University rankings have gained prominence in tandem with the global race towards excellence and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, empirically we know less about whether and how rankings matter in…

Traditionally, professorial recruitment has been controlled by scholars themselves selecting the best qualified candidates as a new member of the academic community according to scientific criteria. Recent studies have, however, documented that recruitment has become increasingly influenced by managers and HR personnel who approach professorial…

Purpose: Universities in the United Kingdom, like their counterparts globally, are confronting difficulties associated with the well-being of students. The origins of these challenges are complex, exacerbated by various global events. In response, universities are trying to address these growing concerns and the escalating need for student…

Background: The advantages of including people with learning disabilities in research teams have been well described, but it is rare for researchers with learning disabilities to be employed at a university. This paper explores the extent to which university recruitment procedures are accessible to job applicants with learning disabilities.…

Concerns about the status of the teaching profession are widespread. In this paper, the social selection to teacher education is compared with the social selection to other higher education courses in Norway from 1975 to 2010. This comparison can shed light on changes in the status of teaching relative to other types of higher education. Using…

This paper offers the first comprehensive analysis of the effect of changes in university rankings on applicant and institution behaviour in the UK. When their rank worsens, universities are found to experience small but statistically significant reductions in the number of applications received as well as in the average tariff score of applicants…

Purpose: A crucial aspect of a school's capacity to promote and sustain change and improvement in student learning is the depth, breadth and endurance of both its formal and informal leadership. Shortages of willing leaders, however, have forced governments around the world to expend a considerable amount of time, effort, and money to fill up the…

This article describes the research capacity building efforts of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto over the past 12 years. It identifies the role of strategic planning, the process of change, and the key practices, in terms of personnel, resources, research center development, and strategic community…

This paper examines health workforce and migration policies in New Zealand, with a special focus on the international recruitment of doctors and nurses. The health workforce in New Zealand, as in all OECD countries, plays a central role in the health system. Nonetheless, maybe more than for any other OECD country, the health workforce in New…

The engineering profession and, consequently, the education process for engineers must respond to several new realities in order to be successful in the 21st century. Some aspects of the new reality that are relevant to engineering education are as follows: the globalization of commerce; the information revolution; innovations in technology; the…