Undergraduate student retention and attainment : Phase two overview report

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What can higher education contribute to improving social mobility in the UK?

At a time when the UK may slowly be emerging out of what, for many in higher education, has been a period of ‘unprecedented change’ (Universities UK, 2012) in which institutions have found themselves having to balance increases in student expectations and demands against decreases in funding and resources, this special edition focuses on an issue that is becoming ever-more important – that of the relationship between social mobility and higher education. Drawing upon the findings of the Higher Education Academy’s March 2013 Conference: What can higher education contribute to improving social mobility in the UK?, the six papers gathered here give between them a clear indication of the proactive and synergetic manner in which the sector is responding to the resource and funding challenges which it currently faces

The emergence of civil society in eastern Europe: church and state in the Czech Republic, 1992-1998

This thesis examines the relationship between civil society and democracy through a case study of the revival of the Catholic Church in the post-communist Czech Republic. I use an ideal typical conception of civic organisations that emphasises three characteristics: civility, independence, and autonomy. I ask how each of these characteristics is related to democracy and how the degree to which the Czech Catholic Church approximates each characteristic can be explained. Civility - my research challenges the contemporary consensus around the work of Robert Putnam that there is an inverse relationship between civility and associational hierarchy. I show how the organisations and networks in which the Bishops were involved during Communism functioned as schools of democracy, producing the strong civil values of Czech Bishops still in evidence today. The argument indicates that Putnam and other social capital theorists should move beyond the formal level of associations in their search for the causes of civic virtue. Independence - The failure of the church to restitute its property and its continued dependence on the Czech state is conventionally explained by reference to either an historic anti-Catholicism or the contemporary exigencies of justice. I reject these arguments, and show how Church restitution is artificially created as an issue by politicians seeking to build distinct party identities in the difficult circumstances of a society still awaiting the consolidation of new social cleavages. Autonomy - the Church's weak links to the public sphere are generally explained by reference to a communist legacy of anti-political attitudes, or to poor political skills on the part of civic associations. Instead, I argue that the strongest explanatory factor lies with the political programme of the Klaus administration and its post-communist inspired concerns to limit power to the Parliament, and more particularly to the executive, where Klaus' party was dominant. 1 show how Klaus' success was greatly facilitated by the speed of the 'transition', which allowed the easy implementation of a radical ideology by a political entrepreneur who faced little opposition from parliamentary colleagues unable to find 'partners' in a post-Communist atomised society

Prevalence of vascular disruption anomalies and association with young maternal age: A EUROCAT study to compare the United Kingdom with other European countries

[Corrections added after online publication, 16 November 2022: The last name of Dr. Jennifer M. Broughan was incorrectly spelled in the initial publication. It has been corrected.]Background: Younger mothers are at a greater risk of having a pregnancy with gastroschisis and the risk is higher in the United Kingdom than other European countries. Gastroschisis is thought to be a vascular disruption anomaly and the aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of other possible vascular disruption anomalies to determine whether both the younger maternal age and the UK associations also occur with these anomalies. Methods: All pregnancies with anomalies considered potentially due to vascular disruption from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2017 from 26 European population-based congenital anomaly registries who were members of EUROCAT were analyzed. Multilevel models were used to allow for differences between registries when analyzing associations with maternal age, year of birth and whether the registry was in the United Kingdom. Results: There were 5,220 cases with potential vascular disruption anomalies, excluding chromosomal and genetic conditions, with a prevalence of 8.85 per 10,000 births in the United Kingdom and 5.44 in the other European countries. The prevalence per 10,000 births of gastroschisis (4.45 vs. 1.56) and congenital constriction bands (0.83 vs. 0.42) was significantly higher in the United Kingdom, even after adjusting for maternal age. However, transverse limb reduction defects had a similar prevalence (2.16 vs. 2.14 per 10,000). The expected increased prevalence in younger mothers was observed for vascular disruption anomalies overall and for the individual anomalies: gastroschisis and congenital constriction bands. Conclusion: Vascular disruption anomalies that had an increased risk for younger mothers (such as gastroschisis) had a higher maternal age standardized prevalence in the United Kingdom, while vascular disruption anomalies with weaker associations with younger mothers (such as transverse limb reduction defects) did not have an increased prevalence in the United Kingdom, which may indicate a different etiology for these anomalies.European Commissioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prevalence of vascular disruption anomalies and association with young maternal age: A EUROCAT study to compare the United Kingdom with other European countries

Background Younger mothers are at a greater risk of having a pregnancy with gastroschisis and the risk is higher in the United Kingdom than other European countries. Gastroschisis is thought to be a vascular disruption anomaly and the aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of other possible vascular disruption anomalies to determine whether both the younger maternal age and the UK associations also occur with these anomalies. Methods All pregnancies with anomalies considered potentially due to vascular disruption from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2017 from 26 European population-based congenital anomaly registries who were members of EUROCAT were analyzed. Multilevel models were used to allow for differences between registries when analyzing associations with maternal age, year of birth and whether the registry was in the United Kingdom. Results There were 5,220 cases with potential vascular disruption anomalies, excluding chromosomal and genetic conditions, with a prevalence of 8.85 per 10,000 births in the United Kingdom and 5.44 in the other European countries. The prevalence per 10,000 births of gastroschisis (4.45 vs. 1.56) and congenital constriction bands (0.83 vs. 0.42) was significantly higher in the United Kingdom, even after adjusting for maternal age. However, transverse limb reduction defects had a similar prevalence (2.16 vs. 2.14 per 10,000). The expected increased prevalence in younger mothers was observed for vascular disruption anomalies overall and for the individual anomalies: gastroschisis and congenital constriction bands. Conclusion Vascular disruption anomalies that had an increased risk for younger mothers (such as gastroschisis) had a higher maternal age standardized prevalence in the United Kingdom, while vascular disruption anomalies with weaker associations with younger mothers (such as transverse limb reduction defects) did not have an increased prevalence in the United Kingdom, which may indicate a different etiology for these anomalies.publishedVersio

Prevalence of microcephaly in Europe:population based study

OBJECTIVESTo provide contemporary estimates of the prevalence of microcephaly in Europe, determine if the diagnosis of microcephaly is consistent across Europe, and evaluate whether changes in prevalence would be detected using the current European surveillance performed by EUROCAT (the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies).DESIGNQuestionnaire and population based observational study.SETTING24 EUROCAT registries covering 570 000 births annually in 15 countries.PARTICIPANTSCases of microcephaly not associated with a genetic condition among live births, fetal deaths from 20 weeks' gestation, and terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly at any gestation.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESPrevalence of microcephaly (1 Jan 2003-31 Dec 2012) analysed with random effects Poisson regression models to account for heterogeneity across registries.RESULTS16 registries responded to the questionnaire, of which 44% (7/16) used the EUROCAT definition of microcephaly (a reduction in the size of the brain with a skull circumference more than 3 SD below the mean for sex, age, and ethnic origin), 19% (3/16) used a 2 SD cut off, 31% (5/16) were reliant on the criteria used by individual clinicians, and one changed criteria between 2003 and 2012. Prevalence of microcephaly in Europe was 1.53 (95% confidence interval 1.16 to 1.96) per 10 000 births, with registries varying from 0.4 (0.2 to 0.7) to 4.3 (3.6 to 5.0) per 10 000 (X-2= 338, df= 23, I-2=93%). Registries with a 3 SD cut off reported a prevalence of 1.74 per 10 000 (0.86 to 2.93) compared with those with the less stringent 2 SD cut off of 1.21 per 10 000 (0.21 to 2.93). The prevalence of microcephaly would need to increase in one year by over 35% in Europe or by over 300% in a single registry to reach statistical significance (PCONCLUSIONSEUROCAT could detect increases in the prevalence of microcephaly from the Zika virus of a similar magnitude to those observed in Brazil. Because of the rarity of microcephaly and discrepant diagnostic criteria, however, the smaller increases expected in Europe would probably not be detected. Clear diagnostic criteria for microcephaly must be adopted across Europe.</p

Trust in organisations: religious elites and democracy in the post-Communist Czech Republic

My research establishes that the elite of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic demonstrate a strong commitment to the norms of tolerance, plurality, and public participation. This finding (the existence of democratic virtue within theocracy) challenges the contemporary consensus around the work of Robert Putnam and others that there is an inverse relationship between civility and associational hierarchy. I explain this finding by showing how the organisations and networks in which the Bishops were involved during Communism, for example Charter 77 and the prison universities, functioned as ‘schools of democracy.’ These ‘schools’ produced the strong civil values of Czech Bishops still in evidence today. The argument indicates that Putnam and other social capital theorists should move beyond the formal level of associations in their search for the causes of civic virtue

Post-traditional corporate governance

Traditional definitions of corporate governance are narrow, focusing on legal relations between managers and shareholders. More recent definitions extend the boundaries of governance to consider the role that various stakeholders play in shaping the behaviour of firms. While stakeholder theory embraces a broader set of corporate constituencies, our argument in this paper is that even these definitions are too narrow—they lack the analytical capacity to account for the social embeddedness and legitimacy of corporate governance. More specifically, we argue that the spatial contexts of corporate governance are socially constitutive of their governance forms and effects. Different forms of corporate governance emerge in, and co-produce, variable operating contexts, as well as shape the roles and interests of their constituent actors. We distinguish between vertical and horizontal forms of governance in political and economic life, and outline several consequences for businesses of a shift to post-traditional corporate governance