{"title":"Unspeakability in Doctoral Supervision: Exploring Academic Taboos Through Metaphors in South Korea","authors":"Kyungmee Lee, Hackjung Kim, Dongil Kim","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70119","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although doctoral supervision is central to doctoral students' academic development and well-being, students' candid perspectives on advisory relationships often remain unspoken due to academic taboos surrounding critique of advisors. This study examines how doctoral students in South Korea perceive and navigate advisory relationships under conditions of academic unspeakability shaped by Confucian cultural norms and neoliberal academic pressures. Employing metaphor analysis, the study conceptualises metaphors as both a methodological tool and empirical data that enable indirect articulation of emotionally and politically sensitive experiences. Data were collected from an online survey of 406 doctoral students and four focus group interviews with 24 participants at a research-intensive Korean university. The findings show that doctoral students use metaphors to express a wide range of emotions toward their advisors, including admiration, disappointment, fear, neglect and ambivalence, with the same metaphors often carrying contradictory meanings. The study further reveals that doctoral students actively manage unspeakability through emotional reframing, relational calibration via <i>nunchi</i> (reading the room) and pragmatic compliance or instrumentalization. These strategies sustain advisory relationships while simultaneously reproducing conditions of silence. The study highlights unspeakability as a governing condition shaping doctoral subjectivity and emotional labour.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.70119","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147566036","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":"Imagining the Future of Internationalisation in Higher Education: A Discourse Analysis of the Key Reports","authors":"Abdullah Bağcı","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70116","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.70116","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>As the internationalisation of higher education (IHE) evolves, there is a growing need to critically assess its guiding discourses and future directions. The study analyses two major internationalisation reports using categorical and critical discourse analysis to identify prevailing narratives and their alignment with both mainstream/neoliberal and critical frameworks. The findings reveal a continued emphasis on student mobility, business and industry demand and rankings, suggesting the enduring influence of the market-driven mainstream paradigm alongside emerging, though still secondary, themes of equity, inclusion and sustainability in alignment with critical internationalisation frameworks. These coexisting discourses and observed trends reflect a field in flux, marked by the dynamic interplay between established priorities and emerging critical agendas aimed at fostering a more equitable and sustainable future for internationalisation.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147566081","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":"Imagining the Future of Internationalisation in Higher Education: A Discourse Analysis of the Key Reports","authors":"Abdullah Bağcı","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70116","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>As the internationalisation of higher education (IHE) evolves, there is a growing need to critically assess its guiding discourses and future directions. The study analyses two major internationalisation reports using categorical and critical discourse analysis to identify prevailing narratives and their alignment with both mainstream/neoliberal and critical frameworks. The findings reveal a continued emphasis on student mobility, business and industry demand and rankings, suggesting the enduring influence of the market-driven mainstream paradigm alongside emerging, though still secondary, themes of equity, inclusion and sustainability in alignment with critical internationalisation frameworks. These coexisting discourses and observed trends reflect a field in flux, marked by the dynamic interplay between established priorities and emerging critical agendas aimed at fostering a more equitable and sustainable future for internationalisation.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147565958","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":"Employment and Employability at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Perspectives of Undergraduate Students in Cambodia","authors":"Chealy Chet, Serey Sok, Chan Oeurn Chey, Leng Un, Veasna Sou, Chansopheak Keng, Chenda Our, Punleu Thou","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.70115","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper has adopted an employability model introduced by the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) in 2004 to examine student employment at Cambodia's Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), focusing on the situation of employability during their studies and after graduation, as well as the antecedents of job capacity. The research is based on an online survey conducted among 482 students from 37 private and public universities across the nation. We also conducted key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, and a focus group discussion (FGD) for qualitative data. The research used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and the Chi-square test for quantitative analysis, and we also adopted qualitative interpretation to explain and clarify the survey findings. The research reveals that HEIs have promoted access to knowledge, skills, and competencies in response to the demands of the job market. The research finds that the monthly salaries obtained by students during their studies are inadequate to hire employees with high job capacity. There is a negative relationship between job capacity and expected salaries after graduation. Students with low job capacity tend to expect a high monthly salary upon graduation. Competencies are a mediating research variable to job capacity. The students have access to university knowledge and experience from the workplace. The paper uses SEM to contribute to the literature on employability from Cambodia's HEIs, focusing on knowledge, skills, competencies, career development, and job capacity. In the future, policymakers, planners, practitioners, educators, students, and parents may consider promoting employability at HEIs by increasing collaboration among key stakeholders to create opportunities for students in building skills and competencies for job-readiness after graduation.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147562999","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":"Employment and Employability at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): Perspectives of Undergraduate Students in Cambodia","authors":"Chealy Chet, Serey Sok, Chan Oeurn Chey, Leng Un, Veasna Sou, Chansopheak Keng, Chenda Our, Punleu Thou","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70115","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.70115","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper has adopted an employability model introduced by the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) in 2004 to examine student employment at Cambodia's Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), focusing on the situation of employability during their studies and after graduation, as well as the antecedents of job capacity. The research is based on an online survey conducted among 482 students from 37 private and public universities across the nation. We also conducted key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, and a focus group discussion (FGD) for qualitative data. The research used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and the Chi-square test for quantitative analysis, and we also adopted qualitative interpretation to explain and clarify the survey findings. The research reveals that HEIs have promoted access to knowledge, skills, and competencies in response to the demands of the job market. The research finds that the monthly salaries obtained by students during their studies are inadequate to hire employees with high job capacity. There is a negative relationship between job capacity and expected salaries after graduation. Students with low job capacity tend to expect a high monthly salary upon graduation. Competencies are a mediating research variable to job capacity. The students have access to university knowledge and experience from the workplace. The paper uses SEM to contribute to the literature on employability from Cambodia's HEIs, focusing on knowledge, skills, competencies, career development, and job capacity. In the future, policymakers, planners, practitioners, educators, students, and parents may consider promoting employability at HEIs by increasing collaboration among key stakeholders to create opportunities for students in building skills and competencies for job-readiness after graduation.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147562773","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}
Elke Stracke, Jen Webb, Allyson Holbrook, Rachel Burke, Vijay Kumar
{"title":"Learning From Failure for Doctoral Education","authors":"Elke Stracke, Jen Webb, Allyson Holbrook, Rachel Burke, Vijay Kumar","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70114","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.70114","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Failure in doctoral education is a taboo topic for many supervisors and doctoral candidates. Failure in thesis doctoral examination is hard to admit to or explain and has not been deeply investigated. We aim to disrupt the silence around failure in the doctoral context and generate new discussions relevant to doctoral education. We conduct a theoretical integrative review (TIR), which allows for the inclusion of primary research studies, along with other documents (such as policy documents), in the international context. We seek to explore the learning potentials presented by a better understanding of failure to influence the broader debates about the future of the doctorate in times of uncertainty and crisis.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.70114","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147562602","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}
Elke Stracke, Jen Webb, Allyson Holbrook, Rachel Burke, Vijay Kumar
{"title":"Learning From Failure for Doctoral Education","authors":"Elke Stracke, Jen Webb, Allyson Holbrook, Rachel Burke, Vijay Kumar","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70114","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.70114","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Failure in doctoral education is a taboo topic for many supervisors and doctoral candidates. Failure in thesis doctoral examination is hard to admit to or explain and has not been deeply investigated. We aim to disrupt the silence around failure in the doctoral context and generate new discussions relevant to doctoral education. We conduct a theoretical integrative review (TIR), which allows for the inclusion of primary research studies, along with other documents (such as policy documents), in the international context. We seek to explore the learning potentials presented by a better understanding of failure to influence the broader debates about the future of the doctorate in times of uncertainty and crisis.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.70114","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147562338","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}
Kalypso Iordanou, Panayiota Metallidou, Plousia Misailidi, Paris Vogazianos, Mary Koutselini, Eleonora Papaleontiou-Louca, Demetra Georgiou, István Zsigmond, Ágnes Bálint, Piedade Vaz Rebelo
{"title":"Teachers' Personal and Teaching Epistemic Practices: A Four-Country Survey and Interview Exploration of Argumentation Implementation","authors":"Kalypso Iordanou, Panayiota Metallidou, Plousia Misailidi, Paris Vogazianos, Mary Koutselini, Eleonora Papaleontiou-Louca, Demetra Georgiou, István Zsigmond, Ágnes Bálint, Piedade Vaz Rebelo","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70106","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.70106","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Three hundred and eighteen in-service teachers from Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Hungary participated in a professional training program aimed at promoting their metacognitive and epistemic thinking and practices, with argumentation as a prominent teaching practice. Pre-program survey results revealed that teachers' personal and teaching epistemic practices were underdeveloped, with particularly low engagement in the latter. Personal epistemic practices predicted teaching ones. Cultural differences emerged, with Greek and Cypriot teachers reporting higher engagement in both epistemic practices than Romanian and Hungarian teachers. In-depth interviews with six Greek and Cypriot teachers who implemented argumentation post-program indicated that argument-based practices improved students' epistemic understanding, particularly in appreciating multiple perspectives, evaluating sources and using evidence. Teachers acknowledged receiving limited preparation for promoting students' epistemic understanding and argumentation skills. These findings highlight the need for higher education programs to develop pre- and in-service teachers' epistemic practices. Implications for higher education and policymakers are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.70106","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147288325","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":"The Impact of War on Ukrainian Universities: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis and Post-War Recovery Strategies","authors":"Olena Brintseva","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70113","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.70113","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The full-scale Russian invasion and the ongoing war have a significant impact on the Ukrainian higher education system, which is primarily related to material losses caused by damage and destruction of universities and infrastructure, decreased funding, the departure of some students and university teachers abroad, decreased research productivity, and educational losses due to studying in difficult conditions. This study compares data from the pre-war year (2021) with the period following the onset of the full-scale invasion (2022–2024) across affected and unaffected institutions in order to evaluate the war's effects on Ukrainian universities using a Difference-in-Differences approach. The results indicate significant losses in conflict-affected regions, with universities experiencing declines in public funding, student numbers, increased faculty attrition, and reduced academic productivity. The study suggests cluster-based strategies for the post-war recovery of Ukrainian universities, given the diversity of institutional profiles, needs, and capacities.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.70113","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146217274","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":"Enhancing Academic Integrity: Drivers, Barriers, and Governance Pathways in China","authors":"Xu Liu, Jia Hao Luo, Tan Yun, Xiang Lan","doi":"10.1111/hequ.70107","DOIUrl":"10.1111/hequ.70107","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>In recent years, the rapid growth in global research output has been accompanied by an increasing challenge of research integrity. This study, taking China as an example, systematically examines the drivers, barriers, and governance strategies of research integrity through policy text analysis and in-depth interviews, revealing a complex network of problems composed of institutional pressure, alienation of evaluation systems, and technical challenges. It finds the culture of ‘publish or perish’ resulting from a quantitative assessment system, uneven distribution of research resources, and lack of enough academic ethics education to be the main barriers to research integrity. Although the government has established a multi-level governance system, policy implementation still faces challenges. With the rapid development of AI technology, new forms of academic misconduct pose challenges to the traditional regulatory model. Based on the research findings, this paper proposes suggestions to promote research integrity, ranging from passive compliance to active self-discipline.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"80 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146211373","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}