEOs). Academic structure also shapes and illuminates the external environments and internal dynamics of HEOs. Despite the centrality of academic structure to HEOs and their work, our knowledge of it is…

This study analyzed the transformation of a departmental culture through a process of implementing a new mission statement. The revised departmental mission promoted positive practices and rituals that transformed faculty relationships and student learning. These positive and ethical practices were derived from social constructionist principles,…

This study examined the opinion of higher education information technology professionals on organizational mindfulness and mindful organizing in aligning their department's organizational goals with the broader college/university institutional mission. It used the Delphi methodology to question experts in the higher education information…

Start-up ecosystems are emerging rapidly worldwide. The speed of technology innovation and the diversity of business ideas keep the start-up landscape in constant flux. While many emerging start-ups are in the areas of electronics and information sciences, the field of mechanical engineering has huge potential that has yet to be exploited. Today's…

The research funding patterns at ten doctorate-granting universities across the country were investigated. These universities were classified by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education as R2: Higher Research Activity institutions. Findings pointed to patterns in funding and research growth and the relationship between research administrators…

The XXVth Anniversary of CercleS brings back memories not only of the CercleS Association and its development, but also of the role of Language Centres in European universities. This article presents the Centre of Languages and Communication (CLC) at Poznan University of Technology (PUT) in Poland. It focuses on the main challenges the CLC has…

This paper explores what some have described as a 'crisis in meaning' in religious education (RE). One region, Northern Ireland, is chosen as a focus for exploring the question of meaning-making as it provides an example of 'agreed ambiguity' -- where a common syllabus for RE is believed to be ascribed different meanings by different schools. The…

"Transformational Learning in Community Colleges" details the profound social and emotional change that nontraditional and historically underserved students undergo when they enter community college. Drawing on case study material and student observations, the book outlines the systematic supports that two-year institutions must put in…

The evolving landscape of higher education has forced many institutions to reorganize, remove administrative layers, and subsequently, reexamine criteria and processes. In particular, efforts to consolidate and combine departments has prompted a need to explore options for a systematic and objective framework for evaluating performance. This paper…