Following the refugee influx of 2015 and 2016, many German higher education organisations (HEOs) responded with support programmes for refugee students. In this context, refugees became formally and discursively differentiated from other international students. During later stages of the programmes, this differentiation became blurred, and…

Organisational narratives are foundational to inform the actions and directions of an organisation. Modern organisations often place great weight and invest significant time crafting their narratives that are communicated through mission statements, strategic plans, policies, directives and self-promotion. Sometimes these narratives align with the…

With increasing competition for postgraduate research scholarships, awarding processes demand attention and scrutiny. We examine inter-rater reliability for two prestigious New Zealand scholarships, the Shirtcliffe Fellowship and the Gordon Watson Scholarship. For each scholarship, five assessors (three academic; two non-academic) independently…

In business higher education, group project work plays an essential role. The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between the group heterogeneity of students' business project groups and their academic achievements at both group and individual levels. The sample consists of 536 freshmen from an International Business School…

Australian government concern for improved governance in the higher education sector over recent years has driven the implementation of governance protocols. However, there has been little evidence of any evaluation of the impact of the governance structures on the performance of universities. This paper presents an analysis of the impact of the…

The report contains topics included in a plan for research on academic groups and collectives which might be as follows: The mechanism for regulating the effectiveness of people's interactions and conditions governing the selection and recruitment for academic groups and collectives; Methods of evaluating the social-psychological characteristics…

It has been suggested that individuals differ in the extent to which they monitor self-perceptions in social situations: high self-monitors use cues about the appropriateness of various types of behaviors to determine their social behavior, while low self-monitors control their social behavior by their own attitudes rather than by the demands of…

Types of small groups for instructional purposes, and procedures, structure, and practical arrangements are discussed, and reference is made to the British system. It is suggested that an orderly beginning to small group work best suits novice tutors and inexperienced students. In some subjects tightly organized group work may become progressively…

Reports on research from the Novocherkassk State Technical University on ways that student groups with different social structures influence the climate of learning. Raises questions about the ability of students educated during the period of mass education to adapt to new methods of learning being introduced into Russian higher education. (DSK)

Argues for the development of group intervention techniques to improve the efficacy of course teams in the preparation of distance education materials, reviews recent commentaries on course teams and discusses related issues, and conludes with recommendations to enrich the quality of course team life and output. (Author/EAO)

This paper outlines a framework for analyzing existing quality initiatives and for planning and implementing new ones particularly designed for colleges in Great Britain in their new status as independent, incorporated entities. It is designed to assist colleges in managing quality and in using quality management as a means of institutional…

The 26 papers in this collection from a British conference first provide an overview of group-based learning in higher education, offer a range of examples, and identify issues and trends. Chapters include: (1) "Introduction" (Roy Gregory and Lin Thorley); (2) "An Overview from Higher Education" (Diana M. R. Tribe); (3)…