As the higher education landscape has shifted and calls for change and improvements have grown louder, researchers have turned to empirical investigations of what makes change possible in higher education. Recent studies on the impact of informal interactions for promoting change have given impetus to social network analysis as an approach to…

This paper contributes to the understanding of university spinoff (USO) development by analysing structural properties of their shareholder networks over time and across different regions. Theoretically, we propose a new stage-based typology of USO development across regions. Empirically, the study utilises a sample of 1033 academic spinoffs…

One of the goals of China's 'Double First-class' initiative is to boost the top-notch disciplines in those next-to-top universities and allow their differentiated paths towards development. This study investigates Chinese universities' policy interpretations and strategic responses to this national initiative through a social network analysis of…

Is it possible to measure how critical soft skills like leadership or teamwork are from the viewpoint of graduate studies offerings? This paper provides a conceptual and methodological framework that introduces the concept of a bipartite network as a practical way to estimate the importance of soft skills as socio-emotional abilities trained in…

Measuring impact from university research is increasingly seen as important, not least because of its use in resource allocation processes by governments. These measurement approaches, however, often take 'wide and shallow' economic effect-based views that are ex-post, linear and uni-directional. Consequently, research collaborations between…

This article applies social network analysis (SNA) as a methodological tool to investigate University-Industry (U-I) dynamism within the context of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. It examines the roles multiple stakeholders should play in enhancing an up-to-date curriculum in higher education institutions (HEIs). Based on stakeholder theory,…

Science and Technology Innovation Communities (STICs) are student-led partnerships that bring together businesses, research centres, and university staff. They constitute an effective way of promoting student innovation ability. However, the students' position within the STICs organisation network may condition how their innovation ability is…

In this article, we suggest that competencies in working in intercultural and multidisciplinary environments are part of expected key skills in contemporary organisations. Higher educational institutions across the globe are pressured to contribute to the development of such key skills. Using social identity theory, through social network analysis…

The principal factors that influence satisfaction with a university are analyzed in this paper. A distinction is drawn for that purpose between the factors that intervene before, during, and after the phase of university education, at all times from a graduate perspective. A sample of 9380 interviews with graduates from three separate academic…

Continuous improvement in Higher Education can be supported by effective literature reviews to unveil contemporary and current educational needs and lay the foundations of programmes of study. As no discipline remains static, the aim of this paper is to present a methodology for conducting literature reviews that can complement traditional…

This article analyzes higher education research published in international higher education journals by researchers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Malaysia from 1980 to 2013. It does so based on publication counts, and co-authorship and cross-citation mapping, examining these countries' publication patterns in terms of thematic approach and…

This paper provides a citation network analysis of the publications in "Studies in Higher Education" from 1976 to 2013 inclusive. This represents the entire history of the journal to date. It analyses the most published authors, most cited authors and most discussed topics using keywords. 1056 articles were taken from Web of…

While interdisciplinary courses are regarded as a promising method for students to learn and apply knowledge from other disciplines, there is limited empirical evidence available whether interdisciplinary courses can effectively "create" interdisciplinary students. In this innovative quasi-experimental study amongst 377 Master's…

The great influx of international students into UK universities has led to internationalisation becoming an important issue. Previous studies have focused on the integration of home and international students, illustrating a lack of intercultural interaction. Yet there has been a lack of research investigating international students' networks and…

Cross-border higher education has created a need to build capacity -- particularly in the internationalization dimension -- for national quality assurance agencies to evaluate cross-border education provided by foreign educational providers, or jointly by local and foreign institutions. This is quickly becoming a key issue in the Asia-Pacific…