Research distilled

By miranda.prynne, 28 October, 2020
Series Type
Series
Teaser
Evidence-based insight from the latest studies into effective higher education provision
Resource
By Eliza.Compton, 18 December, 2024

Inclusive co-teaching can draw on educators’ lived experience

Multiracial group of three people looking at a computer
Joint teaching between academic faculty and experts by experience offers not only professional development for future teachers, but benefits student understanding as well. Here’s how to put it into practice
Reading time
4minutes
By Laura.Duckett, 17 December, 2024

Low-cost ways to support women academics

Female lecturer speaking to students at the front of class
Offering mentorship opportunities, supporting peer groups and addressing bias are some of the ways institutions can support women academics
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 15 October, 2024

How to preserve academic credibility when engaging with social media

woman typing on laptop, social media
As political expression on social media can harm public perception of scientists, strategies such as sharing research, separating personal and professional identities, and engaging objectively are ways that academics can use it effectively while preserving credibility
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 23 September, 2024

Building trust to support researchers’ mental health

Trust concept
Principal investigators should know what challenges to trust their research team may face at each stage of a project – from team building to post-project collaboration – so they can focus support effectively
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 9 September, 2024

Teaching international students about academic integrity

Academic integrity concept
Cultural misunderstandings can lead to international students being referred for academic misconduct. An answer for university educators can be to tailor course content to bridge gaps in your students‘ understanding
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 20 August, 2024

‘It just isn’t safe to disclose’

Neurodivergent leadership potential concept illustration
Neurodiverse academics face real and significant barriers to achieving positions of educational leadership. Here are considerations for universities to make promotion more equitable
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 5 August, 2024

Key questions to help universities measure societal impact

Illustration of a carnival high striker
When societal impact has so many definitions, how can higher education institutions measure it without overlap or disengagement? This coordinated approach aims to find accepted, effective common ground
Reading time
5minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 2 August, 2024

What can universities do to support academic couples?

Couple in dual career concept illustration
What elements can make a university stand out as being partner-friendly? Here are ways for institutions to support academics in dual-career partnerships – and boost their ability to attract and retain the best talent
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 26 July, 2024

Embracing disagreement in research co-production

Medical researchers in white lab coats
Co-producing a research project is not all consensus and harmony, so these four tips will guide research collaborators in how to allow and enable disagreements and dissenting voices
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 27 February, 2024

How to face adversity and change in higher education with resilience

Resilience concept
In times of stress and uncertainty, university leaders must model calmness, clarity and confidence in their ability to respond to and recover from challenges, writes Sonia Alvarez-Robinson. Here, she offers practical strategies based on her own experience
Reading time
3minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 14 February, 2024

Heart skills to future-proof students

Box of chocolates
These 10 skills might sound as soft as the centre of a Valentine’s Day chocolate, but they are essential for the careers and employability of our students, writes Elizabeth Reid Boyd
Reading time
3minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 14 November, 2023

HARKing forward: an argument for a polarising research practice

Detail of many drawing circle on screen around icons
Hypothesising (or proposing) after results are known is seen as going against scientific principles. Here, however, Yehuda Barach argues for its use in the name of unhindered enquiry and discovery when the scholarship is transparent and properly reported
By Miranda Prynne, 28 September, 2023

How to make access to doctoral study more equitable

Doctoral students celebrate
A three-pronged look at how to make access to doctoral study more equitable and remove barriers to entry that disproportionately impact students from ethnic minority backgrounds, based on findings of the Equator Project
Reading time
4minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 9 August, 2023

How can students learn to be innovative?

A holographic image of urban development emerging from the tablet
Teaching students innovative thinking through the use of business case studies and ‘learning by doing’, explained by William Cheung and Edward Yiu
Reading time
4minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 18 July, 2023

An evidence-based approach to flipped learning

Students applauding their professor
Flipped learning is most effective when it places active learning at its core, research suggests. A new model for flipped learning, developed by Manu Kapur and colleagues, aims to do just that
Reading time
3minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 14 July, 2023

Saying people’s names right: what policymakers can do

Diverse group of people around a table
How can leaders and policymakers in higher education help staff and students to respect people’s name-based identities? Jane Pilcher and Hannah Deakin-Smith identify steps to take
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 28 June, 2023

Can we really decolonise the university?

Road towards Aoraki mountain on South Island, New Zealand
To explore what is possible, non-Indigenous scholars Mahdis Azarmandi and Sara Tolbert offer an anticolonial feminist praxis for unsettling settler institutions
By Miranda Prynne, 21 June, 2023

Five characteristics of effective supervisor training

A university tutor talking to a male student
What constitutes effective training to ensure research supervisors are well equipped to work with doctoral students? Sioux McKenna and Puleng Motshoane share advice based on their research in South Africa
Reading time
3minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 3 March, 2023

Six ingredients for successful digital transformation

Hands at laptop surrounded by cloud of tech-related icons
For forward-thinking universities, technology is not an afterthought but a core part of their activities. Here, Nick Skelton distils insight from UK higher education leaders into six components of successful digital integration
Reading time
3minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 17 February, 2023

Questions beyond majors: developing mental maturity in students

Hand holding a compass in open road
When undergraduates build their own course plan, reading list and thesis project, the benefits extend beyond the individual student’s mindset to teaching faculty, write Ryan Derby-Talbot and Marjorie Wonham
Reading time
4minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 26 January, 2023

Show off students’ employability with e-portfolios

Image depicting different elements of and outcomes from learning
Why and how to make e-portfolios a central part of university courses, helping students identify and exhibit skills that will appeal to employers, by Lourdes Guàrdia and Marcelo Maina
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 9 December, 2022

Teach and talk: encouraging student dialogue in class

Students talking in class
Dialogic validation is about making students aware of the value their ideas bring to the classroom. Roehl Sybing discusses three simple principles that teachers can adopt to get students talking
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 6 December, 2022

The power of gender-sensitive mentoring

Women mentoring
Mentoring is a powerful tool to enhance job satisfaction and work-life balance. This guide aims to help mentors adopt a gender-sensitive approach to support women and people who identify as women in teaching-focused roles
Reading time
4minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 26 October, 2022

If you want students to read more, consider asking them to read less

Female student reading a book in the university library
Students can feel overwhelmed when faced with lengthy academic reading lists so how can educators help them develop their reading skills? Will Mason and Meesha Warmington share five actions to support students in tackling, even enjoying, their course literature
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 5 October, 2022

Student diaries as a tool to improve the university experience

A female student writing in her diary
Do you really know what your students experience during their studies? It is more complex than many surveys suggest. Using student diaries may support deeper understanding to improve student experiences, as Dan Herbert explains
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 1 September, 2022

Walk the walk to benefit your academic research

Woman walking past a field of yellow flowers
Walking can be used to benefit academic research, help with problem-solving and promote creative thinking. Here, Anna Lois McKay explains the different ways it works
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 11 August, 2022

How to address bias in the classroom and in assessment in five steps

Image showing unequal support being offered on the pathway to success
Biases can affect personal interactions, course design, learning activities, assessment and institutional practices, thus it is vital that educators work to remove bias from their teaching. Donna Hurford and Andrew Read share helpful approaches
Reading time
4minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 5 August, 2022

What’s next for AI in higher education?

AI concept
From assessment to ethics and job security, a new Jisc report highlights AI’s challenges and successes and provides insight into upcoming developments
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 4 August, 2022

Address STEM inequality by reconceiving merit

Image of a young black woman scientist
The cultural yardsticks used to measure merit in STEM are warped with bias and often devalue women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ scientists with records equal to white heterosexual male peers. To fix STEM inequality, academia must reconceive merit
Reading time
4minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 3 August, 2022

Co-creation: how to find the ‘super’ in supervision

Image showing collaboration between doctoral students and supervisors
Co-creation can bring together research supervisors and doctoral students to unpick the tensions and challenges in the supervisory relationship and seek solutions, researchers from the University of Warwick explain
Reading time
3minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 3 August, 2022

Don’t be cruel: how to write a fair peer review report

Woman holds magnifying glass over paper
Not every comment in a peer review report will be positive, but it is possible to highlight weaknesses and errors in a journal article while being constructive. After all, behind every manuscript are authors who have ploughed time and effort into the submission
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 11 May, 2022

Coordinating co-authors

Image showing co-authors working on a paper
Co-authoring with other researchers can result in more ambitious and exciting papers than solo endeavours but is also fraught with potential hiccups. Steven Bateman and Jie Zhang share advice on keeping collaborative work on track
Reading time
3minutes
By Miranda Prynne, 24 February, 2022

Supporting equity among students in group work

Advice on steps instructors can take to encourage equitable group dynamics among students
Natasha Holmes and Kira Treibergs share strategies for preventing implicit biases affecting student group dynamics, and facilitating productive and equitable teamwork
By Eliza.Compton, 22 February, 2022

Where are the leaders with a disability in higher education?

Empty lectern illustrating opinion article about lack of university leadership with visible or stated disability
While support is available for people with a disability in universities, this is not translating to senior leadership positions – to the detriment of individuals and the sector as a whole, say Paul Harpur and Brooke Szücs
Reading time
3minutes
By miranda.prynne, 13 October, 2021

Using productive failure to activate deeper learning

Advice on using productive failure to activate deeper learning
Manu Kapur explains how using a flipped-classroom approach, setting students problems that they are unable to tackle properly until they have been taught the associated concepts, deepens their learning through ‘productive failure’
By miranda.prynne, 31 May, 2021

Supporting self-directed learning across cultural boundaries

Self directed learning is effective among Chinese students coming from a different educational and cultural context, research shows
Academics from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University draw on their research showing the Western teaching model based on ‘self-directed learning’ is effective among Chinese students coming from different educational and cultural contexts
By miranda.prynne, 26 October, 2020

In defence of old-school teaching during a worldwide crisis

Teachers stay present - don't take yourself out of your online classes
The rapid move to online teaching risks lecturers becoming over reliant on technology and steadily disappearing from their own courses. Here Glenn Geher argues the case for instructors remaining at the heart of their classes and only using technology to support their teaching
By miranda.prynne, 5 November, 2020

Building an effective home studio for remote teaching

Creating a home studio to record engaging online classes
Recording classes well from home can be a challenge but by getting the basics right you can create a simple studio set up which will support effective online teaching. Here, Sean Willems explains how