Cohen,L., Campbell-Evans, G., Chang, P., Nagy, J.,Holt, D., McDonald, J., Macdonald, I.,Atkinson, K. and Cullity, M. (2010) Research report: Interview of senior academic leaders Coalface subject coordinators – the missing link to building leadership capacities in the academic supply chain, New South Wales: Australian Learning and Teaching Council
The research undertaken and documented in this report was part of a project titled Coalface subject coordinators – the missing link to building leadership capacities in the academic supply chain, which was funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). The project focused on the increasingly complex role and leadership responsibilities of subject coordinators. This report details the findings from semi-structured interviews at Deakin University, Edith Cowan University, the University of Southern Queensland and Victoria University in 2009. Although the focus was on these four universities, the interviews provide a snapshot and overview of the thoughts of senior academic leaders in formal roles on the complexities of the subject coordinator role and the responsibilities and skills linked to this role. in higher education, a function that is common to the majority of academics, who receive little or no professional development before assuming the role. Available here
Denton,S. and Brown, S. (eds) Beyond Bureacracy: A Practical Guide to University and College Management, London: Routledge
Written for the Higher Education manager, this is a highly accessible text that offers practical guidance on managing the day-to-day life of colleges and universities throughout the academic year. It takes a proactive approach and offers a range of best practice examples and solutions for resolving dilemmas that arise in a rapidly changing environment.
Equality Challenge Unit (2012) Equality in higher education: statistical report 2012 -The equality challenges facing UK higher education, London: ECU
This report presents an analysis of the gender, ethnicity, disability and age profiles of the HE workforce (Part 1: staff) and full- and part-time students (Part 2: students) during the 2010/11 academic year. Using data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) staff and student records the report also shows the progress of equality in these areas over time. These reports provide even more detail to enable staff to undertake more sophisticated analysis of complex figures – allowing them to help identify where to target scarce resources and understand where they can act to ensure greater impact. Part 1: Staff Available here Part 2: Students Available here
Higher Education Academy (2012) The Higher Education Academy Strategic Plan 2012 – 2016, York: HEA
This document contains the strategy of the HEA over the next four years. Available here.
Kamenetz, A. (2006) Generation Debt: Why now is a terrible time to be young, New York: Riverhead Books
The book contains relevant economic data with interviews by students describing the financial pressure facing them as students. The interviewees were graduates as well drop outs who withdrew from college for financial reasons. A gloomy picture of a generation heavily in debt is painted. Loans and unemployment are among the pressures covered in the book. It is an important text that policy makers and educators should read as it questions the value of higher education from a student’s perspective.
McCaffery, P. (2010) The Higher Education Manager’s Handbook- Effective leadership and management in universities and colleges, New York: Routledge
The second edition of The Higher Education Manager’s Handbook has been updated and reflects the important changes that have occurred since its first publication in 2004. It offers advice and guidance on all aspects of the manager’s role and provides the navigational tools to successfully operate within Higher Education organisations.
Middlehurst, R. (2011) Getting to Grips with Academic Standards, Quality, and the Student Experience, London: Leadership Foundation for HE
In an easy-to-read format, this volume is intended to provide the core information that all governors need for a basic understanding of their responsibilities in relation to academic and student issues. It is not intended to provide specialist information, although references to such material are provided. The material is intended to be used in various ways: as a learning resource for individual governors; by HEIs as part of their own in-house governor development activities; or as web based
material (see www.lfhe.ac.uk/governance). The text does not consider the broader issues concerning the overall responsibilities of governors and how their effectiveness might be determined. Available here
Stuart, M. (2003) Collaborating for change? Managing widening participation in further and higher education, Leicester: NIACE
This book looks at the management implications for institutions of implementing a collaborative approach to widening access and progression for new students. Managers at different levels across the HE and FE sectors describe their approaches to managing cultural change, both within and between partner organisations. Chapters include information on partnership development and maintenance, system and structural analysis of organisations as well as detail on the importance of networking and leadership.
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) (2008) Outcomes from Institutional Audit Progression and Completion Statistics-Second series, Mansfield: QAA
This is a follow up to the earlier report published in 2006. 59 institutional audit reports (published between ’04 and ’06) were used to produce this document. The focus is on HEIs’ collection and use of progression and completion data. Good practice guidelines are provided including the provision of:
• a single central source of data in which all staff have confidence;
• appropriate tools to enable the data to be interrogated in a manner that meets the needs of different groups within the institution;
• appropriate staff development to support effective use of the data and the analysis tools.
Available here
The Student Charter Group (2011) The Student Charter Group Final Report, London, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills
The Student Charter Group was established as a small ‘task and finish’ working group, bringing together higher education institution (HEI) representatives and student representatives, to explore current best practice in the use of Student Charters and other student agreements. The concise report focuses on practical principles and recommendations which the Group hope that HEIs and Students’ Unions (SUs) can use in jointly reviewing, or in some cases developing, a Student Charter for their institution.Available here
Watson, D. and Amoah, M. (2007) The Dearing Report; ten years on, London: Institute of Education
In this volume three main themes are examined:
- The impact over ten years of the Dearing Report
- The work of the National Committee of Inquiry, including in an international context
- Current issues and future prospects for UK higher education policy and practice in the light of this history.
Designed to look both backwards and forwards, this wide-ranging, research-based study offers an evaluation of the issues facing the higher education system in the future.
Whitchurch, C. (2006) Professional Managers in UK Higher Education: Preparing for Complex Futures Interim Report, London: Leadership Foundation
Professional Managers in UK Higher Education: Preparing for Complex Futures is the first part of a major study by Celia Whitchurch of King’s College London. It considers the changing professional roles and identities of an increasingly diverse group of staff, and the implications of these for leadership and management development in the sector. The study seeks to relate these changes to the developing knowledge environment in which higher education institutions are operating, and to compare perceptions of “administration” and “management” in the literature with the understandings of professional staff currently working in universities. It will give particular attention to the cross boundary roles and identities that are emerging, not only between functional areas, but between professional and academic roles. Available here
Whitchurch, C. (2008). Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: The Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education, Higher Education Quarterly 62(4): 377-396
This paper adds to earlier reviews by the author of the changing roles and identities of contemporary professional staff in UK higher education, and builds on a categorisation of professional staff identities as having bounded, cross-boundary and unbounded characteristics. Drawing on a study of 54 professional managers in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, it describes a further category of blended professionals, who have mixed backgrounds and portfolios, comprising elements of both professional and academic activity. The paper goes on to introduce the concept of third space as an emergent territory between academic and professional domains, which is colonised primarily by less bounded forms of professional. The implications of these developments for institutions and for individuals are considered, and some international comparisons drawn. Finally, it is suggested that third space working may be indicative of future trends in professional identities, which may increasingly coalesce with those of academic colleagues who undertake project- and management-oriented roles, so that new forms of third space professional are likely to continue to emerge. Available by going to http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00387.x/abstract
Whitchurch, C. (2012) Reconstructing Identities in Higher Education: The Rise of “Third Space” Professionals, London: Routledge NEW!
Reconstructing Identities in Higher Education: The Rise of “Third Space” Professionals draws on studies conducted in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to explore the roles and identities of a growing number of staff associated with broadly based institutional projects such as student life and welfare, widening participation, learning support, community partnership, research and business partnership, and institutional research. Thus, at the same time as professional staff are acquiring academic credentials, some academic staff are moving in a more project-oriented direction. This has effectively created a Third Space between professional and academic spheres in which lateral interactions, involving teams and networks, occur in parallel with formal institutional structures and processes, and give rise to new forms of management and leadership. Yet such developments have tended to occur ‘under the radar’, and have not been fully articulated.
The concept of Third Space is offered as a way of exploring the knowledges, relationships, legitimacies and languages that characterise those who work in less boundaried roles, and the implications of these developments for both individuals and institutions. The ability to problematise and accommodate a series of paradoxes and tensions, for instance between formal and more open-ended structures and relationships, would appear to be at the heart of working in Third Space. Individuals also grapple with the fact that Third Space can, at one and the same time, be a safe haven for experimentation and creativity, and also a risky space in which there is likely to be contestation and uncertainty. The text is addressed to professional and academic staff who, by design or default, for long or short periods, find themselves working in Third Space environments; to those to whom such staff may be responsible, including senior management teams; and also to researchers interested in changing identities in higher education. Available at: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415614832/