This article presents an analysis of the experiences of scholars in a university-wide curriculum reform in one public research university. The focus is on the intentions and dynamics that shape the curriculum process in the local communities of practice (CoPs). The data, comprising interviews with 25 scholars, are examined as experience-centred…

This article revisits Gopinathan's and Lee's and Gopinathan's arguments about the relationship and role of the developmental state and education in the era of globalisation. The paper first discusses the role and impact of the developmental state and globalisation on Singapore's higher education since 1990 to set the context. Drawing upon…

Demands on academic leadership are increasing, which raises the need for leadership training. This article describes development and implementation of a group training intervention in academic leadership at a departmental level. Little systematic research has addressed the question of what forms of leadership training are associated with…

International policy changes that have prioritised increasing growth in the numbers of doctoral students have led to wide-ranging debate about the changing purpose of the doctorate. However, there has been little research aimed at investigating doctoral supervisors' views of the purpose of the doctorate, despite the significant role supervisors…

There has been a debate as to how local universities have been influenced by international forces. There is a concern that local or domestic cultures and values might be eroded or undermined. Therefore, it would be meaningful to examine such dynamics and explore how hybridity could be formed through these interactions. It is against such a wider…

This paper draws on British Council commissioned research in response to concerns about women's absence from senior leadership positions in higher education in South Asia. The study sought existing knowledge from literature, policies, and available statistics and collected original interview data from 30 academics in Afghanistan, Bangladesh,…

Are Asian universities different from those in Western countries? Premised on the hypothesis that Asian universities are different because of hybridization between Western academic models and local traditional cultures, this paper investigates the hybrid characteristics in Malaysian universities resulting from interaction between contemporary…

The preparation and induction of Early Career Academics (ECAs) in Ghana has been investigated using a qualitative study that employed an enumerative-ethnographic approach. The study combined reviews of policy documents, interviews of 50 Deans and Heads of Departments and surveys of ECAs in five purposively selected universities in Ghana to capture…

Learning has been described by two conceptual metaphors: as individual acquisition of knowledge ("acquisition metaphor"), and as an enculturation into a subject community ("participation metaphor"). On the other hand, academics' conceptions of teaching are usually reported to vary between teacher and student orientation. In…

Among the many external forces that have impacted upon institutions, league tables have been the dynamic to which universities across the world are now responding. Following the appointment of a new vice-chancellor at one post-92 UK university, a modernisation project was introduced aimed at maximising the institutions' research standing. For the…

Unprecedented expansion of the public higher education sector in Ethiopia has brought about masses of early career academics (ECAs) to take up teaching and research in the sector. In recognition of a multitude of responsibilities and challenges these ECAs would face, a higher diploma program (HDP) was introduced in 2004 both for ECAs and senior…

Threshold concepts were used to underpin a major curriculum reform endeavour in occupational therapy. After rigorous interrogation of troublesome knowledge and ensuring that the emergent concepts conformed to the five characteristics of previously proposed threshold concepts, we identified five threshold concepts. Two years into the rollout of the…

This paper analyses the current state of student representation in Russia as deeply rooted in the institutional structure of the Soviet higher education system. The study traces the origins of existing institutional arrangements for student representation at the level of university governance and analyses how representation practices have been…

In this study, 28 university students from two different fields--the humanities and veterinary medicine--were interviewed. The aim was to explore the role of individual interest and future goals during the first two years of university study through retrospective interviews. The results showed that, while support from the learning environment was…

The article illustrates how the South Africa-Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD), a doctoral research preparation programme for candidates on the African continent, evolved from an aid programme to an exemplary model of innovation, namely SANTRUST, an ownership-driven partnership within the framework of…