Background: Research clearinghouses (CHs) seek to play an important role in identifying successful social programs and practices. The evidence-based policy movement has grown tremendously over the last few decades and has gotten institutionalized in the form of CHs in the US. CHs (1) specify standards for evaluating the quality of evidence from…

This paper examines Jean Floud's assessment of the work of Karl Mannheim, against the background of the development of British sociology of education in the 1940s and 50s. She compared his approach with that of Durkheim, concluding that both adopted a focus on social statics rather than dynamics, this reflecting their conservative political…

Employability is rapidly becoming a primary aim of PhD programmes. Internships have been shown to maximise students' chances of employment; however, there is limited evidence for how relevant this approach is to social science PhD students. This article reports on a mixed methods study, designed to utilise secondary and primary programme…

The main objective of this article is to search into the exploration of the ChatGPT trend in the field of Social Sciences, focusing on its trend and its widespread global application in the digital era. It is noted that ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence system that utilizes the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) language model developed…

In the UK, all doctoral programmes are expected to include some form of periodic progression assessment, with individual institutions having autonomy to design and implement their own structures. Yet, despite the potential significance of this assessment to individual doctoral journeys, the design of progression assessment processes has previously…

The BERA initiative on promoting Close-to-Practice (CtP) research raises new challenges for action research, particularly as uncertainties about the standing and rigour of action research were expressed in the report of the education panel for the 2015 Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom. The work of tackling these challenges…

This article examines Higher Education students' experiences of academic reading as a grudging act: something that is performed reluctantly or half-heartedly, because it has to be done. Drawing on group interviews with 30 social science undergraduates, registered at a research-intensive UK university, we offer a reflexive thematic analysis of…

From a Nordic and British perspective, the history of education is a vibrant field of knowledge production. It invites scholars from the humanities and social sciences to investigate the continuities and changes in education over time, as well as "Bildung," nurturing, learning, and teaching. By underlining the breadth of the history of…

This study provides a "narrative synthesis" of the findings published in journal articles from a broad range of scientific fields about the impact of extracurricular activities (ECAs) on the academic success and employability of university students. The analysis included 39 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, published…

Scholars assert that, worldwide, doctoral provision is increasingly characterised by accelerated scales of production, competitive funding, centralised administration, and interdisciplinary, cohort-based training. The situation in the UK appears to mirror this picture but scholars have long noted that national settings mediate the forms that…

This article investigates attitudes to societal impact of research as an entry point into understanding academic identities. Conceptually, we position academic identity at the intersection of global scientific fields and national science policies. We argue that the degree of alignment or misalignment between the two can create coherent academic…

Both challenges and opportunities are inherent with a growth in Chinese international students in UK Higher Education. However, teachers from the West may not understand the differences in Chinese educational practices, which can lead to negative stereotyping of these students as passive and problematic. This paper rejects this deficit…

Purpose: Drawing on human capital theory and sustainable career theory, this paper aims to explore the impact of undertaking an industrial placement on the "Great Eight" competencies as perceived by university students and line managers. Design/methodology/approach: 618 students and their line managers across three cohorts (pre-COVID-19)…

Increasingly across many UK higher education institutions staff and students are questioning and challenging systemic inequalities that affect racially minoritised groups in their learning and sense of belonging within the curriculum. Students are calling for inclusion of diverse sources of knowledge and perspectives, especially from scholars of…

As higher education increasingly aligns with the ideology of the marketplace, we argue that conditions of corporate competition have contributed to the invisibilization of collective work in UK higher education. Drawing on the work of Wa Thiong'o, N. (1986. "Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature." Nairobi,…