This paper considers the process of "professional becoming" for an academic developer as a complex transition towards epistemological plurality. This is a necessary step to appreciate and support the lived experiences of teachers across the spectrum of academic disciplines. Viewed through an ecological lens, the complexity of the…

This research explores responsible investment practices at Canadian and international universities. We analyze universities' "Statement of Investment Policy and Procedures" and "Responsible Investing Policies" to understand how responsible investing is included and how this varies by region. Our results show that most…

We explored the relationship between board characteristics and sustainability of higher education institutions in the United Kingdom (UK). We analysed 153 UK universities using data for the year 2019. Our analysis revealed that board size, the number of students on the board, and the number of academic members on the board were found to have…

Higher education institutions in the UK have organised into mission groups for the advocacy of shared interests and ideologies. Although research productivity is claimed as a key point of difference between these groups, this claim has received relatively little empirical scrutiny. The current study examined the clustering of UK universities based…

Purpose: This article aims to address the response from the higher education (HE) sector in the United Kingdom (UK) to the full-scale war in Ukraine which started in 2022. Design/methodology/approach: Relying on theoretical ideas of neoliberalism and the collection and thematic analysis of relevant official communications from six UK universities,…

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss the practical dilemmas of institutional change to tackle the climate crisis in a UK university, identifying key assumptions and issues that block meaningful change. The research was part of an initiative to define a theory of change (ToC) to meet the university's institutional climate commitments.…

How should universities handle cases of student misconduct? While universities cannot make decisions about whether a criminal offence has been committed, they can judge whether there has been a breach of their own code of conduct. This guidance, building on a UUK and Pinsent Mason publication from 2016, sets out principles and practical case…

Although higher education is positioned as a site of opportunity for young women in the UK, not all female applicants experience straightforward pathways into this arena. This paper focuses on a group of 16 high-achieving girls from working-class backgrounds who are striving for academic success, in the form of top grades and places at high-tariff…

University rankings have gained prominence in tandem with the global race towards excellence and as part of the growing expectation of rational, scientific evaluation of performance across a range of institutional sectors and human activity. While their omnipresence is acknowledged, empirically we know less about whether and how rankings matter in…

In this paper, we engage with the Research Excellence Framework (REF) -- the UK government's national policy tool for competitive allocation of scarce research funding. Success on the terms of the REF provides guaranteed income for UK Universities for a 6- or 7-year period -- and as a result, we suggest that the REF operates as an asset-like…

Universities face an uncertain funding environment and turbulent marketplace. Financial scenario modelling offers a potential mechanism to assist in navigating a way forward. Our previous paper on UK universities' practice found some variation in the sophistication of the approaches taken, but the overall impression was of a relatively simple…

The field of transformative learning has garnered significant attention from researchers and practitioners in adult education due to its potential to address the complex and unpredictable challenges of societal change. This study employs a bibliometric approach, analyzing data from the Scopus database covering the years 1992 to 2023, identifying a…

This paper aims to assess the degree of the income diversification of the UK higher education providers as a component of their overall financial resilience. In addition, we investigate a correlation between ranking, income diversification, and income size. The main research question is whether the higher ranking of the universities, in…

Given its close links to student success, universities are heavily invested in how they can positively influence their students' sense of belonging. One approach to this is through social belonging interventions, where universities attempt to develop student agency. This study takes a quasi-experimental approach by evaluating the impact of a newly…

This paper reports the key findings from two student surveys undertaken at our institution in the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22. The research was based on the Bretag et al. (2018) student survey undertaken in various Australian universities. After discussions with both Bretag and Harper, we adapted the questions to our context -- a Russell…