This study compares the aspirations of students in further education (FE) colleges and non-FE post-compulsory settings. Within the context of a survey about their education, 928 students across 26 institutions were asked what their "hopes, goals and plans" were, with space for five open responses. Coding of responses was based upon…

The central proposition of this article is that Manitoba's faith-based higher education institutions have become more accepted by, and more closely integrated into, the mainstream post-secondary system in the province. Drawing on theoretical work explaining change in higher education systems, the article examines legislative and policy actions by…

Using qualitative inquiry, this paper employs a cultural lens to explore the work life experiences of faculty who work in smaller higher education administration programs in institutions that are not high-level research universities. The research focus included understanding how participants made sense of the institutions in which they worked and…

The question whether the study of education and teacher education belong at a liberal arts college deserves careful consideration. In this essay Bruce Kimball analyzes and finds unpersuasive the three principled rationales that are most often advanced on behalf of excluding educational studies, teacher education, or both from a liberal arts…

Efforts to systematically integrate graduate attributes across university curricula have relied on academic staff acceptance and ability to translate top-down policy into teaching practice. The literature and anecdotal reports over the past two decades show limited success in the area using this approach. Why is this so? Teaching staff across 16…

This paper outlines the field of higher education research in China from its historical roots through to its current development. It is a case study of how the field of higher education research emerged and was co-constructed by the state and the academic community of higher education researchers to become an established and recognised discipline…

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of doctoral student mothers pursuing doctorates in higher education as well as the meanings ascribed to the doctorate. This study was guided by Rich's (1976) notion of motherhood as experience and as institution held in tension with postmodernism's interest in discourse and difference. As…

During the past 50 years, the field of higher education has experienced growth, maturation, and specialization, coinciding with an almost exponential increase in the number of higher education journals. The proliferation of journals has led to an increased focus on journal status by members of the field. Not surprisingly, an informal journal caste…

Theories of learning typically downplay the interplay between social structure and student agency. In this article, we adapt a causal hypothesis from realist social theory and draw on wider perspectives from critical realism to account for the development of capacity to engage in reflection on professional practice in academic roles. We thereby…

This paper examines the foundation and development of universities in Australia and New Zealand and demonstrates how these universities were established on a secular basis. Educators from other continents with a mainly Christian history are often surprised that there is so little evidence of Christian input into the university sector in…

This research identifies 22 fields that declined in absolute numbers and/or prevalence over a 35-year period. Most were basic fields in the arts and sciences. Steep declines were evident only in a few fields, notably European languages and literatures. Larger, higher status, and historically liberal arts oriented institutions were less likely to…

The aim of this article is to explore what the concept of interdisciplinarity can bring to our developing understanding of education as a field of enquiry. We shall draw upon some recent writing on the disciplines of education in order to explore the potentially negative consequences of the way in which the disciplines are institutionalised and…

This action research reflects a narrative inquiry into the age-old debate concerning the relationship between theory and practice in educational settings. The unique perspective we add to this discussion is our distinct vantages. One researcher is a faculty member and the other is a student-affairs practitioner both working in a large public…

Community colleges are continually faced with questions of how to best meet the learning needs of their diverse students, many of who are "nontraditional" and are often ill-prepared for college level work. These institutions are respected for furthering democracy through their commitment to educational access and criticized for falling…

Recently, there has been much interest in higher education literature and policy on the concepts of student engagement and disengagement. While most academic writings recognise the significance of student engagement, they have tended to concentrate on it in relation to academic activities. Increasingly, universities are "cascading" down…