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

Do lecturers delivering Higher Education in Further Education desire to conduct research?

This article considers the views and perceptions of lecturers delivering Higher Education Business Programmes (HEBPs) in Further Education Colleges (FECs) on whether they desire to undertake research, thus enabling them to both become, and be viewed as specialists in their subjects. The methodology employed was from an interpretivist perspective, with a view to understand how lecturers interpret research, and whether they see it as part of their role. Twenty-six in-depth interviews were conducted throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region in the United Kingdom (UK). Some of the key findings were that although some lecturers would like to undertake research to specialise in their subject area, they felt that they did not have neither the time, or support of their individual institution