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1.
The higher education sector in the UK continues to experience significant change. This includes restructuring, use of short‐term contracts, external scrutiny and accountability, and major reductions in funding. In line with this, reports of stress at work in higher education institutions have also increased. The study reported here was carried out using a stratified random sample of all categories of staff (academic and non‐academic) from 14 UK universities and colleges. Levels of occupational stress were measured using the ASSET model. The results showed that the most significant source of stress for all higher education staff (irrespective of category of employee) was job insecurity. In comparison to the normative data, staff also reported significantly higher levels of stress relating to work relationships, control, and resources and communication, and significantly lower levels of commitment both from and to their organization. However, they also reported significantly lower levels of stress relating to work‐life balance, overload and job overall, and lower levels of physical ill‐health. Significant differences were identified between staff working at Old versus New universities and by category of employee. These results support the growing evidence that universities no longer provide the low stress working environments they once did.  相似文献   

2.
Assessment regulations in higher education, which are important for assuring threshold academic standards, reflect institutional cultures and histories, and are shaped by pragmatic concerns about quality indicators such as retention and progression rates, as well as principles of equity. This paper articulates some of the tensions that confront higher education institutions in the development and revision of regulatory frameworks, and describes a survey of assessment regulations from a sample of UK higher education institutions for the first year of undergraduate study. The survey identifies key variations in regulatory policy and practice that challenge assumptions about comparability of academic standards between higher education institutions. These findings imply that student success and progression may not be a simple reflection of academic attainment, and raise questions about notions of equity. It is intended that this research will contribute to informed discussion in the sector about academic standards and the regulatory frameworks underpinning first-year assessment policy and practice, and thus potentially lead to more transparent and consistent practice.  相似文献   

3.
Extensive change is evident in higher education in the People's Republic of China but there have been few studies of the effect of work stress on wellbeing in the higher education sector. The main aim of this study is to test and refine the ASSET (‘An Organizational Stress Screening Tool’) model of occupational stress in a sample of 150 academic and non‐academic employees in a Chinese higher education institute. Using partial least squares modelling, the findings showed that job stressors predicted job dissatisfaction but, surprisingly, did not predict perceived commitment. Employees who reported job dissatisfaction tended to perceive that their organisation was less committed towards them and report less commitment towards the organisation. Job stressors resulted in poorer psychological wellbeing. Greater psychological wellbeing was associated with greater physical wellbeing. The findings suggest that university management should introduce strategies aimed at minimising job stressors as these would result in higher level of job satisfaction, higher level of commitment and ultimately resulted in an improvement in physical health.  相似文献   

4.
This article focuses on the theory and practice of teamwork in ‘top management teams’ in UK higher education institutions. It is informed by some of the key findings from a recent two‐year research project sponsored by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education that investigated the different ways in which UK higher education institutions organise their ‘top management’ and ‘senior management’ structures ( Kennie and Woodfield, 2008 ). The authors discuss literature from the corporate and higher education sectors on the meaning of ‘teamwork’ in top teams (e.g. Bensimon and Neumann, 1993 ; Katzenbach, 1998 ; Wageman et al., 2008 ) and relate the findings to the challenges of top level team working in higher education settings. Particular issues discussed include: the terminology related to higher education top teams, areas of decision‐making and time‐management, team orientation and agenda setting, team behaviours and team roles, team performance and evaluation, location, logistical support and resources, and team development. The authors conclude that the challenges of top team working in higher education settings are similar to those found in the corporate sector, albeit nuanced by different organisational cultures, and suggest some key principles to help top teams in higher education institutions improve their ability to work effectively together.  相似文献   

5.
This article begins by tracing the history of higher education in the United States from its origins in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century in private, elite, church‐related institutions to the large‐scale mass higher education situation of today in which well over half the total enrollment is in public secular institutions. The author feels that the State and the Federal governments overly favoured the public sector during the period of massive expansion which began in the 1950's. More importantly, he is very much concerned about the decline in academic standards which set in once total enrollments exceeded 15% of the available college‐age cohorts. The process of decline continues, he argues, as public demand for equal access to higher education has led to equally strident demands for equal results. As results cannot in fact be made equal, given differences in the human condition, the solution to the dilemma has been the adulteration of certification which has as its result the undermining of an essential base of democracy, an educated citizenry.  相似文献   

6.
This study utilises the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) model of job stress to predict several indices of well-being in academics in the UK: mental ill health, job satisfaction and leaving intentions. This model posits that (a) employees who believe that their efforts are not counterbalanced by sufficient rewards will experience impaired well-being and (b) feelings of ERI are more frequent and damaging in employees who are overcommitted to the job. A sample of 649 academic employees working in UK higher education institutions completed validated measures. Findings showed that academics who found their work more demanding, who perceived greater rewards and who were less overcommitted typically reported poorer well-being across all measures. Rewards related to esteem/support and financial/status appeared to be particularly important in protecting academics from the negative impact of work-related efforts. Potential interventions are discussed that draw on the ERI framework to improve mental health, satisfaction and retention in the sector.  相似文献   

7.
Academic culture now places high expectations on researchers to demonstrate research productivity alongside teaching, leadership and knowledge exchange. In two studies of researchers across career stages in UK higher education institutions (HEIs), we examined workplace climate within academic departments as (1) supportive of researchers' needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, (2) publish-or-perish focused and (3) hyper-competitive. In Study 1 (multiwave from 2018 to 2020), need support predicted researchers' lower turnover intention 2 years later, even when controlling for concurrent need support, and career and economic conditions. In Study 2, need support correlated with academic well-being (lower job strain and turnover intention, greater job satisfaction) in a nationwide sample of 2951 researchers. Study 2 found that need support related to improved, and a hyper-competitive motivational climate related to undermined, well-being. Results were mixed for publish-or-perish climate. Performative demands can have deleterious effects on researcher well-being.  相似文献   

8.
Drawing on case studies of 27 working‐class students across four UK higher education institutions, this article attempts to develop a multilayered, sociological understanding of student identities that draws together social and academic aspects. Working with a concept of student identity that combines the more specific notion of learner identity with more general understandings of how students are positioned in relation to their discipline, their peer group and the wider university, the article examines the influence of widely differing academic places and spaces on student identities. Differences between institutions are conceptualised in terms of institutional habitus, and the article explores how the four different institutional habituses result in a range of experiences of fitting in and standing out in higher education. For some this involves combining a sense of belonging in both middle‐class higher education and working‐class homes, while others only partially absorb a sense of themselves as students.  相似文献   

9.
Abstract

The paper presents a case‐study about the experience of leading sector‐wide change from within a national agency. This experience is analysed in relation to the literature on leadership and change and against the back‐drop of wider social, economic and political changes affecting higher education in the UK ‐ changes that have parallels in other countries. From the literature, the author draws out certain ‘principles’ about leading change and highlights the activities that were developed in practice. The case that is discussed is that of the 3‐year ‘Graduate Standards Programme’ mounted by the former Higher Education Quality Council in the UK. This Programme (the GSP) was formally set up to define and establish threshold standards for undergraduate degrees in the UK, but also sought to examine UK approaches to defining and assuring standards in the light of far‐reaching changes affecting the higher education system. Lessons about leadership, managing change and quality enhancement in an academic context are drawn out. The author concludes that ‘good process’ is more important than the static notion of ‘good practice’ when seeking to create and lead change in higher education.  相似文献   

10.
The paper considers whether, and if so how, research evidence can permeate the world of higher education (HE) management in publicly funded institutions. The paper explores the author's experience of two recent research projects (1998–2000 and 2004) on aspects of managing UK HE institutions and issues arising from the preparation of the HE element of a third study of leadership and public service change agendas in education and health during 2004. Despite the topicality in education and other public services of debates about evidence‐based practice, there is little indication that this debate has permeated HE management qua management. The paper utilises Bourdieu's work on academics and social and cultural capital to explore why manager‐academics may resist taking the findings of research seriously in relation to their own work. It is suggested that, where there is reluctance to learn from research, this may reflect the changing nature of HE, the status of HE research as an academic field and form of academic capital and the relative paucity until recently of training in management for most UK manager‐academics.  相似文献   

11.
The article discusses the establishment of a vocational sector in Swiss higher education as a complement to the existing two‐tier system of cantonal Universities and federal Institutes of technology. The origins of this new player, its missions and organisational features are discussed. This overall discussion is placed into the context of changing landscape of Swiss higher education policy characterised by increasing pressures for geographical reorganisation of the higher education sector under the auspices of a more direct role of the federal government. The article makes two points. First, it argues that the creation of a vocational sector in Swiss higher education combines two contradictory trends. On the one hand, this new sector tends to provide differentiation at the system level, through the creation of a new, more marked‐oriented sector of higher education. On the other hand, system differentiation at the system level is threatened by increased demands for greater inter‐institutional cooperation and system integration, emanating principally from the federal level. Second, the article also argues that the distinction between ‘academic/scientific’ vs. ‘vocational/professional’ education generally referred to when studying the emergence of non‐university sectors in higher education, is not pertinent for the analysis of the Swiss case. Two reasons are brought forward to sustain this argument. First, this distinction reinforces an artificial binary divide, no longer relevant to assess the evolution of higher education institutions placed in a context of academic and vocational drifts. Second, the ‘academic’ vs. ‘professional’ opposition does not take into consideration the political organisation of the country and how this impacts on policy making in higher education; a crucial element in the Swiss context.  相似文献   

12.
Student employment is increasingly common in many countries. Compared to earlier decades, not only more students work but they also work longer hours. Among European countries Estonia is one of the clear “leaders” in student employment. This study uses survey data from 2,496 students in Estonian public and private universities to examine the reasons for working on such a massive scale and its consequences on academic success. The results show that, unlike in most other countries, Estonian students from more privileged families are as likely to work as students from poorer families and they are even more likely to have a full-time job. Furthermore, working seems to have only a marginal negative effect on academic progress. These results seem to support the theory that in Eastern European countries student employment has become a signal of students’ capabilities and ambition, and that relatively low academic standards contribute to the strength of the signaling mechanism. A long-term solution to student employment would require changes in quality standards, student financing, alternative higher education opportunities, and perceptions of students, employers, and academics.  相似文献   

13.
This paper considers the case for reform of management structures in UK universities and offers proposals for change. The model of top-down, performance-led management that characterises many institutions is both outmoded and ill-suited to the challenges of an increasingly turbulent higher education sector. Drawing on the experiences of a university that introduced a new scheme of performance management, I explore alternative approaches to leadership and management, collaborative or partnership working designed to improve employee voice and the need to re-evaluate approaches to Human Resource Management. I conclude with a five-point model for change.  相似文献   

14.
The professional capacity of managers has always been a crucial factor in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of any organization. In the education sector, the education managers working at different administrative levels are responsible for the planning and management of educational institutions toward achieving the goals of the education sector. This article attempts to explore the capacity‐building needs of the heads of Islamabad Model Schools in the context of their job requirements. Data were collected from 50 head teachers of Islamabad Model Schools through questionnaires and focus group discussions. In Islamabad Capital Territory, there is no education management cadre; therefore teachers are appointed as head of schools by virtue of their seniority. These heads usually lack the required management skills to manage an educational institution. Moreover, there are no arrangements for building the capacity of these newly appointed school heads to run these institutions. While managing the educational institutions, head teachers have to perform various important functions for which they need managerial skills. It has been discovered that head teachers needed training in different areas of management, including financial management, office management, personnel management, school improvement, planning, community participation, and computer literacy. The head teachers of Islamabad Model Schools need service management training in various areas of management to enhance the knowledge and skills they need to run educational institutions efficiently and effectively.  相似文献   

15.
What happens when neoliberalism as a structural and structuring force is taken up within institutions of higher education, and works upon academics in higher education individually? Employing a critical authoethnographic approach, this paper explores the way technologies of research performance management, specifically, work to produce academics (and academic managers) as particular kinds of neoliberal subject. The struggle to make oneself visible is seen to occur under the gaze of academic normativity – the norms of academic practice that include both locally negotiated practices and the performative demands of auditing and metrics that characterise the neoliberal university. The paper indicates how the dual process of being worked upon and working upon ourselves can produce personally harmful effects. The result is a process of systemic violence. This paper invites higher education workers and policy-makers to think higher education otherwise and to reconsider our personal and collective complicity in the processes shaping higher education.  相似文献   

16.
A tendency towards academic drift and the blurring of boundaries exists in most differentiated higher education institutions as faculty members, particularly in non‐university sector institutions, seek to emulate the research paradigm of universities. As non‐university sector institutions perform essential educational and training roles in meeting the labour requirements of complex developed societies, their specific characteristics and functions must be protected. The best way to guarantee protection is to maintain the separate administrative identities of non‐university sector institutions and to encourage an ethos favouring such separation.  相似文献   

17.
Abstract

The relationships and differences in how academic staff perceive their work and organisation are of great importance for human resource strategies in the higher education sector. The present study examines work‐related attitudes of academic staff, namely job satisfaction, self‐efficacy and organisational commitment. The purpose is to analyse how these attitudes differ among groups of individuals. Results show that there is an alternative way of classifying academic staff into distinct groups based on work‐related attitudes apart from the conventional classification based on position alone. Findings suggest that university managers should be careful in balancing between different systems of control or incentive.  相似文献   

18.
The qualifications that constitute the employability and identity of graduates are viewed differently by the academic community and the industry. Currently, it is observed for Information Technologies (IT) sector that the demands of the industry are not always satisfied by the perceived standards of the graduates. To provide feedback to the corresponding departments, a survey regarding employer expectations and factors affecting these expectations has been conducted among a number of senior professionals and managers working in the IT sector in Turkey regarding this inconsistency. The employer expectations are considered in two empirical categories as competencies and adequacies. The multiple regression analysis technique has been used to analyze the survey data. Based on the analysis, recommendations are provided to IT departments as well as their students to better fulfill the demands of the industry.  相似文献   

19.
The development of various national and supra‐national accreditation systems is currently being discussed as a possible response to an increasingly internationalized and deregulated higher education sector. However, the establishment of such procedures may have unintended consequences, not least with respect to limiting the diversity of higher education. By studying a number of accreditation reports in the field of business administration (the EQUIS system), the paper discusses whether this procedure manages to balance the need for minimum standards with demands related to institutional diversity and development.  相似文献   

20.
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