Guest editors’ letter

Abstract

It has been a tumultuous period since the publication of the last Master of Tertiary Education (Management) (MTEM) special issue of student practitioner papers, not least of which is the advent of the global pandemic. Many have viewed the pandemic through the prism of ‘disruption’, as a force that has set asunder many of the old verities and has placed a higher education sector so often characterised as ‘dynamic and changing’ on a wholly new course, facing new sets of problems and opportunities. The full impact of the pandemic is yet to be known, but the works in this special issue, which were produced during the days of the pandemic and lockdowns, suggest that the challenges that have long plagued the higher education sector continue to do so. If anything, the publications in this special issue, produced by authors with both academic and professional backgrounds, located across Australia and abroad, suggest that while COVID-19 has presented new challenges and opportunities, many perennial issues remain unchanged. From academic integrity to the role of higher education in regional development; from the importance of leadership to student engagement: underlying each is an ancient and ongoing set of realities. The pace is set by Hannah Bornsztejn, who explores the effectiveness of academic integrity programs on the operation of foundation programs, which provide alternative entry to higher education with academic support to students who have not met the usual direct entry requirements. The paper provides an outline of current, dominant approaches to academic integrity in such programs, which mostly operate along a ‘punitive’ vs ‘educative’ bifurcation. The paper then provides an analysis of selected universities in the Australian state of Victoria that offer foundation programs, finding a preference for a punitive approach towards integrity. But as the author notes, an increasing prevalence of academic integrity breaches suggests a shift in approach might be warranted, one that replaces the punitive approach with one that is educative and supports students to better understand and navigate issues of academic integrity. Scholarship programs are and continue to be a feature common to universities across the globe, being present across all types and forms of universities and other institutes of higher education. But how should these programs be structured to meet an oft-purported aim: namely, as a recruitment tool for academically gifted students. Nathan Crowne considers this question through the example of an overseas campus of a large American public university, which has a scholarship program to attract the ‘best and brightest’ to its academic confines. The case study explores the effectiveness of this individual program, and in doing so, provides a guide by which other universities might judge the merits of their own efforts. The impact of COVID-19 on student engagement is explored in a paper that looks to the strategies of universities with transition and articulation students. The pandemic necessitated a shift in the way universities engage with and support these cohorts, from JOURNAL OF HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY AND MANAGEMENT 2022, VOL. 44, NO. 5, 425–427 https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2022.2113082