Introduction : How Is Change in Higher Education Managed?

It is an understatement to argue that the previous two decades have been characterized by an interest in reform and change of higher education. It is thus difficult to find an area of the sector that has not been exposed to policy initiatives aimed not only at changing the surrounding structures, but also at the ways in which teaching and research are organized and function. Reform initiatives have been taken at the supra-national level (exemplified by the Bologna Process in Europe), at the national level and at the institutional level (Gornitzka et al., 2005).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Designing potentials by sculpturing wires

Magnetic trapping potentials for atoms on atom chips are determined by the current flow in the chip wires. By modifying the shape of the conductor we can realize specialized current flow patterns and therefore micro-design the trapping potentials. We have demonstrated this by nano-machining an atom chip using the focused ion beam technique. We built a trap, a barrier and using a BEC as a probe we showed that by polishing the conductor edge the potential roughness on the selected wire can be reduced. Furthermore we give different other designs and discuss the creation of a 1D magnetic lattice on an atom chip.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

Administrative Managers – A Critical Link

Institutional responses to changes in the higher education environment have caused movements in the roles and identities of administrative managers in UK universities. These shifts have highlighted the problem for individuals of balancing traditional public service considerations of administration with institutional innovation and development. Administrative managers find themselves not only acting as independent arbiters, giving impartial advice on the basis of professional expertise, but also becoming involved in political judgements about institutional futures. They increasingly undertake an interpretive function between the various communities of the university and its external partners. As the boundaries of the university have become more permeable, administrative and academic management have inter-digitated, and hybrid roles have developed. In undertaking increasingly complex functions, therefore, administrative managers play a critical role in linking the academic and executive arms of governance in the university

La relation enseignement-recherche

Cet article a pour objet d’examiner si l’idée d’un lien entre la recherche et l’enseignement est toujours largement défendue, quelle signification lui est attribuée et selon quelles conceptions de l’enseignement supérieur. L’auteur s’inspire des recherches sur les points de vue de deux groupes d’acteurs, les universitaires et les étudiants, et de certaines analyses récentes que d’éminents spécialistes ont consacrées à ces questions. L’argument avancé est que des universitaires et tout un éventail d’étudiants sont encore très attachés à l’idée de ce lien. Il trouve son origine dans un monde dans lequel les définitions du savoir et de l’enseignement supérieur restent pour l’essentiel d’inspiration universitaire. Les ouvrages récents examinés tentent de resserrer les liens conceptuels entre l’enseignement et la recherche et de les resituer en soutenant que les « sociétés du savoir » contemporaines ...

Academic Identity in Transformation?: The Case of the United Kingdom

This paper draws on two empirical studies to consider the impacts of policy change on academic identities in the United Kingdom. It thus offers a limited examination of claims that social, political and economic transformations at the end of the 20th century have undermined the structures and relationships, within which academic identities have been sustained, particularly those of the discipline and the higher education institution. Its main conclusions are that academic identities remained surprisingly stable in the period under study, although the longer-term outlook remains uncertain.