Background: This paper provides insights into 'Policy to Research' (P2R) Fellowships and related programmes within the 'relationship' model of academic-policy engagement, which provide structured opportunities for policy officials to interact with academic researchers. Aims and objectives: Information is provided on P2R Fellowship and similar…

The Open University (OU) has around 1800 students studying in prisons (Students in Secure Environments, 2019) with no internet access. They study offline with no access to the OU library's online resources. This case study explores the student volunteer scheme introduced to help students in prison to indirectly access online library resources. It…

This article evaluates Make it Happen Summer School according to Bernstein's writing on classification, framing, and recontextualisation. The project was a collaboration between a university and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) that aimed to develop a curriculum for creative practitioners so they could learn to propose…

Chaplains are embedded in the culture and life of many universities and are a key part of university support for religious students. Yet university chaplaincy has rarely been researched by social scientists. This article explores the role of chaplains and chaplaincy in universities in the United Kingdom (UK), investigating understandings of what…

This study explored the extent to which distance learning tutors found sharing practice through participating in a tutor-led online programme of online events helped them to develop as practitioners and hence support students more effectively. The regular online sessions, delivered by tutors for tutors, was a staff development initiative…

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…

Whilst teaching awards have become an established practice in higher education, important questions remain about their effectiveness in recognizing high-quality teaching, with recent research suggesting that they may have dysfunctional consequences. We investigate how awards are perceived and impact upon recipients and non-recipients and propose…

In this article, I test the claims of the UK government and universities that the Prevent programme aims to create a safe space for the discussion of "extremist" ideas in universities. I do this by comparing the main elements of the Prevent duty that has been imposed on universities with those of safe spaces as imagined by student…

Despite the potential of Predictive Learning Analytics (PLAs) to identify students at risk of failing their studies, research demonstrating effective application of PLAs to higher education is relatively limited. The aims of this study are: (1) to identify whether and how PLAs can inform the design of motivational interventions; and (2) to capture…

People's Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni, http://peoples-uni.org) aims to contribute to improvements in the health of populations in low- to middle-income countries by building public health capacity via e-learning at affordable cost. We describe experience over nine years of the initiative, including the development and delivery of…

Strong demand for GIS and burgeoning cohorts have encouraged the delivery of GIS teaching via online distance education models. This contribution reviews a brief foray (2012-2014) into this field by the Open University, deploying open source GIS software to enable students to perform practical science investigations online. The "Remote…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and postgraduates in the UK are taking on greater responsibility for teaching, and therefore it has become increasingly necessary to explore the teacher training that supports them in this endeavour. This paper outlines an impact evaluation carried out on a graduate certificate programme primarily aimed at GTAs…

This article explores a university knowledge exchange programme for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers. Specifically, it considers why a programme designed to achieve growth in a group of SMEs through the creation of a network high in social capital may have become a constraint on the programme's effectiveness over a period of…

This paper examines learner attitudes, self-efficacy beliefs, and anxiety in a beginners' Spanish Language Massive Open Online Course (LMOOC) by answering three research questions: (1) how do learners feel about acquiring speaking skills on an LMOOC?; (2) do they experience anxiety with regards to speaking?; and (3) do their self-efficacy beliefs…

When the current UK coalition government came to power in 2010, it sought amongst other things to stimulate a dormant economy and deal with the national budget deficit. One of its first acts was to charge universities to become the bedrock for entrepreneurial activity, and to deliver challenging enterprise education to all their students, so…