This module, one of the three core modules taken in Part 1, enables you to engage critically with developments in higher education that impact on academic practices in universities around the world. You will deploy appropriate concepts and theories to critically appraise policy-making and policy implementation processes. You will conduct rigorous research in the area of higher education policies and change and be able to write academic articles of significance to a wide readership in this area.

The current module leader for UPPHE is Ann-Marie Houghton whose interests include inclusive curriculum development, evaluation of widening access and transition issues into higher education and the academic and learning experiences of disabled learners.

The module is organised in four main sections:

The module is organised into the following themes:

1. main trends and political projects in higher education;
2. policy and policy-making theories and practices;
3. policy production, implementation and enactment;
4. policy actors;
5. universities as organisations and change at universities;
6. ethodological and analytical approaches to study policy.

As with each of the three core modules on the programme, the assessment of this one is a journal-length assignment on a topic relevant to the module chosen by you. The assessment criteria are those of a PhD generally: the assignment offers an original contribution to knowledge and is of publishable standard. The model on which this assessment strategy is based is that of submitting a journal article: you initially submit a preliminary version which receives extensive formative feedback from the module tutor. Here the tutor is acting in the same way as peer reviewers of a submitted journal article. You are then able to improve your assignment based on that advice and submit it for summative assessment. If the assignment does not reach PhD standard at this stage you have the opportunity for one further resubmission, again based on substantial advice from the module tutor.

Having successfully completed this module you will be a specialist in an area of the topic, able to publish in that area, and able to enhance professional understanding, practices and approaches relevant to the module’s topic.

Participant comment: “Excellent, thank you. Thank you for the support and encouragement. Very happy as always. More than happy with everything during the residential.”

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

Albert Einstein.

Do you want to know more about how evaluation influences academic life and higher education organisations? This module aims to provide students with sufficient theoretical and practical understandings of academic and higher education evaluation to engage with current and ongoing evaluation policies critically.

The current module leader for ECHE is Richard Budd whose research interests involve methods of research evaluation including academic notions of scientific and societal excellence in research and how these are measured.

This is one of the three core modules taken in Part 1, and it helps you engage critically with developments in understanding how evaluation is conducted and theorised, and the ways in which these developments are impacting on higher education cultures and practices. You will consider this in relation to the role of higher education and its relationship with society generally. The module prepares you to engage in current and prospective policy debates surrounding the value of higher education and the ways in which the sector is evaluated. The module goes beyond research, theory, concepts and debate however, empowering you to engage personally in effective evaluation of the enhancement of teaching, research and other sector functions. The rigorous evaluative research that you conduct for this module, on a topic of your choice, will enable you to write a journal article of significance to a wide readership.

The module is organised into the following three main themes each with subsidiary topics:

1. The changing role of the University

• employability agenda and the role of university in preparing for, and creating work
• universities as a “public good”, and the accountability agenda
• responsible research and innovation (RRI) agenda
• internationalisation and marketisation of the University

2. Theories of and approaches to university evaluation

• evaluative frameworks around higher education
• peer review and group-peer review
• notions of “excellence” in evaluative cultures in our education
• metrics and their constitutive effects

3. Learning through evaluation- research dynamics

• uses of evaluation (development, accountability, nudging and knowledge)
• evaluative effects and the impact of higher education interventions
• evaluating notions of public good and effect on university cultures.

As with each of the three core modules on the programme, the assessment of this one is a journal-length assignment on a topic relevant to the module chosen by you. The assessment criteria are those of a PhD generally: the assignment offers an original contribution to knowledge and is of publishable standard. The model on which this assessment strategy is based is that of submitting a journal article: you initially submit a preliminary version which receives extensive formative feedback from the module tutor. Here the tutor is acting in the same way as peer reviewers of a submitted journal article. You are then able to improve your assignment based on that advice and submit it for summative assessment. If the assignment does not reach PhD standard at this stage you have the opportunity for one further resubmission, again based on substantial advice from the module tutor.

Having successfully completed this module you will be a specialist in an area of the topic, able to publish in that area, and able to enhance professional understanding, practices and approaches relevant to the module’s topic.

Participant comment: “Good, very supportive feedback. Tutor availability good, support offered regularly… “I am really enjoying the whole programme and gaining a lot, personally and professionally.”

This module, one of the three core modules taken in Part 1, deepens and extends your knowledge about research and theory concerning learning, teaching and assessment in higher education. It provides a range of theoretical frameworks and perspectives from which to address these issues and so empowers you to critically engage with institutional developments at the levels of policy, strategy and practice. Finally it enables you to be a critical user of data provided by student evaluation and feedback mechanisms and by other research. Taken together these aspects of this module help you to become an effective change agent orientated to enhancing learning, teaching and assessment at the different levels of practice and policy.

The current module leader for RLTA is Jonathan Vincent who is interested in how students’ experiences differ according to their identities, as well as between universities and countries.

The module is organised into the following themes:

1. analysing institutional learning, teaching, and assessment policies, strategies and practices;
2. conceptualising learning, teaching and assessment in higher education;
3. approaches to learning and phenomenographic approaches to learning, teaching and assessment;
4. social practice approaches to learning, teaching and assessment;
5. the place of knowledge and curriculum in research into learning, teaching and assessment in higher education;
6. designing research into learning, teaching and assessment in higher education;
7. writing about learning, teaching and assessment in higher education.

As with each of the three core modules on the programme, the assessment of this one is a journal-length assignment on a topic relevant to the module chosen by you. The assessment criteria are those of a PhD generally: the assignment offers an original contribution to knowledge and is of publishable standard. The model on which this assessment strategy is based is that of submitting a journal article: you initially submit a preliminary version which receives extensive formative feedback from the module tutor. Here the tutor is acting in the same way as peer reviewers of a submitted journal article. You are then able to improve your assignment based on that advice and submit it for summative assessment. If the assignment does not reach PhD standard at this stage you have the opportunity for one further resubmission, again based on substantial advice from the module tutor.

Having successfully completed this module you will be a specialist in an area of the topic, able to publish in that area, and able to enhance professional understanding, practices and approaches relevant to the module’s topic.

Participant comment: “I find that after each RLTA session, I leave with a clear understanding of the content explained in addition to being intrigued as well as having a genuine desire to learn more about whatever concept/theory that was introduced.”

This module, taken in Part 1, will assist you to critically evaluate the research of others and to facilitate your ability to design and carry out your own research for the program modules and for the thesis.

In order to do this you will benefit from a sound grounding in a range of research techniques in this module, helping you to collect different types of data and to understand the philosophical and epistemological principles underlying the techniques being used as well as the associated research processes.

You will be able to analyse, interpret and present qualitative and quantitative data in a variety of forms to a range of audiences. As a result you will have the tools for autonomous research and theoretical approaches which will equip you to conduct and publish from your own research projects.

The current leader for Module A is Jonathan Vincent who is interested in how students’ experiences differ according to their identities, as well as between universities and countries.

The module is organised in five main sections:

1. literature review - reading educational research;
2. research foundation and paradigms;
3. quantitative research and methods;
4. qualitative research and methods;
5. different methodological approaches to qualitative research.

Because this is a support module the assignments are assessed on a pass/fail basis and are designed to allow creativity, risk-taking and experimentation. You are not expected to be writing at doctoral level for these assignments.

There are three short assignments. The first involves trying out, on a very small scale, a method of acquiring qualitative data. The second is similar but this time involving quantitative data. The third assignment involves helping you to plan your major research project for the thesis and the feedback you get assists in making sure that your project is practicable and at the right standard.

Participant comment: “I enjoyed all of the modules. I think the staff were friendly approachable and supportive.. I leave Module A with an interest in learning more about the subject matter because [the tutor] is an intelligent researcher and teacher.” “I loved Mod A …. very practical and full of useful knowledge. And very much what we need at this point in the programme since we are starting to think about [moving to Part 2].”

This module, taken in Part 1, will enhance your ability to articulate and analyse aspects of your professional practices and to connect these two the relevant research literature. So the module helps you relate your day-to-day professional role to concepts and theory as well as significant data that are relevant to it, helping you see professional practice within higher education in a new light and so enhance it. Module B is closely related to work you will do in the core modules as well as aspects of your professional life.

The current leader for Module B is Natasa Lackovic whose research interests are in advancingrelational and arts-informedapproaches and practices towards educational and social change.

1. The relationship between policies and practices;
2. Theorising practices;
3. Organisational cultures;
4. Organisational change.

Because this is a support module the assignments are assessed on a pass/fail basis and are designed to allow creativity, risk-taking and experimentation. You are not expected to be writing at doctoral level for these assignments.

There are four very short assignments, each of which relates to one of the four sections above. One paper analyses a policy or guidance document that is relevant to you. The second applies theory to an area of relevant professional practice. The third is about organisational cultures and involves a short presentation or a written paper. The final assignment is again a written paper or a short presentation about organisational change in this case. Because most participants on the doctoral program write about their own professional practice for their thesis, this module is very relevant to the work they will do in Part 2 of the programme.

Participant comment: “I leave Module B with a great desire to improve my own teaching practice because [the tutor] is a very passionate and dedicated teacher who inspires me to use some of her teaching methods in my class.”