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A twelve-year programme of research (2001-12) led by Professor Gareth Parry on higher education in further education colleges has produced impacts on policy development, institutional strategy and professional practice in England. The beneficiaries are the central authorities for higher and further education, the colleges of further education and their university partners, college managers and tutors, and thereby students and employers. The types of impact are changes to national funding and reporting arrangements; enhancements to policy and organisational learning; and contributions to institutional capacity-building. The vehicles for achieving impact are collaborations with policy, professional and practitioner communities through expert programmes, consultancies, databases, directories and guides to good practice. The reach of the impact is national, cross-sector and institutional, with a wider influence on debates across the UK and international developments including in Australia.
The research has explored issues of quality assurance in UK higher education. It has investigated the design and practice of quality assurance in the UK higher education sector, and especially the regulatory framework within which institutional quality assurance takes place. Changes concerning the focus of quality assurance, the regulation of institutions and the nature of the regulatory framework have been informed and influenced by the research.
The impact is on student equity, retention and success in higher education (HE). The research has informed national policies: Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Office for Fair Access (OFFA), Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), the Cabinet Office, Quality Assurance Agency and the National Union of Students. Findings have influenced institutional policy and practice: 190 examples of how the conceptual framework generated as part of the research has been applied, and the impact of the interventions; 14 institutions are engaged in a three year change programme (2012/13-2014/15) to implement the findings, impacting on 42 programmes and 4453 level 4 students per year.
Impact in this case study focuses on developing an inclusive culture; changes in academic development programmes; and influencing national policy on inclusive learning and teaching in higher education. While student diversity has increased over the last twenty years or so, teaching methods have changed little in response. This has had a knock-on effect on student engagement and success. Research outlined here has influenced how university teachers reframe their understandings and practices of teaching and engaging diverse students. This work has reshaped continuing professional development in university teaching in the UK and internationally and has influenced national policy on inclusive learning and teaching.
Across the Higher Education sector, in the UK and in much of Europe, university lecturers in professional fields are usually appointed on the basis of their practitioner experience and expertise, and they may have little prior experience of teaching at Higher Education level or of research activity. The impact of the research in this case study has been on individuals, Heads of Department, academic developers and universities across the UK in influencing changes in academic induction practices leading to enhanced professional development of university lecturers in professional fields, especially in teacher education, nursing and the allied health professions. The dissemination of the research included the publication by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) of guidelines for academic induction of teacher educators.
This case study focuses on two related areas: the issue of violence against female students and how this is framed by `lad culture' in higher education (HE). It documents five areas where Alison Phipps' research has either directly led or indirectly contributed to change:
This body of funded research has been conducted primarily in collaboration with Professor Mary Stuart (Kingston University, and currently University of Lincoln) as Principal Investigator. The University of West London collaborators are Dr Catherine Lido and Dr Lucy Solomon. The research highlights factors negatively-impacting Widening Participation (WP) student populations in terms of: experiences, progression and academic outcomes, and evaluates/promotes key variables to support WP students in Higher Education and beyond (e.g. postgraduate study, career success). Findings from our triangulated, mixed-methods approach reveals `sense of fit/belonging' and `connection/identification' with the university, as predictors of students' wellbeing, academic self-esteem and academic achievement and retention. The impact can be seen in peer-reviewed books/papers, conferences, online presence and policy/practices within HEIs.
Recent decades have witnessed a rapid decline in youth participation in UK electoral politics, in terms of both voting and party membership. Many authors and political commentators view this situation as marking a crisis in British democracy. Sloam's research and his collaboration with user groups have addressed this important issue and strengthened efforts to engage young people in politics, broadly conceived. In particular, his work has highlighted the growing `participation gaps' between rich and poor young people in the UK and between young people in the UK and across the European Union. Sloam's work on teaching and learning within political science, on citizenship education and on the social role of higher education has informed policy and practice within the educational sector. His research on young people's political participation in British democracy has advanced knowledge about the nature of young people's politics, helping policy-makers form strategy, approaches and indices to create better engagement with the next generation of citizens.
The Healthy Settings Unit at UCLan www.uclan.ac.uk/hsu has contributed to the adoption of the `whole system' settings approach to the promotion of health and wellbeing within a range of sectors nationally and internationally — including higher education and criminal justice. This impact has included: recognition of higher education as a key setting for health improvement by the UK Government, World Health Organization (WHO) and International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE); implementation of Healthy Universities as a model for promoting student, staff and community wellbeing by an expanding number of higher education institutions (HEIs) within the UK and globally; and investment in and roll-out of a whole system Healthy Prison model across North West England — stimulating extensive national and international engagement and debate.
Research by Manfredi (Business) and Vickers (Law) has informed the development of equality policy and practice for to the management of human resources in Higher Education, both nationally and internationally. Work on the implementation of the public sector equality duty has been instrumental in developing the equality policy of HEFCE and the equality framework of the REF 2014. Research on the implications for the management of human resources of the abolition of mandatory retirement has generated knowledge which has demonstrably influenced organisational policy development on age equality and retirement. This has been widely applied in personnel training initiatives, legal briefings and used to develop good practice guidance for employers.