Opening lines of communication: book ordering and reading lists, the academics view

This article outlines and assesses the research into resource management and ordering processes at the University of Northampton and academics’ knowledge of these processes. The aim of the research was to identify ways of streamlining the service, to improve communication between academic and library staff, with the objective of an enhanced student experience. The focus groups highlighted concerns around growing spoon-feeding in Higher Education and the ongoing communication barriers between academic and library staff. This article will evaluate the current debates, research and practices within the sector and present and analyse the findings of the research

Getting Ready and Leading Higher Education in the times of COVID-19: An interview with Professor Dr Osman Hasan (Pro-Rector Academics) National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Abstract   Purpose: The purpose of this viewpoint is to present an interview with Professor Dr Osman Hasan (Pro-Rector Academics) to get his perspective on getting ready and leading higher education in the times of COVID-19

Learning-by-Doing: The Chem-E-Car Competition® in the University of Cantabria as case study

It is widely known that the Learning-by-Doing (LbD) pedagogical tool is not the most common form of education in Chemical Engineering nowadays. The aim of this work is to describe the application of LbD considering as case of study the participation of undergraduate students from the Chemical Engineering Degree of the University of Cantabria (UC) from Spain in the Chem-E-Car Competition® in the 10th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (WCCE10). The Chem-E-Car Competition® is a world-known student event run by AIChE, which provides chemical engineering undergraduate students with the opportunity to participate in a team-oriented hands-on design and construction of a small prototype car powered by a chemical reaction. Within the context of the WCCE10, the competition gathered 18 teams from different countries all around the world. The UC team ended in the 6th position and won the award to the best inherent safety design. Overall, the benefits outpaced the time cost both for students and the teaching staff. This situation was not clear at the beginning of the project. Prior to this competition, LbD was used as an innovative pedagogical tool for the requested acquisition of competences. The proposal of a multi-annual Final Degree Programme was a win–win situation for all the stakeholders. From a teaching point of view, the LbD let transferable and core competences to be evaluated not only internally, but also externally thanks to the competition. A survey was completed among the students that participated in the project. Competences such as “Problem-solving” and “Adaptation to new situations” were pointed out as those which were developed in a higher level by the students

Narratives of sex-segregated professional identities

This article highlights the significance of small story analysis for the identification of positioning acts which function as rhetorical warrants for career choices and trajectories. It analyses stories told by Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) investigating the tensions expressed in the negotiation and performance of their gendered professional identities. Identity work is achieved via accountability and orientation to: past and present self; interlocutors within the interaction; and “master narratives” about gendered work. Small stories act as a medium of professional identity construction, rapport-building and as a site of contestation, employed to (re)appraise the social order, particularly with respect to “women’s” and “men’s” work. Gendered discourses are shown to impact on the amount of men entering the SLT profession and the specialisms and progression routes that men and women pursue. The analysis points to the reproductive, pervasive and regulatory power of gendered discourses on individuals’ experience of their subjectivity and professional identity