Process to practice: The evolving role of the academic middle manager in English further education colleges

The English further education sector has undergone significant change since the Further and Higher Education Act (1992) encouraged a culture of entrepreneurship, competition and the use of what was seen as best practice from the commercial sector. This led to a cultural shift and the introduction of many new initiatives – a situation that still exists now. The implementation of these initiatives was often delegated to middle managers – a group of people who occupied the gap between the senior leaders and the lecturers in the classroom. Current austerity measures, restructuring and the shift towards the creation of larger organizations have resulted in reorganizations that could present opportunities for middle managers to participate in the strategic processes and leadership of the organization, further developing their role (Greatbatch and Tate, 2018). The purpose of this article is to investigate the leadership and management aspects of the middle-manager’s role within the context of further education in England. Although many managers in the sector are reluctant to identify as leaders (Briggs, 2006), our research shows that their role has evolved so that they are undertaking a range of activities that could be classified as leadership. We suggest that using ‘practice’ rather than ‘process’ as a descriptor of the role would reframe, identify and bring forward the leadership aspects of what they do. Encouraging a focus on a holistic, practice-based approach, rather than a succession of process-driven tasks, could help managers to perform their role more effectively. Findings taken from interviews with 32 participants and a questionnaire with 302 responses are used to illustrate our argument. © 2019 British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS)

Fishing vessel capsizing model tests: time domain analysis

Capsizing model tests were conducted at SSPA Maritime Consulting AB test facility on a 1:14 scale model if a 19.8m fishing vessel. This report describes the time domain analysis carried out on the test data. Time series plots are included as separate volumes.NRC publication: Ye

Establishment of a Working Data Base for the International Exchange of 14C Data Using Universal Transfer Formats

From the 12th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Trondheim, June 24-28, 1985.A high-level record structure for the international communication of 14C data bases is proposed. The record structure is based on the high-level communication format first proposed by the authors at the 23rd International Symposium on Archaeometry, Naples, 1983 and does not require the abandonment of existing systems. A description is given of an implementation of the high-level system at Harwell, with examples of retrieval in an international format (the Radiocarbon date list format) and a keyword-organized local format.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

Marketing imperative or cultural challenge? Embedding widening participation in the further education sector

The government's widening participation agenda places financial imperatives on further education (FE) sector colleges to re-focus their institutional vision and their marketing strategy. At first sight widening participation may be seen as essentially a marketing issue, with two key challenges. Facilitating choice involves enabling an engagement with learning for those who have considered FE but have rejected it because of economic, social, cultural or community barriers. Increasing demand requires colleges to reach out to those for whom engagement with learning has traditionally never been part of their lifestyle horizons. Both are new, but recognisable, marketing objectives which colleges can address. Pursuing traditional FE marketing models based simply on ‘selling’ and a functional view of marketing is destined for failure, however, for widening participation is inherently a challenge to internal institutional culture that requires colleges to change fundamentally their modus operandi, their view of the world and their values. This article explores in the context of FE the relationship between widening participation as a concept and policy, the developing marketing perspective of institutions, and the emerging cultural challenges that face senior managers in colleges. Drawing on case study evidence from a number of FE colleges the article examines how far colleges are responding to this ideological and management imperative. The article concludes that widening participation is firmly established as both a moral and strategic imperative at senior level in FE. However, there is not yet much evidence of this culture permeating more widely through institutions because of the dominance of a project view of widening participation and limited awareness of the complexity of needs and wants in the diverse group of communities that are currently non-participants in FE