Original research and content creation in the university environment have historically been the domain of faculty and their graduate students. Nowadays, however, undergraduate programs at universities across the country are putting undergrads in the center of the action. This article describes some of these programs--at Duke University (North…

hapTEL, an interdisciplinary project funded by two UK research councils from 2007 to 2011, involves a large interdisciplinary team (with undergraduate and post-graduate student participants) which has been developing and evaluating a virtual learning system within an HE healthcare education setting, working on three overlapping strands. Strand 1…

As one means to combat the dis-integration of the undergraduate experience, the authors make a case for the kinds of integrated education needed to prepare students to respond creatively and with commitment to our society's most critical challenges.

The need to reform the undergraduate business curriculum was in evidence before 9/11 and is more imperative since the stock market disintegration beginning in December 2007. The stakeholders will not tolerate the old methods of functional teaching for business school graduates. Graduates must be work ready and the challenges to business schools…

The SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment for Undergraduate Programs) project was developed to implement reforms designed for small classes into large physics classes. Over 50 schools across the country, ranging from Wake Technical Community College to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have adopted it for classes of…

The situation of digital libraries teaching and learning in Spain up to 2008 is examined. A detailed analysis of the different curricula and subjects is provided both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Digital libraries have been mostly a postgraduate topic in Spain, but they should become mainstream, with special subjects devoted to them,…

Inquiry-based learning is one approach to improving the quality of undergraduate education by moving toward more student-directed, interactive methods of learning while focusing on learning how to learn. This paper deals with a missing component in the inquiry-related literature--the extra-pedagogical challenges of introducing and maintaining…

This paper presents an analysis of the ways in which UK higher education (HE) has become increasingly commercialised and commodified in the post-1980s. It critiques the strategies adopted by successive UK governments to reinvigorate the relationship between educational and economic life, and to facilitate a more corporate and entrepreneurial…

This article reports on a convention held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, on October 3-5, 2006, to discuss the current status and future of undergraduate education in agriculture. This "Leadership Summit to Effect Change in Teaching and Learning" was a first step in what is planned to be an ongoing conversation…

This paper presents a brief overview of the changes made during our department level reform (DLR) process (Grant Title: "A Systems Approach for Civil and Environmental Engineering Education: Integrating Systems Thinking, Inquiry-Based Learning and Catamount Community Service-Learning Projects") and some of the effects of these changes on…

The University of Western Australia is the latest of a half-dozen Australian institutions to drastically overhaul its academic programs, in a move to bring its degrees more in line with global standards, as well as ensure it remains attractive to prospective students. The universities are essentially parting ways with the British system and moving…

This article addresses the question of the role and function of contemporary higher education in western industrialised nations through a focus on the participation of undergraduate students. The discussion examines some of the dramatic changes brought about by neo-liberal educational policy, in particular the hierarchical division of teaching and…

The management of information in the business world constitutes a single consolidated area within undergraduate and graduate study programs in Librarianship and Information Science. This article describes information studies for the business sector within Spain, including the university programs known as Diplomatura in Librarianship and…

Literature reveals difficulties in preparing nurses to care for older people. This article reports a study that aimed to facilitate positive changes in gerontological education in an undergraduate nursing program by identifying barriers and effective actions. A critical research approach was applied to the study. Data were mainly collected through…

Long known as a college-football powerhouse, the University of Alabama (UA) is now considered a model for institutions seeking to maintain or boost their academic quality even as enrollments increase and budgets are squeezed. According to Carol Twigg, president of the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT), which has been a significant…