ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of a collaborative ESRC TLRP project that explores how the social and organisational aspects of the university experience may mediate student learning. The research particularly focuses on how variations in the organisational and social mediation of the institutional and disciplinary environments may impact on the student experience. The student biography is also considered to be a key component when exploring mediating factors on student learning and its outcomes. The nature of the research design means that a range of theoretical perspectives have been deployed and attempts will be made to integrate aspects of these into a coherent, multidisciplinary framework that employs a multi-method approach to data collection and analysis. Empirical data on the student learning experience, and the social and organisational settings of this experience, have been collected across three main discipline areas (Biosciences, Business Studies and Sociology) at five distinct Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Purposive sampling was employed and where possible HEIs were chosen to reflect and represent the social and organisational diversity that exists in contemporary higher education. The project was initiated at the beginning of 2004 and will reach completion at the end of 2007. This chapter outlines the aims of the project, summarises the underpinning theoretical frameworks, describes the project design and methodology and presents some preliminary findings.
