Special Interest Group
The transition from elite to mass higher education systems is a significant global development that forms the broader context for educational research that seeks to understand the experiences of Higher Education students, academics, teaching teams, change agents, leaders, departments, subject disciplines, professional fields, and institutions. There is a need for perspectives and analyses that not only critique but also challenge current policy frameworks and evolving practices within and across Higher Education. Within the universalising tendencies of the neoliberal regime, contradictions exist within – and between – the increasing dominance of managerialist principles, the standardisation of learning and practice (under the banner of ‘quality assurance’), consumer-based practices and expectations. The aim of the Higher Education special interest group is to contribute towards and enhance critical debates and perspectives on higher education policy, pedagogy and practice. This is a broad remit that embraces interdisciplinary research with critical research methodologies, theories and philosophies.
Recent research papers and symposia presented by SIG members have included the following themes:
The SIG aims to create a supportive network of educational researchers through building symposia for the main conference, through smaller scale activity during the year, by supporting new and early career researchers, and by building links with other higher education research networks.
Senior Lecturer in Education at Liverpool John Moores University
Craig A. Hammond is Senior Lecturer in Education at Liverpool John Moores University; prior to moving to LJMU, Craig taught across further education and college based higher education (CBHE) for 18 years. From 2015 to 2017 Craig was the Research...
Research Fellow at University of Exeter
Sanja Djerasimovic is a research fellow at the University of Exeter, where she studies the broad but interconnected areas of higher education policy, academic identity and practice, particularly among early career academics, and citizenship. More...
Fuelled by rapid growth in degree apprenticeships and the number of public services requiring mandatory higher education (HE) qualifications, there is a significant and ongoing rise in the number...
Continue readingA systematic scoping review of the literature on the structures & processes that influence research activities in the UK
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused most postgraduate research (PGR) students to encounter research restrictions and undertake their research duties from home (see Burridge et al., 2020)....
Continue readingThis report presents a mixed-methods investigation of how Covid-19 affected the ways in which teacher educators in Wales engaged their students with learning, and how the switch to online delivery...
An interest in students’ sense of belonging to their universities or colleges has been gathering momentum in research on student persistence at their chosen institution (Hausmann et al., 2007;...
Continue readingBeing a PhD student can be a lonely business – the challenges of sustaining momentum and motivation have been well documented even in those halcyon pre-pandemic days, including in previous posts...
Continue readingI really enjoyed participating in the BERA Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network’s symposium series, which is a great platform for practitioners and researchers to get together and talk about...
Continue readingIn the most recent issue of Research Intelligence (#145), BERA president Dominic Wyse follows up his presidential address with a declaration that it is essential for education to be regarded as a...
Continue reading
