Beyond Mass Higher Education (Society for Research Into Higher Education)

253 Pages·2005·1.531 MB·English

by  Ian McNay

The Society for Research into Higher Education
B
BEYOND MASS HIGHER EDUCATION e
y
Building on Experience
o Beyond Mass
• What are the key elements of mass higher education? n
d
• How does mass higher education affect students and staff?

• What are the policy, pedagogic and management issues that M
Higher
need to be addressed?
a
s
More is now expected of higher education provision. It has to
s
meet demands for expansion, excellence, diversity and equity in

access and assessment, teaching and research, as well as H Education
entrepreneurial engagement with the world outside. Thirty years
i
ago, Martin Trow wrote of higher education systems moving g
from elite provision through a mass system to universal levels of h
access. The UK is now approaching such universal levels;
e
Scotland has already reached them. It is nearly fifteen years since
r
Trow's mass threshold was reached. Despite being on the brink
of universal provision, there is still no clear picture of what a E Building On Experience
mass system should look like. d
u
This collection looks forward to the next decade of higher
c
education, and identifies strategic issues that need to be tackled
a
at institutional and system levels. It considers how far the higher
t
education system has adapted to respond to the requirements of i
a mass and universal system, rather than struggling to sustain an o
elite system with mass participation. n
Beyond Mass Higher Educationis key reading for those leading and
managing universities and colleges, as well as higher education
researchers and policy makers.
Ian McNayis Emeritus Professor of Education at the University
of Greenwich, where he coordinated the ESRC seminar series
M
that is the basis for many of these contributions. His main
research and teaching interests are in policy analysis and c
N
strategic management, particularly as they affect quality of
academic work and the student experience. a
y
Contributors:Grainne Conole, Stephen Court, Jim Gallacher,
Peter T. Knight, Carole Leathwood, Brenda Little, Lisa Lucas, Ian
McNay, Bob Osborne, Richard Pearson, Wendy Saunderson,
Michael Shattock, Marilyn Wedgewood, Celia Whitchurch and
Mantz Yorke.
edited by
(cid:9)(cid:10)(cid:11)(cid:12)(cid:13)(cid:4)(cid:14)(cid:5)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:14)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:3)(cid:6)(cid:2)(cid:14)(cid:8) Ian McNay
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Beyond Mass Higher Education
SRHE and Open University Press Imprint
Current titles include:
Catherine Bargh et al.: University Leadership
Ronald Barnett: Beyond all Reason
Ronald Barnett: Realizing the University in an age of supercomplexity
Ronald Barnett & Kelly Coate: Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education
Tony Becher and Paul R. Trowler: Academic Tribes and Territories (2nd edn)
John Biggs: Teaching for Quality Learning at University (2nd edn)
Richard Blackwell & Paul Blackmore (eds): Towards Strategic Staff Development in Higher
Education
David Boud and Nicky Solomon (eds): Work-based Learning
Tom Bourner et al. (eds): New Directions in Professional Higher Education
Anne Brockbank and Ian McGill: Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education
Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill: Discussion as a way of teaching
Ann Brooks and Alison Mackinnon (eds): Gender and the Restructured University
Sally Brown and Angela Glasner (eds): Assessment Matters in Higher Education
Burton R. Clark: Sustaining Change in Universities
James Cornford & Neil Pollock: Putting the University Online
John Cowan: On Becoming an Innovative University Teacher
Sara Delamont, Paul Atkinson and Odette Parry: Supervising the Doctorate 2/e
Gerard Delanty: Challenging Knowledge
Chris Duke: Managing the Learning University
Heather Eggins (ed): Globalization and Reform in Higher Education
Gillian Evans: Academics and the Real World
Merle Jacob and Tomas Hellström (eds): The Future of Knowledge Production in the Academy
Peter Knight: Being a Teacher in Higher Education
Peter Knight and Paul Trowler: Departmental Leadership in Higher Education
Peter Knight and Mantz Yorke: Assessment, Learning and Employability
Ray Land: Educational Development
John Lea et al. Working in Post-Compulsory Education
Mary Lea and Barry Stierer (eds): Student Writing in Higher Education
Dina Lewis and Barbara Allan: Virtual Learning Communities
Ian McNay (ed.): Beyond Mass Higher Education
Elaine Martin: Changing Academic Work
Louise Morley: Quality and Power in Higher Education
Lynne Pearce: How to Examine a Thesis
Moira Peelo and Terry Wareham (eds): Failing Students in Higher Education
Craig Prichard: Making Managers in Universities and Colleges
Stephen Rowland: The Enquiring University Teacher
Maggi Savin-Baden: Facilitating Problem-based Learning
Maggi Savin-Baden and Kay Wilkie: Challenging Research in Problem-based Learning
David Scott et al.: Professional Doctorates
Peter Scott: The Meanings of Mass Higher Education
Michael L. Shattock: Managing Successful Universities
Maria Slowey and David Watson: Higher Education and the Lifecourse
Colin Symes and John McIntyre (eds): Working Knowledge
Richard Taylor, Jean Barr and Tom Steele: For a Radical Higher Education
Malcolm Tight: Researching Higher Education
Penny Tinkler and Carolyn Jackson: The Doctoral Examination Process
Susan Toohey: Designing Courses for Higher Education
Melanie Walker (ed.): Reconstructing Professionalism in University Teaching
Melanie Walker and Jon Nixon (eds): Reclaiming Universities from a Runaway World
Diana Woodward and Karen Ross: Managing Equal Opportunities in Higher Education
Mantz Yorke and Bernard Longden: Retention and Student Success in Higher Education
Beyond Mass
Higher Education
Building on Experience
Edited by
Ian McNay
The Society for Research into Higher Education
& Open University Press
Open University Press
McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill House
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First published 2006
Editorial material and selection © Ian McNay 2006
Individual chapters © the contributors
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of
criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978 0335 21857 8 (pb) 978 0335 21858 5 (hb)
ISBN-10: 0335 21857 1 (pb) 0335 21858 X (hb)
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Contributors viii
Abbreviations xi
Part One: Introduction 1
1 Delivering Mass Higher Education – The Reality of Policy
in Practice 3
Ian McNay
Part Two: Student issues 15
2 Accessing Higher Education: Policy, Practice and Equity in
Widening Participation in England 17
Carole Leathwood
3 Differentiation and Stratification in Scottish higher Education 28
Jim Gallacher
4 Participation and Access in Higher Education in Northern Ireland 44
Bob Osborne
5 The Student Experience and the Impact of Social Capital 57
Brenda Little
6 The Demise of the Graduate Labour Market 68
Richard Pearson
Part Three: Academic policies and processes 79
7 What Impact are Technologies Having and How are They Changing
Practice? 81
Gráinne Conole
8 Assessing Complex Achievements 96
Peter Knight
9 Formative Assessment and Employability: Some Implications for
Higher Education Practices 105
Mantz Yorke
vi Contents
10 ‘To Them that Have Shall be Given, but ...’: The Future of
Funding and Evaluating Research in UK universities 120
Lisa Lucas
11 Mainstreaming the Third Stream 134
Marilyn Wedgwood
Part Four: Staff and system issues 159
12 Managing Institutions in a Mass Higher Education System 161
Ian McNay
13 Academic Staff in a Mass Higher Education System: The State
We’re in 171
Stephen Court
14 Gender [In]Equity in Mass Higher Education: The Need for
Change 185
Wendy Saunderson
15 Administrators or Managers? The Shifting Roles and Identities
of Professional Administrators and Managers in UK Higher
Education 199
Celia Whitchurch
16 University Governance and the Role of the State 209
Michael Shattock
Part Five: Looking forward, moving on 217
17 The Agenda Ahead: Building on Experience 219
Ian McNay
Index 227
The Society for Research into Higher Education 227
Acknowledgements
Most of the chapters in this collection derive from presentations to seminars
in a series ‘From mass to universal higher education: building on experience’.
This was part funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Award
Number R451265231. Other funding came from the Society for Research
into Higher Education and, through the editor, the Open University.
The idea for the seminar series came originally from Michael Shattock and
Richard Pearson, who were co-coordinators of the project, with Ian McNay.
It was then adopted by the Society through its Research and Development
Committee. The formal submission was made through the University of
Greenwich, where the editor was based.
Thanks are due to other contributors to the series – there were 26 present-
ers in total, and so not enough room for them all – and to nearly 200 people
who participated in the seminars and contributed to the development of
thinking. A full list of sessions, with titles of presentations and details of
presenters was included in the Society’s Annual Report, 2004.
Material used in presentations, and included in Part Four, was also
used, with permission, as the basis for articles in Higher Education Quarterly
Volume 58, No. 4.
Contributors
Gráinne Conole is Professor of Educational Innovation in Post-Compulsory
Education at the University of Southampton, with research interests in
the use, integration and evaluation of Information and Communication
Technologies and e-learning and their impact on organizational change. She
was previously Director of the Institute for Learning and Research Technol-
ogy at the University of Bristol.
Stephen Court is Senior Research Officer at the Association of University
Teachers. He has published widely on aspects of higher education policy.
Jim Gallacher is a professor at Glasgow Caledonian University, and joint
Director of the Centre for Research into Lifelong Learning, a joint initiative
with the University of Stirling.
Peter T. Knight is Director of the Institute of Educational Technology at the
Open University. He has taught in primary and secondary schools, and has
previously worked at Lancaster University and St Martin’s College, Lancaster.
He is the author, with Mantz Yorke, of Assessment, Learning and Employability
(SRHE/Open University Press).
Dr Carole Leathwood is a senior research fellow in the Institute for Policy
Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University. She specializes in
research in post-compulsory education, particularly issues of gender, class
and ‘race’, including widening participation in HE, managerialism and mar-
ketization in FE, and critical analyses of policy. She is the Ireland/Britain
editor for Women’s Studies International Forum.
Brenda Little is a senior policy analyst with the Open University’s Centre for
Higher Education Research and Innovation. Her main research interests lie
in work-based and vocational aspects of HE policy and practice and the
changing nature of the student experience.
Contributors ix
Dr Lisa Lucas is a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education, University of
Bristol, and a former winner of the SRHE Newer Researcher award. Her
main research interests are in the organization, funding and development of
national systems of HE in a global context. Recent studies have been on
comparative systems of funding and evaluating university research, and on
the links between research and teaching within academic work. She is the
author of The Research Game in Academic Life (SRHE/Open University Press).
Ian McNay is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education and Management,
University of Greenwich. His career spans roles as administrator, policy
advisor, researcher, staff developer and consultant based in four European
countries and working in some 22 around the world.
Bob Osborne is Professor of Applied Policy Studies and Acting Director of
the Social and Policy Research Institute at the University of Ulster. He has
acted as adviser to committees at Westminster and Stormont. He was a mem-
ber of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission from 1999 to 2004. He was
joint editor of Fair Employment in Northern Ireland: A Generation On (Blackstaff
Press).
Dr Richard Pearson is an independent consultant and was previously
Director of the Institute for Employment Studies. He has over thirty years of
experience in research and consultancy relating to HE, to student demand
and the labour market for professionals, to graduates and mobility, and to
workforce planning and corporate performance.
Dr Wendy Saunderson lectures in the School of Policy Studies at the
University of Ulster. Her specific focus on academic identity and equal
opportunities in the university sector is part of her wider research interest in
the conceptualization, ‘measurement’ and analysis of identity development
and dynamics (using ISA) in relation to policy change.
Michael Shattock, after many years as Registrar at the University of Warwick,
is now Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, London University,
where, with Gareth Williams, he developed and directed the MBA in Higher
Education Management. He is the author of Managing Successful Universities
(SRHE/Open University Press).
Marilyn Wedgwood is Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Director of External Relations
at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has been active for over fifteen
years in the development and delivery of ‘third stream’ policy at the DTI, the
University of Sheffield and MMU. She chairs and serves on national and
regional committees relating to HE and society. Advisory roles have included
work with the House of Lords’ Science and Technology Committee on
Science and the RDAs, and as a consultant on regional strategy for Yorkshire
and Humberside.