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" The process of change in higher education : "
Wheeler, Richard Graham Gilbert.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1094819
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TLets360593
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| Main Entry
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Wheeler, Richard Graham Gilbert.
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| Title & Author
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The process of change in higher education :\ Wheeler, Richard Graham Gilbert.
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| College
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University of Sussex
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| Date
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1997
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| student score
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1997
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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This thesis derives from a qualitative study of the process of change in highereducation in the ten years since the 1987 White Paper Meeting the Challenge,with particular reference to the impact of three initiatives associated with theconcept of vocationalism, namely Enterprise in Higher Education (EHE), HigherEducation for Capability (HEC) and National Vocational Qualifications(NVQ/GNVQ). The research is based on interview and documentary evidencedrawn from four universities - Middlesex; Hertfordshire; the Open University; andSussex - in five subject/disciplines - two broadly vocational - Business Studies;Electrical Engineering -, and three largely non-vocational - Biology/ EnvironmentalScience; History; and Sociology. The purpose of the study is to illuminate theprocess of change in the context of policy implementation research. There are fourlevels of analysis - the individual member of staff; the subject group or department;the university as an institution; and at the system level, the EmploymentDepartment (ED) (now OfEE) which has acted as an agency of change in HE.A simple model is developed, analysing the response of individuals in terms of'enthusiasts', 'capers' and 'doubters'. The responses of subject groups to EHE,HEC and NVQ/GNVQ are examined, with particular reference to curriculumchange and different interpretations of vocationalism. At the institutional level, theEHE model of change is revealed as neither exclusively top-down nor bottom-up,but as deriving largely from the influence of change agents in the middle of theorganisation, and from the availability of small scale funding as an incentive toinnovation in teaching and learning. At the system level, ED strategy, based onselective project funding, is shown to be powerful and effective, principally becauseit offers opportunities for the assimilation and ownership of change at a" threelevels - individual, subject discipline, and institutional. HEC has had less impact onthe four universities in an operational sense but the concept of Capability isimportant in normative terms. This contrasts with evidence of widespreadambivalence in universities towards competency-based education and training, atleast at the higher levels, although the Open University's VQ Centre has beeninfluential in facilitating and supporting VQ developments at the OU.As an essay in contemporary history, the thesis is concerned with the analysis ofthe change process in the context of time and place. As a contribution to groundedtheory, it also draws on classic force field analysis and innovation research toillustrate the phenomenon of incremental change, especially when the potentialexists for the interpretation and ownership of change by academics themselves.
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| Subject
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Education training
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| Added Entry
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University of Sussex
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