Interdisciplinary working plays an important role in achieving impact outside academia. One barrier to interdisciplinary working is the lack of mechanisms to assess contributions from outside the primary discipline. Positioning our research in debates about knowledge translation, we analyse the ability of narrative cases to assess the…

This paper presents a developed higher education quality assessment model (HEQAM) that can be applied for enhancement of university services. This is because there is no universal unified quality standard model that can be used to assess the quality criteria of higher education institutes. The analytical hierarchy process is used to identify the…

Recent calls for reform have advocated for extensive changes to undergraduate science lab experiences, namely providing more authentic research experiences for students. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have attempted to eschew the limitations of traditional "cookbook" laboratory exercises and have received…

A tool used in student-centered education is discussion among students in small learning groups. The Western origin of student-centered education, coupled with cross-cultural differences in communication styles, may detract from its cross-cultural applicability. This study investigates how in student-centered education, students' cultural…

Using critical discourse analysis to analyse the formative assessment method of a fine art studio practice curriculum, the author explores the espoused claim that "both" creativity and critical thinking are encouraged. Despite the prevalence of these often used terms, assessment practices and feedback were found to unwittingly encourage…

This article is an empirically grounded critical exploration of conflict between two associated higher education agendas--audit-driven accountability and academic innovation. Feeding into a discourse of quality, audit and power, it considers how far prevailing economic-bureaucratic models of higher education accountability might actually inhibit…

Two models of instructional innovation seeking to explain why some innovations are successful are synthesized and illustrated in the course evaluation system at the University of Birmingham. Success factors include cooperation among faculty in different areas, openness of evaluation, "ownership" of innovations, leadership, and authority…

An approach to course evaluation that distills a number of student perceptions of the course and using the resulting list of problems as a basis for student-teacher discussion is outlined, and its application in formative evaluation of University of Cape Town courses is described. (MSE)