ABSTRACT

Research on higher education has yielded many insights that have improved our theoretical and practical understanding but there are still many themes that continue to appear on research agendas, provoking renewed focus on these complex questions and problems. Researching Higher Education explores these issues, examining topics such as equity in access and participation, the relationship between higher education and society, how and what students learn and the professional development of academics.

In this volume, contributors from Europe, Australia, Africa and the US critically address ongoing issues with a set of key questions to guide their analysis: What do we know? What are the missing links and gaps in past research? What are the implications for further research?

Key themes include:

  • The nature of higher education
  • Higher education and society
  • Staff and students in higher education
  • Teaching and learning
  • Curriculum and assessment

Critical, engaging and international in scope, Researching Higher Education will be a valuable guide for academics, researchers, postgraduate students and policy makers in the higher education community.

part I|130 pages

Higher education and society

chapter 3|19 pages

Public engagement in higher education

The state of the art

chapter 8|19 pages

Policy-making in higher education

Is a ‘theory of everything' possible?

part II|96 pages

Curriculum, teaching and learning

chapter 9|18 pages

The professional development of academics as teachers

Reconsiderations

chapter 12|18 pages

‘Student experience' surveys

Political, theoretical and empirical dimensions

chapter 13|20 pages

Mind the gap

The chasm between research and practice in teaching and learning with technology

part III|14 pages

Conclusions

chapter 14|12 pages

More than the sum of its parts

Higher education research explored