TY - CHAP A1 - Vladova, Gergana A1 - Ullrich, André A1 - Bender, Benedict A1 - Gronau, Norbert ED - Reis, Arsénio ED - Barroso, João ED - Lopes, J. Bernardino ED - Mikropoulos, Tassos ED - Fan, Chih-Wen T1 - Yes, we can (?) BT - a critical review of the COVID-19 semester T2 - Technology and innovation in learning, teaching and education : second international conference, TECH-EDU 2020, Vila Real, Portugal, December 2-4, 2020 : proceedings N2 - The COVID-19 crisis has caused an extreme situation for higher education institutions around the world, where exclusively virtual teaching and learning has become obligatory rather than an additional supporting feature. This has created opportunities to explore the potential and limitations of virtual learning formats. This paper presents four theses on virtual classroom teaching and learning that are discussed critically. We use existing theoretical insights extended by empirical evidence from a survey of more than 850 students on acceptance, expectations, and attitudes regarding the positive and negative aspects of virtual teaching. The survey responses were gathered from students at different universities during the first completely digital semester (Spring-Summer 2020) in Germany. We discuss similarities and differences between the subjects being studied and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teaching and learning. Against the background of existing theory and the gathered data, we emphasize the importance of social interaction, the combination of different learning formats, and thus context-sensitive hybrid learning as the learning form of the future. KW - COVID-19 KW - higher education KW - virtual learning KW - digital learning KW - subject differences Y1 - 2021 SN - 978-3-030-73987-4 SN - 978-3-030-73988-1 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73988-1_17 SP - 225 EP - 235 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Döring, Matthias A1 - Ansmann, Moritz T1 - The sequence of isomorphism— BT - the temporal diffusion patterns of quality management in higher education institutions and hospitals JF - Administration & society N2 - Isomorphism has been widely used to describe why trends penetrate entire organizational fields. However, research so far has neglected the temporal aspects of such diffusion processes and the organizational reasons underlying the introduction of new management tools. We argue that during reform waves, the reasons for adopting the new tools differ over time. Using comparative data from two surveys on quality management in the field of higher education and the health sector, we show that early adopters are more likely to be motivated by instrumental reasons, while late adopters will more likely be motivated by institutional reasons. KW - isomorphism KW - quality management KW - hospitals KW - higher education KW - institutions KW - organization Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211017137 SN - 0095-3997 SN - 1552-3039 VL - 54 IS - 1 SP - 87 EP - 116 PB - Sage Publ. CY - Thousand Oaks ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Reith, Florian T1 - Strength of weakness BT - Quality managers as agents of multiple principals JF - Journal of higher education policy and management N2 - The paper investigates quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions from a principal-agent perspective. Based on data gained from semi-structured interviews and from a nation-wide survey with quality managers of German higher education institutions, the study shows how quality managers position themselves in relation to their perception of the interests of other actors in higher education institutions. The paper describes the various interests and discusses the main implications of this constellation of actors. It argues that quality managers, although they may be considered as rather weak actors within the higher education institution, may be characterised as having a strength of weakness due to diverging interests of their principals. KW - quality management KW - quality assurance KW - higher education KW - principal KW - agent KW - teaching Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2020.1812802 SN - 1360-080X SN - 1469-9508 VL - 43 IS - 3 SP - 298 EP - 314 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Al Laban, Firas A1 - Reger, Martin A1 - Lucke, Ulrike T1 - Closing the Policy Gap in the Academic Bridge JF - Education sciences N2 - The highly structured nature of the educational sector demands effective policy mechanisms close to the needs of the field. That is why evidence-based policy making, endorsed by the European Commission under Erasmus+ Key Action 3, aims to make an alignment between the domains of policy and practice. Against this background, this article addresses two issues: First, that there is a vertical gap in the translation of higher-level policies to local strategies and regulations. Second, that there is a horizontal gap between educational domains regarding the policy awareness of individual players. This was analyzed in quantitative and qualitative studies with domain experts from the fields of virtual mobility and teacher training. From our findings, we argue that the combination of both gaps puts the academic bridge from secondary to tertiary education at risk, including the associated knowledge proficiency levels. We discuss the role of digitalization in the academic bridge by asking the question: which value does the involved stakeholders expect from educational policies? As a theoretical basis, we rely on the model of value co-creation for and by stakeholders. We describe the used instruments along with the obtained results and proposed benefits. Moreover, we reflect on the methodology applied, and we finally derive recommendations for future academic bridge policies. KW - policy evaluation KW - higher education KW - virtual mobility KW - teacher training Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12120930 SN - 2227-7102 VL - 12 IS - 12 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Reith, Florian T1 - Mixed methods for research into higher education BT - Solving the problem of institutionalized introspection? JF - Theory and method in higher education research N2 - Mixed methods approaches have become increasingly relevant in social sciences research over the last few decades. Nevertheless, we show that these approaches have rarely been explicitly applied in higher education research. This is somewhat surprising because mixed methods and empirical research into higher education seem to be a perfect match for several reasons: (1) the role of the researcher, which is associated with strong intersections between the research subject and the research object; (2) the research process, which relies on concepts and theories that are borrowed from other research fields; and (3) the research object, which exhibits unclear techniques in teaching and learning, making it difficult to grasp causalities between input and results. Mixed methods approaches provide a suitable methodology to research such topics. Beyond this, potential future developments underlining the particular relevance of mixed methods approaches in higher education are discussed. KW - Mixed methods KW - methodology KW - empirical research KW - higher education KW - qualitative research KW - quantitative research Y1 - 2019 SN - 978-1-83867-841-8 SN - 978-1-83867-842-5 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1108/S2056-375220190000005008 SN - 2056-3752 VL - 5 SP - 111 EP - 127 PB - Emerald Publishing Limited CY - Bingley ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reith, Florian A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Balancing the Moods BT - Quality Managers’ Perceptions and Actions Against Resistance JF - Higher education policy N2 - Quality management (QM) has spread around the world and reached higher education in Europe in the early 1990s (Mendel, 2006, 137; Kernegger and Vettori, 2013, 1). However, researchers were rather more interested in national quality assurance policies (macro-level) and accreditation systems (meso-level) than in intra-organizational perspectives about the day-to-day implementation of quality assurance policies by various actors (micro-level). Undoubtedly, organizational change is a challenging endeavor for all kinds of groups. On the one hand, it provides the opportunity of further development and innovation, but on the other hand, it exposes organizations and actors to the risk of losing established structures and accepted routines. Like in many other organizations, actors may not necessarily perceive change as a promoter of innovation and development. Instead, they may consider change as a threat to the existing status quo or, as March points out, as an “interplay between rationality and foolishness” (March, 1981, 563). Consequently, change provokes either affective or behavioral actions (Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999, 308–310), such as, for example, resistance. Anderson (2006, 2008) and Lucas (2014) have shown, for example, that academic resistance is an important issue. However, Piderit characterizes resistance as a multidimensional construct (Piderit, 2000, 786–787) subject to a wide variety of issues related to quality and QM. Although QM has been described as a “fashion” (Stensaker, 2007, 101) in the higher education sector that provokes many different reactions, its implementation in higher education institutions (HEIs) is still a rather unexplored field. Thus, the evidence provided by Anderson (2006, 2008) and others (Newton, 2000, 2002; McInnis et al., 1995; Fredman and Doughney, 2012; Lucas, 2014; etc.) needs to be expanded, because they only consider the perspective of academia. In particular, the view of other actors during the implementation of quality assurance policies is a missing piece in this empirical puzzle. Nearly nothing is known about how quality managers deal with reactions to organizational change like resistance and obstruction. Until now, only a few studies have focused on intra-organizational dynamics (see, for example: Csizmadia et al., 2008; Lipnicka, 2016). Besides the lack of research on the implementation of quality assurance policies in HEIs, quality managers seem to be an interesting subject for further investigations because they are “endogenous” to institutional processes. On the one hand, quality managers are the result of quality assurance policies, and on the other hand, they influence the implementation of quality assurance policies, which affect other actors (like academics, administrative staff, etc.). Here, quality managers, as members of an emerging higher education profession, are involved in various conflict lines between QM, HEI management and departments, which need further research (Seyfried and Pohlenz, 2018, 9). Therefore, the aim of our paper is twofold: firstly, to answer the question of how quality managers perceive resistance, and secondly, which measures they take in situations of perceived resistance. We offer a new research perspective and argue that resistance is not merely provoked by organizational change; it also provokes counter-reactions by actors who are confronted with resistance. Thus, resistance seems to be rather endogenous. To theorize our argument, we apply parts of the work of Christine Oliver (1991), which provides theoretical insights into strategic responses to institutional processes, ranging from acquiescence to manipulation (Oliver, 1991, 152). We, therefore, investigate the introduction of QM in teaching and learning, and the emergence of quality managers as higher education professionals as one of the results of quality assurance policies. Consequently, the introduction of QM may be considered as an institutional process provoking reactions and counter-reactions of various organizational units within HEIs. These circumstances are constitutive for how quality managers deal with resistance and other reactions toward organizational change. We use this theoretical framework to analyze the German higher education sector, because this particular case can be considered as a latecomer in New Public Management reforms (Schimank, 2005, 369) and Germany is a country where academic self-governance plays a very important role, and strongly influences academics’ behavior when it comes to organizational change (Wolter, 2004). Our empirical results are based on a mixed-methods research design and integrate half-structured interviews and a nationwide survey at the central level in German HEIs, which excludes faculty members of QM (decentral level). They reveal that quality managers take different types of action when resistance occurs during the implementation of quality assurance policies. Furthermore, quality managers mainly react with different tactics. These tactics seem to be relevant for convincing academics and for the enhancement of their commitment to improve the quality of teaching and learning, instead of provoking further resistance or avoidance practices. This article proceeds as follows: the next sections describe the context and explain our main theoretical concepts referring to the work of Oliver (1991) and others. After that, we present our case selection and the methodological framework, including the data sources and the operationalization of selected variables. Finally, we provide our empirical results about quality managers’ perceptions on resistance and we draw conclusions. KW - higher education KW - quality management KW - institutional processes KW - resistance KW - balancing Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-0124-6 SN - 0952-8733 SN - 1740-3863 VL - 32 IS - 1 SP - 71 EP - 91 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Basingstoke ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pohlenz, Philipp A1 - Niedermeier, Frank T1 - The Bologna Process and the harmonisation of higher education systems in other world regions BT - a case from Southeast Asia JF - Innovation : the European journal of social sciences N2 - The Bologna Process has inspired harmonisation strategies for higher education systems in other parts of the world. However, developments in other contexts are not much under review in the European debate. The present article describes the case of Southeast Asia and the attempt to promote harmonisation of its higher education systems. It further compares the processes in ASEAN and the European Higher Education Area to then discuss open questions for future comparative research. To do so the authors re-contextualise data from a study in ASEAN against the background of future research needs in the field of higher education harmonisation. KW - ASEAN KW - Bologna Process KW - European Higher Education Area KW - higher education KW - quality assurance KW - harmonisation KW - regionalisation KW - diffusion KW - mobility Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2019.1637248 SN - 1351-1610 SN - 1469-8412 VL - 32 IS - 4 SP - 481 EP - 494 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Reith, Florian T1 - The seven deadly sins of quality management: trade-offs and implications for further research JF - Quality in higher education N2 - Quality management in higher education is generally discussed with reference to commendable outcomes such as success, best practice, improvement or control. This paper, though, focuses on the problems of organising quality management. It follows the narrative of the seven deadly sins, with each ‘sin’ illustrating an inherent trade-off or paradox in the implementation of internal quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions. Identifying the trade-offs behind these sins is essential for a better understanding of quality management as an organisational problem. KW - Quality management KW - higher education KW - governance KW - trade-offs KW - teaching KW - research Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2019.1683943 SN - 1353-8322 SN - 1470-1081 VL - 25 IS - 3 SP - 289 EP - 303 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bondü, Rebecca A1 - Beier, Sophia T1 - Two of a Kind? Differences and similarities of attacks in schools and in institutes of higher aducation JF - Journal of interpersonal violence : concerned with the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual violence N2 - School attacks are attracting increasing attention in aggression research. Recent systematic analyses provided new insights into offense and offender characteristics. Less is known about attacks in institutes of higher education (e.g., universities). It is therefore questionable whether the term “school attack” should be limited to institutions of general education or could be extended to institutions of higher education. Scientific literature is divided in distinguishing or unifying these two groups and reports similarities as well as differences. We researched 232 school attacks and 45 attacks in institutes of higher education throughout the world and conducted systematic comparisons between the two groups. The analyses yielded differences in offender (e.g., age, migration background) and offense characteristics (e.g., weapons, suicide rates), and some similarities (e.g., gender). Most differences can apparently be accounted for by offenders’ age and situational influences. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and the development of preventative measures. KW - school attack KW - IHE attack KW - rampage KW - higher education KW - characteristics KW - prevention Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260514533156 SN - 0886-2605 SN - 1552-6518 VL - 30 IS - 2 SP - 253 EP - 271 PB - Sage Publ. CY - Thousand Oaks ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borck, Rainald A1 - Übelmesser, Silke A1 - Wimbersky, Martin T1 - The Political Economics of Higher-Education Finance for Mobile Individuals JF - FinanzArchiv N2 - We study voting over higher-education finance in an economy with two regions and two separated labor markets. Households differ in their financial endowment and their children's ability. Nonstudents are immobile. Students decide where to study; they return home after graduation with exogenous probability. The voters of the two regions decide on whether to subsidize higher-education costs or to rely on tuition fees only. We find that in equilibrium, in both regions a majority votes for subsidies when the return probability is sufficiently small. When that probability is large, both regions opt for full tuition finance. KW - voting KW - higher education KW - financing scheme KW - mobility Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1628/001522115X14206439673215 SN - 0015-2218 SN - 1614-0974 VL - 71 IS - 1 SP - 82 EP - 105 PB - Mohr Siebeck CY - Tübingen ER -