Widening participation in higher education has led to the global expansion of universities, increased student and program diversity, and greater provision of flexible pathways into university. Critical to supporting a growing student body is helping all students develop their ability to communicate confidently and effectively in their academic…

Although an increasing amount of research has focussed on the relationship between student language proficiency and English-medium instruction (EMI) programme outcomes, there has been little focus on the broader assessment of progress and learning within EMI programmes, especially in Asia. The purpose of this study was to determine the kinds of…

Drawing on the critical discourse analysis of journals and working papers from 2011-2020 referring to the at-risk of poverty or social exclusion composite indicator (AROPE), we shed light on how benchmarks technicize academic discourse, particularly in its part contributed by economists. First developed to measure progress towards the poverty…

The number of families in England choosing to withdraw their children from school has grown significantly since 2016. In this manuscript, we present findings from action research with purposefully sampled home educating young people (n = 9), parents/carers (n = 16), staff from Career Connect (n = 4), staff from schools and colleges (n = 4), staff…

The pursuit of decolonial scholarship in academia can be impacted by the pressure to attain international recognition as a requirement for academic promotion. Academic promotion for scholars is often linked to publishing in "high-impact journals," which frequently lack African representation. This paper critically examines the…

Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) conferences and students' entrepreneurial intervarsity competitions have brought awareness and insight to students, academics, and other higher learning institution (HEI) stakeholders to the value that entrepreneurship can provide them and their communities. A reflective practice account on…

This study explores the establishment of communities of practice within teaching and learning centres (TLC) as strategies for advancing faculty development in higher education, examining their implementation in the US and Europe, with a specific focus on Italy. Utilising organisational benchmarking, we employed an explanatory, comparative, and…

The UK's universities matter now more than ever. They are integral to the prosperity of their local communities, regions, the UK and to the global community. They drive economic growth, equip graduates with opportunities for a more prosperous life, help solve some of the most fundamental challenges of our age, and drive social mobility across the…

Quality assurance (QA) studies have introduced different strategies and standards established to help higher education institutions (HEIs) meet their goals. However, in Saudi Arabia, insufficient data on the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) and its practices regarding establishing quality standards after the…

The main objective of the current study is to establish a justifiable data-driven students-faculty ratio (SFR) benchmark for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Sultanate of Oman. This is established based on analyzing selected secondary data from three sources using purposive sampling. This study reflects quantitative research adopting…

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was the rapid shift to replacing traditional, paper-based tests with their computer-based counterparts. In many cases, these new modes of delivering tests will remain in place for the foreseeable future. In South Africa, the National Benchmark Quantitative Literacy (QL) test was impelled to make this…

Purpose: The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education in the UK focuses on maintaining, enhancing and standardising the quality of higher education. Of significant impact are the development of subject benchmark statements (SBS) by the QAA, which describe the type and content of study along with the academic standards expected of…

Benchmarking is an important tool to compare and make deliberate progress in any field of human endeavour. For integration of technology for teaching and learning, this is relatively a new field. The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) promotes the use of technology-enabled learning (TEL) -- also referred to as "digital learning" - for…

Enabling education programs in Australia assist students, who would otherwise have been excluded from higher education, to transition into undergraduate study. These programs emerged independently in response to the needs of individual universities and the varying cohorts of students they serve. The exclusion of these programs from the Australian…

To assess the meaningfulness of an intervention effect on students' achievement, researchers may apply empirical benchmarks as standards for comparisons, involving normative expectations for students' academic growth as well as performance gaps between weak and average schools or policy-relevant groups (e.g., male and female students, students…