Supporting local students. An evaluation of the Office for Students Challenge Competition: Industrial strategy and skills support for local students and graduates'

This paper explores the image of the OfS' funding competition for universities and colleges looking for innovative ways to help students find graduate-level employment close to home. Universities, colleges and employers are found to be taking steps to provide students with skills and knowledge to enhance their employability in their local areas, with 89 per cent of student participants positive about their engagement. The evaluation shows that 89 per cent of student or graduate participants were positive about their participation and 87 per cent of employers participating in the programme reported that their participation had brought value to their business. Through the projects, students have gained confidence in their ability to pursue their desired career, developed clarity of career intention, employability technical skills, and an understanding of local labour markets. Employers found that the project improved recruitment processes supporting graduate applicants from diverse backgrounds and improved awareness of the value of employing graduates. The project also improved market insights, particularly relating to young people’s perspectives and interests, and created new skills leading to business improvements, notably technical and digital skills

Reaching across continents : engaging students through virtual collaborations

Business schools have the responsibility of preparing students for work in multicultural organizations and global markets. This paper examines a situated learning experience for undergraduates through a virtual collaboration between a UK university and a Brazilian university. This facilitated remote communication using social media and smart devices, allowing students from both institutions to enhance their cross-cultural management competencies. A qualitative approach was used for the research, drawing on the reflections of the tutors from both institutions, and feedback received from students in the UK and Brazil. This paper provides empirical observations regarding the use of this innovative pedagogic approach, generating discussion of the implications for teaching, thus contributing to the literature on international collaborations in cross-cultural management education

Mapping Public Engagement with Research in a UK University

Notwithstanding that ‘public engagement’ is conceptualised differently internationally and in different academic disciplines, higher education institutions largely accept the importance of public engagement with research. However, there is limited evidence on how researchers conceptualise engagement, their views on what constitutes engagement and the communities they would (or would not) like to engage with. This paper presents the results of a survey of researchers in the Open University that sought to gather data to fill these gaps. This research was part of an action research project designed to embed engagement in the routine practices of researchers at all levels. The findings indicate that researchers have a relatively narrow view of public engagement with research and the communities with which they interact. It also identified that very few strategically evaluate their public engagement activities. We conclude by discussing some of the interventions we have introduced with the aim of broadening and deepening future researcher engagement

The Influence of professional doctorates on practice and the workplace

This paper investigates the influence that undertaking a professional doctorate has on the practice of the graduate and their workplace or organisation. There is a growing literature on how undertaking such advanced development influences the individual graduate at the personal and professional level but there is little evidence of a wider impact on practice in general or at the organisational level. This study seeks to address this issue through a qualitative study of practitioners from a range of professional arenas and sectors who have graduated from a professional doctorate within the past 10 years. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and the candidates’ project reports we explore their experience of applying their learning within their workplaces providing insight into the level and degree of influence such development can have on organisational contexts. The paper does not focus on the academic or personal impact of their experience as the intention of these particular doctoral researchers is the creation of new knowledge embedded in practice

Bringing the heart and soul back in: collaborative inquiry and the DBA

Waddock and Lozano (2013) propose that there is an urgent need to bring the 'heart and soul' back into management education. Indeed, its absence has also been implicated in the plethora of recent scandals and the global financial crisis. We suggest that, in part, such issues are attributable to a continued over reliance on a scientific and detached form of knowing which displaces particular 'human characteristics' and in so doing, downplays our inherent connections to others. In contrast, we identify the importance of embracing a supplementary form of knowing- collaborative inquiry which potentially restores our connections to others in ways which provide opportunities for a more heartfelt and soulful management practice. Specifically, we extend Van de Ven and Johnson’s (2006) notion of collaborative inquiry to consider how it is mobilized in the context of a UK DBA program and in turn examine the impact this move accomplishes. Drawing upon a detailed analysis of twenty students’ reflective journals, we illustrate the ways in which they develop a form of empathy. Crucially, we found that this was one important means for (re)-connecting to others and in ways which begin to bring in a sense of heart and soul back into management education

“Overwhelmed at first”: the experience of career development in Early Career Academics

The higher education sector is undergoing considerable changes to its working conditions. From regular scrutiny of individual research and teaching quality, audits of individual academic performance, to growing expectations arising from the culture of ‘student experience’, it is widely recognised that higher education is a turbulent sector. Amongst Early Career Academics (ECAs), initial transitions into this sector of work can have considerable consequences for career development and willingness to remain within the higher education profession. Drawing on a mixed-mode survey exploring the experience of UK-based ECAs, we highlight distinct intrapersonal and experiential factors which relate to variations in the perceived potential for career development and wellbeing. The data suggest that it is not just situational factors such as the departmental environment and job security that relate to the ‘imagined futures’ of ECAs; it is also important to gain a deeper understanding of how intrapersonal dimensions, such as an individual’s personality, shape the experience of the early stages of an academic career. Our qualitative data shed further light on the experiences that can influence the job satisfaction of ECAs. The findings are discussed in the context of a growing body of international research on ECAs, and the rapidly changing Higher Education sector in the UK