This paper examines emerging discourses and practices of quality assurance in English Further Education (FE), a sector currently undergoing significant change. Using a broadly ethnographic approach and Foucauldian theories of power, we discuss how 'documentisation' contributes to governance techniques in a specific institutional context.…

The relationship between regulation and quality assurance of higher education in the United Kingdom (UK) has a long and complicated history, which contributed to the foundation of the UK Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA) in 1997. After March 2023, the UK-wide QAA will stop being the Designated Quality Body (DQB) for English…

This paper explores the relational dynamics in 10 triads from one university-based teacher education programme in England. Positioning theory and frame analysis are integrated to understand how teacher educators, mentors, and student teachers make sense of the placement experience and distribute mutual rights and duties. Data were derived from…

Purpose: Little is known about the impact external Viva examiners coming from the international community of scholars have on the quality of PhD research. This study aims to argue that the encounter between local and international examiners (IEs) is subject to various complexities, raising doubts about whether IEs' participation and approval of…

In summer 2021, as exams could not take place, GCSE, AS and A level grades in England were awarded by teachers, in accordance with relatively broad official guidance. This guidance stressed that grades had to be based on evidence of candidate work, though what this was, how much was needed or where/when it should come from were not tightly…

School autonomy with accountability (SAWA) reforms have developed in diverse forms in Northern Europe. Following processes of decentralization to the municipal and school levels, quality assurance and inspection became key to the test-based accountability agendas of Denmark and England respectively. With an abductive approach, we explore the…

Both innovation and quality assurance are prominent concerns in higher education institutions but research is ambiguous with respect to the relationship between quality assurance and innovation. Specifically, it is unclear whether quality assurance supports innovation or, conversely, acts as a hindrance. As a relatively new innovation, massive…

This report summarises York Consulting's findings following its independent analysis of the responses to the Department for Education (DfE) consultation on higher technical education (HTE). DfE launched the consultation in July 2019, which was aimed at anyone with an interest in technical education and training for young people and adults in…

In this opinion piece, the author reflects on some similarities with the National Health Service (NHS) in England, which has a long history of leadership tensions as hospital trusts have tried to wrestle administrative and operational decision-making away from clinicians and consultants.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine multiple learning cycles across a UK housebuilder organization following changes made to their quality management routine at the organizational level, through to subsequent understanding and enactment at the level of the individuals involved. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a qualitative case study…

Education policies can be understood as discursive strategies often used to foreground political ideologies and shape pedagogic practice. This chapter focuses on the ways in which the notion of 'teaching excellence' has received a renewed focus in the context of the introduction of a Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework for higher…

Over the last decade, in both the Netherlands and England, national policy-driven changes have increased schools' responsibility in initial teacher education. This research gathered teacher educators' stories of challenges experienced 'on the ground' in these school-university partnerships. The aim was to explore the reality of working within…

Whilst peer observation of teaching is well established as a practice that can enhance teaching quality, the challenge to fully embed this practice in universities remains unresolved. This article analyses the perspectives of 18 university leaders (nine Australian and nine English) drawn from a range of school-based leaders to senior leaders of…

In England the recommendation and award of qualified teacher status (QTS) is currently linked to the assessment of trainee teachers' competencies against performance criteria descriptors. Q-methodology was used to look for subjective differences in attitudes to the assessment of trainee teachers in school. This is a quantitative approach to…

Increasing focus worldwide on accountability and quality assurance in universities has forced senior management to develop policies to address academic support at institutional-level. One such area is the mathematical and statistical skills that students in many disciplines need to succeed. In common with many countries, large numbers of students…