Employability: a contested concept in higher education

Employability is a concept that has attracted greater interest in the past two decades as Higher Education (HE) looks to ensure that its output is valued by a range of stakeholders, not least Central Government. The graduate labour market has changed remarkably during the past two decades with global employment becoming an option for some and a threat for others. In addition, the nature of work has changed with a range of technological and employment practices altering the way we work. It is this dynamic and uncertain context that has led many within the Higher Education sector to reevaluate its purpose and value. A number of universities have drawn‐up typologies of behaviours and attributes that characterise their graduates. This paper aims to look beyond the apparent ascendancy of employability and ask why is employability a contested concept within HE? This paper draws from post‐structuralism, Positional Conflict Theory as well as liberal‐humanist thought. The paper is structured at three levels of decision‐making: the macro‐ that of public policy, the meso‐ that of the Higher Education sector, and the micro‐ that of the student

The learning approaches of A level history and geography students analysed: a report from a sixth form college

This paper sought to explore how students in History and Geography approach learning. The research involved GCE A Level students in the Sixth Form College sector, in which they responded to a structured questionnaire that was drawn from the literature on self-regulated learning. The key areas for investigation revolved around motivation, self-efficacy, fear of failure and reflection. The data was analysed according to ability range with analysis undertaken between the A*-B range and those students below in the DE range. The conclusion suggests students adopt a range of approaches, some determined by their innate ability but others by more practical concerns such as the chances of success or the value of the activity. Importantly, the research also identified some common approaches adopted by students of History and Geography that challenge Kolb's views of subject disciplines divides

Practical heutagogy: Promoting personalised learning in management education

The purpose of this article is to highlight the benefits to both organizations and individuals in adopting heutagogy within management education to develop individual capability. This conceptual paper is based on a systematic review of the literature relating to heutagogy and learning theory. This article calls for the adoption of heutagogic learning within management education alongside traditional pedagogy and andragogy. It provides a number of practical examples of how heutagogy may be implemented in a variety of contexts, ranging from undergraduate study to senior leadership positions within organizations. This article contributes to the growing interest and literature related to new forms of student-centered learning and, in particular, heutagogy. This article is an original contribution to the discourse on student-centered learning and the contribution that heutagogy may make to the professional development of individuals

Synthesis and control of generalised dynamically substructured systems

The experimental technique for testing engineering systems via the method of dynamic substructuring is receiving significant global interest, for example in the fields of large-scale structural, aerospace, and automotive system testing. Dynamically substructured systems (DSSs) enable full-size, critical components of a complete system to be physically tested in real-time, within a laboratory environment, while the remainder of the system is modelled numerically. The intention is that the combined physical-numerical DSS behaves as if it were the complete (or emulated) system.In an ideal mechanical DSS, for example, perfect synchronization of displacements and forces at the interfaces between the numerical and physical components (or substructures) is required. Hence, a key design feature of successful DSS systems is the high fidelity of the control action. Equally, a DSS controller must be able to cope with non-linear, time-varying, and uncertain parameters within the physical substructure dynamics.The main purpose of this paper is to present a generalized DSS framework, together with associated linear and adaptive control strategies, that are specifically tailored to achieve high synchronization performance. The initial studies of this problem, as described in an earlier paper by Stoten and Hyde, are therefore continued by generalizing both the DSS dynamics and the control strategies to include (a) a number of newly defined modes of operation and (b) multivariable dynamics. In addition, comparative implementation and simulation studies are included, based upon the DSS testing of a mechanical system (a planar quasi-motorcycle rig), which was specifically designed to highlight the main features of this research. The comparative studies show that excellent DSS control can be achieved, especially with the addition of an adaptive component to the controller, despite significant changes to the physical substructure dynamics

Promoting Self‐Regulated Learning: the potential of PebblePad+ as a holistic tool for education

The focus for this article is on the use of Information and Communications Technology to facilitate Self‐ Regulated Learning and reflection on professional practice through an e‐portfolio diary/journal system. PP+ is a third generation e‐portfolio development of software initially developed at the University of Wolverhampton in England. PebblePad+ is a transferable e‐portfolio system that enables students to track their own professional competences and development over the length of their academic and professional career, as well as supporting their wider learning. It has been adopted in a variety of educational and industrial contexts both in the United Kingdom and Australia. This article will be of particular interest to those educationalists that recognise the importance of reflection in building powerful cognitive structures through Self‐Regulated Learning, as well as the potential benefits of using Information and Communication Technology to create an e‐portfolio of a student’s academic and professional achievements

Adaptive Neural Network Feedforward Control for Dynamically Substructured Systems

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Differentiated evolution not a common revolution: Analysing MBA education in Britain using New Institutionalism as a conceptual framework

Purpose: This paper aimed to explore the reform and development of the MBA within pre-1992 and post-1992 universities in the United Kingdom with reference to New Institutionalism and field theory. Design / Methodology / Approach: The methodology adopted the approaches of Navarro (2008) and Kars-Unluoglu (2016) that involved a web-based review of those pre-1992 universities listed in the Financial Times 'top-100' MBAs, as well as a review of a regional grouping of four post-1992 universities. Findings: The findings echo the work of Wilkins and Huisman (2012) who argued that British business schools were stratified into distinct organisational fields, each catering for their own market. Whereas the pre-1992 universities are able to offer a wide array of electives and pathways to enable personalization and specialization of the curriculum, post-1992 universities appear to offer a more constrained curriculum offer. Research limitations / Implications: This review would have benefited from closer interrogation of curriculum content through interviews with Program Leaders/Directors. Future research should involve a larger sample from the post-1992 sector. Originality / Value: This paper provides an up to date analysis of the direction taken by British universities. It shows that the MBA market is differentiated with an elite focussed more catering for an international market than the post-1992 universities who still exhibit a commitment to their local market

Investigating current practice: how are Year 2 pupils’ reactions to stories about children with ADHD influenced by the featured teachers’ response to symptoms?

This research project, conducted in a Primary School within Essex, explores the influence of teacher actions, in response to the symptoms associated with ADHD in the classroom, upon the reactions of young children towards individuals with ADHD. In this small-scale study of 24 children in Year 2, semi-structured interviews were conducted in groups of 4 on their responses to the children featured in two vignettes. The two vignettes included the identical symptoms of ADHD as the behaviours of the featured child, but varied in the teacher’s response to these symptoms. This allowed the comparison of responses during analysis in attempts to give insight into the social experiences of pupils with ADHD in the classroom and the possible influence of teaching practitioners upon these experiences

How do doctoral students interpret the idea of being part of a doctoral community at an English Business School?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elicit the views of students on their experiences of being part of a doctoral community. In doing so, this paper will shed light on the success of doctoral schools and the degree to which students identify with the wider community of postgraduate researchers. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopted an in-depth interview method based on interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings: The findings indicate that Higher Education still has some way to go before all students identify as being part of a doctoral school. The data suggest that significant differences exist between PhD and Doctor of Business Administration students on their perceptions of being part of a doctoral community. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the growing corpus of work produced through IPA, and also provides insights into the development of a doctoral school

Model predictive control of dynamically substructured systems with application to a servohydraulically-actuated mechanical plant

Copyright ©2010 Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). This paper is a postprint of a paper submitted to and accepted for publication in IET Control Theory and Applications and is subject to Institution of Engineering and Technology Copyright. The copy of record is available at IET Digital Library.Dynamically substructured systems (DSS) are increasingly used by the dynamics testing community. DSS involves the physical testing of full-size critical components in parallel with numerical testing of the remaining components. This has certain advantages over other testing methods. However, the synchronisation of the signals at the interface between the physical and numerical substructures of DSS requires a high fidelity controller. In practice, the performance of the DSS testing can be degraded by input saturation of the actuators. In this study, the authors use model predictive control (MPC) to cope with the saturation problem in DSS. To facilitate the MPC and observer design for DSS, a modified DSS framework based on an existing one is proposed. As a case study, a quasi-motorcycle (QM) system is converted into the modified DSS framework and a traditional on-line MPC control strategy is implemented in real time