Billy Bennett, Vassiliki Papatsiba, Simon Stephens
{"title":"Presidential leadership in higher education: Balancing collaboration and competition in a time of systemic change","authors":"Billy Bennett, Vassiliki Papatsiba, Simon Stephens","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12527","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12527","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research on senior leadership in higher education systems is urgently needed, particularly in the context of system-wide transformations. This study focuses on a critical juncture in Ireland, during which Institutes of Technology (IoTs) collaborated to undergo ‘redesignation’ as Technological Universities (TUs). Based on interviews with the fourteen presidents of the IoTs, this research employs the Community of Practice framework to analyse their interactions, strategies, and approaches to a policy-initiated, systemic change. Despite decades of pervasive competition, these senior leaders formed a community of practice as they worked collectively to achieve the common goal of TU status. Four key themes emerged: <i>Embracing a more expansive external role; Acknowledging obstacles to collective leadership; Forming groups, collaborating and competing; and Leading calmly and fostering unity.</i> The findings of this study advance our understanding of three interconnected fields: senior leadership practices in higher education, the interplay of collaboration and competition in higher education; and the facilitation of policy-induced systemic change within higher education systems. Our findings have significant implications for institutional leaders, policymakers and scholars aiming to comprehend and improve leadership practices in higher education.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.12527","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140666194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Virtual gown and town: The Athabasca University crisis and the conflict of institutional logics","authors":"Glen A. Jones","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12534","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12534","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The objective of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of ‘crisis’ in higher education through the analysis of a unique series of events involving a decisive change in the relationship between a university and the state. A descriptive case study approach is used to investigate the crisis in governance at Athabasca University, an open university located in Alberta, Canada. Factors leading to the crisis included the university leadership's decision to move forward with plans to become a near-virtual organization, concerns by local town that a loss of university employees in the region would be an economic catastrophe, and political opportunism on the part of the elected provincial leaders who decided to address the problems raised by the town and shift the mandate of the university. Drawing on institutional theory and the concept of institutional logics, the paper analyses the episodic nature of the crisis and explores both the nature of the conflict and its resolution.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.12534","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140667936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rethinking academic citizenship for collective agency in times of crisis","authors":"Anatoly V. Oleksiyenko","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12520","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12520","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A crisis constitutes a catalyst for rethinking academic responsibilities in societies facing a major threat. When a crisis escalates, such rethinking moves to the centre of both academic and social discourses, resulting in scrutiny, as well as synergy of scholarship and citizenship. Delving into the existential threats faced by Ukrainian scholars during the genocidal campaign unleashed against their country by Russia in 2022, this paper re-examines academic citizenship in times of war. The interviews analysed in this paper contribute to identifying synergies between scholarship and citizenship, and unpacking a collective agency shaped by crisis. Once peripheralized by neoliberal universities, academic citizenship is acquiring new meanings, while it reframes communal obligations and repositions professional duties in view of the life-and-death choices brought on by the war.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140675278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resource acquisition strategies of joint-venture universities in China: Two cases in the Greater Bay Area","authors":"Xu Liu, Pengfei Pan","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12532","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12532","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As cross-border education continues to evolve, a comprehensive understanding of the latest trends requires an awareness of the behaviours of partner universities and host governments. This case study examines two joint-venture universities in China and compares their institutional approaches to resource acquisition. It compares their strategies in four dimensions: initial launch, choice of name, capacity building, and strategy in leveraging resources from the local government. The divergent strategies show that both universities use their particular advantages to obtain different resources to sustain their development. This study presents a portrait of a dynamic organisational environment for cross-border in China. While the government plays a key role in the establishment of the universities, their resource acquisition effectiveness depends on how successfully they integrate their agendas with local needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140682867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cross-border university choice in China's Greater Bay Area","authors":"Xiujuan Xie, Danling Li, Jisun Jung","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12531","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12531","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study explored Chinese students' motivations for selecting a cross-border university in China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) and how they perceive their undergraduate experiences. The GBA was developed as an international economic cluster in China. Despite the vitality of the GBA's international education sector, few studies have focused on individual students' perspectives on cross-border higher education choices and experiences. We interviewed twenty students and two academics in charge of university admissions about their opinions and reflections concerning a GBA cross-border university. Students' university choices were linked to different admission profiles, parental influences, institutional features and interactions between students and the institutions. Our study has significant implications for leaders and policymakers in higher education seeking to attract talented university students, improve enrolment and promote students' learning experiences in cross-border higher education institutions.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.12531","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140691485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wirginia Aksztejn, Anna Dąbrowska, Paweł Swianiewicz
{"title":"Catching up with the core or the Red Queen phenomenon? Publication strategies of top local government scholars in the context of centrality, institutional reforms and career length","authors":"Wirginia Aksztejn, Anna Dąbrowska, Paweł Swianiewicz","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12528","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12528","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates publication strategies of the most distinguished local government researchers in eight European countries. Drawing upon dependency theory, accumulative advantage theory and ‘utility maximizing’ theory, we compare publication strategies of scholars from countries that vary in terms of the distance from the core of academic knowledge production, also taking into consideration their career length (academic age). The two publication strategies compared are international visibility and domestic visibility. The analysis confirmed the hypothesis that younger scholars are more prone to adopt internationalization strategy which has been institutionally incentivized by NPM reforms. However, the difference among core, catching-up and peripheral countries is not as sizeable as expected.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140579251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using large-scale bibliometric data in higher education research: Methodological implications from three studies","authors":"Marek Kwiek, Hugo Horta, Justin J. W. Powell","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12512","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12512","url":null,"abstract":"<p>All fields of knowledge are challenged to adopt newer, more sophisticated methodologies to cope with growing complexity. Phenomena under study require further multidisciplinary and mixed methods collaborations to achieve expertise able to improve research strategies and practices. Furthermore, traditional methodological approaches face limits to their analytical reach. Here, we demonstrate opportunities from adopting newer, more sophisticated methodologies in the field of higher education (HE) research by comparing three case studies. We argue that such methods and data innovate the mapping and understanding of global HE. These studies uncover novel field characterizations, enabled via analysis of tens of thousands of HE authors and articles over several decades to assess how journal publication, topics, and levels of analysis (individual, organizational, and system) have evolved. Our results imply that to better understand the future of HE worldwide and to address growing challenges, newer methodological directions and data sources will be key to facilitate more comprehensive examinations of the globalizing field. However, our analysis also highlights the technical and learning challenges in implementing these methodologies; thus, we argue for the need to promote more sophisticated methodological training of current and future generations of HE researchers as well as strengthened collaborations across disciplinary, methodological, and cultural boundaries.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140579111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Driving transformation in higher education: Exploring the process and impact of educational innovations for sustainability through interdisciplinary studies","authors":"Sandra Baroudi, Areej ElSayary","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12529","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12529","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In recent years, there has been a growing focus on innovation research, particularly in the manufacturing and information technology sectors in the US and Europe. However, the disruptions caused by the recent pandemic called for more innovations, especially in the education industry. Innovation is viewed as an outcome of a set of various drivers. This study explored faculty perspectives on the drivers of innovation that can transform the curriculum into an interdisciplinary model to promote sustainability in education. Additionally, it examined the relationship between these drivers and the outcome of innovation, particularly at the process level. An explanatory sequential mixed-method approach was employed to collect quantitative and qualitative data from a purposeful sample of 60 faculty members at one federal higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates. Findings indicated that while there is a correlation between the drivers and process of innovation and sustainability in education, other factors played a more significant role in facilitating this transformation. Empowering faculty members and involving them in the process of transformation, connecting them with the institutional vision and mission for innovation, fostering a clear understanding of the value of the transformation, providing faculty with continuous professional learning and development opportunities to promote the use of innovative pedagogical methods, are among the key factors.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140578902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decision making of PhD students regarding careers and employment in East Asia","authors":"Wenqin Shen, Hugo Horta","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12492","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 2","pages":"299-306"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140537571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unravelling the process of idea generation and assessment during the PhD trajectory: A case study approach","authors":"Marie Gruber, Thomas Crispeels","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12523","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.12523","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The three missions of universities are education, research, and knowledge/technology transfer. At the micro-level of the research and knowledge/technology transfer mission, we position researchers, as individuals who decided to pursue a scientific career in academia, with the PhD as the starting point. While existing literature acknowledges the supervisor's significance during this process from dependency to autonomy, this paper advocates for a closer examination of external factors such as the network, supervisor's experience, and work environment in idea generation. Ideas in this context encompass both curiosity-driven and entrepreneurial concepts, often evolving from one to the other. Our research builds upon the theory of opportunity identification, drawing parallels between ideas and opportunities. The research asserts that PhD students primarily rely on their networks for idea generation due to limited prior knowledge and experience. Our findings underscore the dynamic interplay between PhD students, supervisors, and networks in the process of idea generation, advancing a comprehensive framework encapsulating the multifaceted influences on the trajectory from idea generation to execution in the context of PhD education. The framework is based on empirical evidence from a qualitative case study comprising 16 PhD students in a European H2020 project in the field of Photonics, illuminating the intricate relationship between supervisors' orientations (entrepreneurial or curiosity-driven) and the types of ideas generated by PhD students. Practical implications highlight the need for tailored support and resources to foster independent research capabilities among PhD students, considering individual variations in supervisory support and networking opportunities.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.12523","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140579116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}