Time! What’s that? You’re joking, I don’t have any!

The purpose of this study is to understand how lecturers delivering college-based higher education viewed their workloads, and how this (if at all), influenced their engagement in scholastic activities, which may then enable them to become more knowledgeable in their chosen field of study. The research was of a qualitative nature, whereby semi-structured, in-depth interviews were undertaken with 26 individual lecturers employed at different further education colleges throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region. It was found that lack of time and onerous administrative responsibilities on top of their current workload were two of the major issues these lecturers were facing in their current roles. As a result, it is recommended that an independent audit be conducted to ascertain FE lecturers’ contact time with students and that ways in which to reduce their administrative duties be considered

An alternative proposition to Lewis’ 2014 views on the ‘Construction of professional identity in a dynamic higher education sector’

This paper offers an alternative proposition to that of Lewis on identity and professional identity in higher education (HE). The proposition is provided from the narratives of twenty-six individual interviewees who deliver HE in college based higher education (CBHE); a viewpoint not considered by Lewis, who tends to adopt a more generalist view. Where Lewis blames the demise of HE on academics, the alternative is considered where it is the managerialist and marketisation practiced by managers and administrators alike, that may be the cause of this demise,; introducing what is often referred to as the ‘McDonaldization of HE’. The paper considers Lewis’ views that the Association of University Administrators should have more power, and take the lead on managing academics, and HE, but finds the arguments both weak and tentative; subsequently one argues that the subjects Lewis discusses are ‘wicked problems’ with little or no real opportunity for resolution

An investigation into the possible effects New Performance Management may have on academic identity and culture within Business Schools in Post 1992 Universities

The purpose of this scoping study is to consider New Performance Management (NPM) in relation to academic identity, culture within business schools taking into consideration job satisfaction and stress and its possible impact upon academic identity. To this end, this paper focuses on one aspect of that study, NPM compared against gender and age range. A critical realism approach is adopted where we can look at how different mechanisms (for example policies and power influences via the UK Government), may impact upon academic identity and the culture the individual works within. The study found that participants identified that their school was driven by targets, and as such had an audit culture. Nevertheless, we found this was not always the case among those who were inexperienced at teaching in HE, and/or were relatively new to the school

Organisational culture of further education colleges delivering higher education business programmes: developing a culture of ‘HEness’ – what next?

This paper draws on the views of lecturers working in and delivering college-based higher education (CBHE) in the UK. There have been numerous works on the culture of higher education in further education (HE in FE). However, as noted by some literati, the culture of further education (FE) is not easy to define, and does not readily lend itself to the incorporation of a higher education (HE) culture. This could be due to the large number of changes FE has had to adopt owing to various government policies. The study comprises 26 in-depth individual interviews conducted at various further education colleges throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region of the UK. Via the use of an interpretivist approach, common themes and word use were extracted from the narratives for analysis. The organisational culture of these further education colleges was relatively easy to define, the word ‘blame’ being one of the common themes. However, when identifying if the individual colleges had a HE culture; this proved more difficult

From proposal to thesis: writing an undergraduate dissertation

This book is full of useful advice and tips on how to write your thesis, taking you through the whole process: from getting started and collecting data to handing it in. The information Denis Feather provides here is based on ten years of teaching research methodologies and supervising students at all levels

The Value of the Undergraduate Dissertation: Perceptions of Supervisors

Dissertations are a common feature of final year undergraduate study, but there has been little research into their impact on student performance and satisfaction (Hammick and Acker, 1998; Webster et al., 2000; Pathirage et al., 2004), and even less into the perceptions and attitudes of their academic supervisors. The research reported in this paper is part of the project entitled: ‘Dissertation in the Business and Management Undergraduate Curriculum: Value Adding and Value for Money?’ The second phase of the project complements a quantitative study of student achievement (see Anchor et al., 2009), by investigating perceptions of the undergraduate dissertation by members of staff. The data for this part of the project was collected by means of a questionnaire survey sent to staff within the Departments of Leadership & Management and Strategy and Marketing at the University of Huddersfield Business School; a sample for follow-up interviews was also self-identified in the responses to the questionnaire survey. Issues focused upon in the questionnaire and interviews include whether students have the capacity to undertake a dissertation, their perceptions of its values and impact upon their results, and staff views of the demands that dissertation supervision places upon them. This paper focuses particularly on staff perceptions of value. The main findings are that the dissertation still has currency today, but needs to be evaluated to ensure that it is meeting the needs of different stakeholders. Further, that despite the perceived academic rigor of the dissertation, the lecturers believed that it gave students the ability to reach a level whereby they become autonomous learners

How to write a research methodology for an undergraduate dissertation

Introduction The marking criteria for the dissertation is likely to carry different weightings for the grading of this chapter in your dissertation thesis, to that of your research proposal (See Feather, 2010, on How to Write an Undergraduate Marketing Dissertation Proposal). For example, here at The Business School at the University of Huddersfield, there is more weighting given to the methodology in the proposal, than in the main disseration. The reasoning behind this, is that, if you can get it right for the proposal, it should be straight forward when it comes to the research methodology chapter in the thesis, as you may be just changing it a little depending upon what has impacted on your research whilst you were undertaking the primary data collection, and writing up the various chapters of your thesis. Therefore, you may be in a position where you are simply tightening up your writing in line with your supervisor’s comments, the feedback you received on this section in your proposal, and changing the pre-tense to the past-tense. Having said this, in all my years of experience supervising and grading students’ work, this chapter appears to be the weak link in the chain of writing for the undergraduate dissertation. Mainly, because it may be the first time that students have been introduced to such concepts of phenomenology, interpretivism, epistimology, feminism, action reseach, positivsim and so on. These are very scary words to some students (Quinlan, 2011), but you should not be put off by these words, as it is these words, and the knowledge acquired by reading, understanding and applying these words that will make your work stand out, and possibly gain you those extra marks you feel you may need in order to meet your desired objective. That is, in obtaining a good grade for your dissertation that counts towards your degree classification. Some dissertations (at some institutions), are 40 credit modules, and therefore, are equivalent to two 20 credit modules. So it is important that you get this part right, as it is your plan of action, or, how you intend to undertake (pre-tense for the proposal), or have taken (past-tense for the dissertation), for your chosen research subject

Undergraduate dissertations and student performance in business studies and marketing, 2004-2009: evidence from an English business school

This report analyses the relationship between final year full-time students’ overall marks and their dissertation marks. A literature review identifies a number of previous studies of factors influencing undergraduate student achievement in higher education. However there is a paucity of studies which have included the role of the dissertation in their analyses. In the light of the extant literature, various factors that might impact on the dissertation marks of undergraduate students are identified. These factors are subject to empirical analysis via a data-set of full-time undergraduate students in Business Studies and Marketing attending the University of Huddersfield Business School between 2004 and 2009. It is found that there is no statistical difference in the performance of the (Business Studies) students for whom the dissertation is compulsory and those (Marketing) students for whom it is optional. The dissertation mark and the work placement are found to be major influences on the final year average mark. Gender is much less important. Second year marks are a good predictor of dissertation marks and final year marks