Paul Cowley

UK universities have responded to government, employer and student demand for teaching and degree programmes which will improve academic and employability outcomes for learners. One of the tactics used in the UK higher education sector has been the recruitment of industry practitioners into universities. Whilst such appointments can provide the desired expertise and credibility for teaching programmes and departments, research suggests that such career changes can provide challenges for both the new academic and the employing institution.
The thesis aims to (1) investigate the development of the identity of early-career academics who embark on their new career in academia from well-established business professional environments. It also aims to explore (2) how professional practitioners from industry negotiate their expectations about their new roles and how they respond to perceived tensions and contradictions in formal institutional policies, structures, and procedures and in less formal collegial support environments. The research questions focused on identifying (1) what motivated the professional practitioners to join the academia; (2) how they perceived the transition to their newly developing/acquired identity and (3) how formal institutional procedures, policies, and structures, including (4) (less formal) communities of practice shaped, strengthened and/or hindered the process of this transition to a new professional identity formation of the early-career academics.
The research adopted a singular case study approach. It was conducted at a management school in a post’92 UK university with participants who were early-career lecturers with different levels of industry experience. To generate data, a multi-method research strategy was chosen, consisting of questionnaires (N = 8) and semi-structured interviews (N = 10). The research design is predominantly qualitative, based on an interpretivist research paradigm.
Activity Theory was used as a tool for understanding and interpreting the contextual and situational complexities, which new academics encounter in their new work context. Activity System was used as a critical site for observing the construction of cultural environments, which can facilitate norms, values and knowledge, which in turn influence the development and practice of those participating within the Activity System (Trowler and Knight, 2000).
Additionally, the study used Perry’s (2012) Auditioning Academic concept as a reference point for critical comparison with the new findings and for their refinement in relation to the professional transition of new academics entering higher education from industry.
The research identified key motivating factors that attract professionals to enter academia: the expectation of having a better and more satisfactory work-life balance; an opportunity to be stimulated and challenged intellectually in the subject they enjoyed; and finally, the expectation of exercising professional autonomy. The initial engagement and socialisation of the new academics within a clear departmental culture and stable working environment primarily served to shape the professional identity as that of a “teacher”, however; the professional identity of the new academics was perceived as a fluid one with the potential for change in the future. The research findings also point to the strong role of formal and informal institutional structures and communities of practice as playing a pivotal role in the development of new academics’ professional confidence and identity. Ultimately, the study offers new conceptual interpretations of existing theoretical work in the area of professional transition for new academics coming from industry.

Curriculum design and development is a vital higher education (HE) agenda item at both departmental and institutional level. Issues of internationalisation, widening participation, sector competition, oversight as well the increasingly market focused culture of the HE sector have placed a challenge on academics to be reflective, creative and open minded in how they approach curriculum development. A well-documented area of curriculum development involves the increasing use of technology as a pedagogic tool. Through a small scale quantitative study, this paper will seek to examine the impact of technology (Socrative) on the learning experiences of eight business management students at a UK university. Feedback from the respondents indicates that Socrative can have a positive impact on students' comprehension of the curriculum materials. The purpose of this study is to help promote best practice and explore new strategies for technology supported pedagogy in management education.

The modern higher education learning environment has become increasingly underpinned by virtual pedagogic tools, which are able to enhance the learning experience of students. This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of social media app Whatsapp in helping enhance the postgraduate student experience. Through a qualitative approach, feedback was gathered regarding the lived experiences of twelve management postgraduate students at a UK university during the course of 2018. The feedback of the students in the study indicated that whilst Whatsapp does provide several positive benefits and opportunities for postgraduate students e.g. a more interactive and accessible learning context as well quality and speed of feedback; the use of Whatsapp as a learning tool does raise some important questions regarding issues of in-class tension, communication barriers and privacy.

The degree apprenticeship was introduced in 2015 and touted as one of the biggest developments in the higher education sector in several decades (Rowe et al., 2016). A key aspect of the rationale for its introduction is the critical need for the UK to produce more commercially aware graduates. This approach is dependent on collaboration between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and key stakeholders such as employees, employers and professional bodies. HEIs need to be effective in how they identify potential partners and opportunities; in addition to identifying new partners, the HEI will seek to establish the partnership with the partner organisation, this involves identifying the relevant skills gap (s) and developing the appropriate academic content, material, schedule and platform of learning to meet stakeholder needs.
These challenges have presented HEIs with a number of questions to be considered. In particular, is it the role of the academic staff to identify commercial opportunities and then to build and maintain those relationships? If it is the role of academic staff, then how are they being managed and developed in order to carry out these seemingly less academic but more commercial activities? Through a series of semi-structured interviews with an academic responsible for leading a newly developed Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) at a UK university, the project has sought to investigate some of the opportunities and challenges experienced during programme development and delivery. Respondent feedback suggested that the degree apprenticeship represents a meaningful and dynamic delivery model but that any benefits must be balanced against some of the issues and anxieties potentially experienced by staff when transitioning into their new roles.

The emphasis on the teaching quality of university lecturers in the UK has become an emergent theme in UK education policy over the last 40 years. Prior to this shift in emphasis, it was seen as acceptable for an academic to be solely an expert in their particular subject area. A key theme to emerge from the policy interventions regarding teaching quality is the issue of teacher training processes for university lecturers. The purpose of this paper is to examine these policy developments against the research evidence regarding the subsequent impact of the policy on academics at both practitioner and institutional level. The paper finds that policy rhetoric would indicate an enthusiasm of successive governments to ensure meaningful training programmes for academics, e.g. Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCEHE); this has been further supported by the introduction of professional bodies during this time period, e.g. Higher Education Academy (HEA). When contextualised against practitioner experiences and institutional interpretations of government policy the paper concludes that this is a problematic task due to the fragmented approach of UK higher education institutions in adopting these policies but also the varying research methods used to examine the topic area.

Social media has become increasingly popular as a tool for teaching and providing support to students in higher education. However, it may have also raised challenges for establishing feasible ethical standards of how it should be utilised. This is potentially the case when considering issues related to privacy, freedom of information or speech, the right of anonymity, equality and diversity. It appears to be a prevalent issue in line with current pedagogical development, which requires an inclusive design that embeds characteristics of a 'smart learning environment' to satisfy the needs of students from diverse backgrounds. In this pilot study research, we aimed to explore the expectations and understandings of both students and teaching staff, towards their perceptions of what universities do and how well they do it. Questionnaire data and focus groups were collected from students and staff at two UK universities. These students and staff use multiple social media platforms (WeChat, WhatsApp, Viber, YouTube etc.) in their learning and teaching activities. The study focused on their experiences and attitudes towards the use of social media in higher education. Furthermore, institutional social media policies were evaluated according to the expectations and understanding of students and staff. A perceived performance gap can be found in certain areas, such as monitoring students' use of language, avoiding the use of personal information, understanding how the information provided will be used etc. In addition, some misunderstanding and a lack of knowledge towards the use of social media can be found in both students and staff. In relation to this knowledge gap, suggestions were made to improve the protocols or policies concerning the use of social media, as well as recommendations as to what is perceived by students and staff as the best practice.

The internationalisation of higher education has led to an increase in both the expansion of higher education institutions into new countries and also the scope for partnerships between higher education institutions and organisations in different countries around the world. These expansions and partnerships can provide interesting opportunities for academics wishing to work internationally. The purpose of this paper is to use one such partnership as the context for a research project which has examined the experiences of a university lecturer from the UK, who, through a partnership arrangement has spent a year living and working in the Jiangxi province. The data derived was based on 3 semi-structured interviews (2 Skype interviews and 1 face to face interview). These interviews were carried out between September 2016 and December 2017. During these interviews the respondent was asked to describe their experiences during this time-frame (both personally and professionally). The reflections and feedback of the respondent have been presented in this paper against the context of key research in the area of expatriate educators, focusing on 3 themes: 1 What were the influencing factors in the respondent deciding to leave the UK and start work in China? 2 What issues of adjustment has the respondent encountered in the new working and living context? 3 What are the key traits needed for successful expatriate educator adjustment? The feedback from the interviews highlighted a range of issues and opportunities. The respondent indicated that the primary positive outcome of their year working in China was the career development acquired through the development of new and existing skills and also the new professional contacts they made (these contacts have resulted in further academic and professional collaboration). The respondent highlighted keys challenges as being not only overcoming personal adjustment issues related to the general culture shock they felt throughout their time in China but also the professional adjustments they had to make when working with not only their new colleagues but also the largely Chinese speaking cohorts at the University (these adjustment areas were based around issues of systems, culture and language). The respondent indicated in the interviews that the primary motivating factor for relocating to China for work purposes was a financial one. The research was conducted as part of a larger project which is studying the working and living experiences of expatriate educators in different parts of the world; with the purpose of examining several key issues: motivating factors for expatriate movement, adjustment challenges, and the key traits needed for the successful adjustment of expatriate educators.