SCOPING STUDY ON LEADERSHIP IN HE COMMISSIONED BY ADVANCE HE (UK) 2021-2022
I am part of a team commissioned by Advance HE in the UK undertaking a scoping study about leadership in higher education. The scoping study will inform the development of a large scale survey instrument.
The other members of the research team are:
Professor Richard Watermeyer (University of Bristol, UK)
Professor Richard Bolden (University of the West of England, UK)
Dr Cathryn Knight (University of Cardiff, UK)
FREEDOM TO TEACH IN HIGHER EDUCATION (2022)
I am currently writing a new book for Routledge due for publication in 2021. It will focus on the freedom to teach and the way in which 'academic rule' (Moodie, 1974) is being eroded. A lot of attention has focused on headline grabbing incidents where academics have faced criticism, censure or dismissal for expressing controversial or unorthodox opinions in class. However, the freedom to teach is undermined by day-to-day freedoms such as creative control of the curriculum, academic judgement with respect to teaching and assessment, and intellectual renewal via research and scholarship. These are pre-conditions of enjoying the freedom to teach. But these pre-conditions are being seriously eroded by the corporatisation of the curriculum, the bureaucratisation of teaching and assessment and the disintegration of the academic profession resulting in rising numbers working on teaching-only contracts. The book will explore these challenges to the freedom to teach and how it can be restored through universities committing to an integrated view of scholarship.