The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is reshaping global societies, economies, and education systems by introducing advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, and the Internet of Things. This study explores the opportunities, challenges, and strategies for integrating 4IR technologies within Zimbabwean tertiary education, guided by the principles of Education 5.0. Using an interpretive qualitative approach, data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twenty academic staff and three key institutional informants at a private university in Masvingo Province. Purposive sampling ensured participants had relevant insights into 4IR adoption. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis, allowing emergent themes related to institutional preparedness, lecturer capacity, skill development, innovation, and inclusivity to surface. Findings reveal that 4IR technologies offer transformative opportunities for enhancing teaching and learning, promoting research and innovation, developing industry-relevant skills, and supporting inclusive education. However, challenges such as limited infrastructure, digital literacy gaps, socio-economic disparities, and uneven faculty preparedness constrain adoption. Strategic interventions, including professional development, industry partnerships, government support, and policy frameworks, are critical for equitable and sustainable integration. The study highlights how 4IR technologies can enhance tertiary education in Zimbabwe while supporting national and global development goals.
Professional doctorates (PDs) provide an advanced pathway for midwives to integrate clinical expertise, research, and leadership. While well established in countries such as the United Kingdom, their relevance and feasibility within small-state higher education systems remain underexplored. This study examined midwifery academics' perceptions of the benefits, challenges, and contextual considerations associated with developing a Professional Doctorate in Midwifery in Malta. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a purposive sample of midwifery academics involved in curriculum development and leadership within a Maltese tertiary institution. Data were collected using a 41-item structured questionnaire informed by a literature review and interviews with UK professional doctorate leaders. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including Friedman's test. Participants strongly supported the introduction of a PD, highlighting its potential to enhance research capacity, strengthen midwifery leadership, and foster integration between academic and clinical practice. Key challenges included limited supervisory expertise, resource constraints, and the need for flexible programme delivery. Comparisons with established UK models demonstrated broad alignment while identifying context-specific concerns related to sustainability within a small higher education system. Professional doctorates have significant potential to advance midwifery scholarship, leadership, and workforce sustainability. The study proposes a framework of Seven Essential Domains for Professional Doctorate Education to guide the strategic design and implementation of PD programmes that strengthen research capacity and support woman-centred, evidence-informed care.
This paper critically examines how national policies promoting generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) are enacted within English Further Education (FE) colleges between 2023 and 2025, with a focus on vocational and technical education. Drawing on documentary analysis of national policy, regulatory texts and institutional materials, the study is informed by policy enactment theory and a social justice lens. The study identifies a persistent gap between ambitious national discourse (emphasising personalised learning, workload reduction and workforce preparation) and uneven institutional practices. Documentary sources on a small number of early-adopting FE colleges indicate benefits such as administrative time savings and enhanced feedback processes, but significant barriers remain, including limited access to professional development, concerns regarding assessment malpractice and unequal institutional capacity. Critical scholarship suggests that failure to enact technology with substantive policy, institutional and practitioner guidance can accentuate existing inequities, particularly in rural or under-resourced contexts. The paper supports arguments that GenAI, frequently framed as a democratising innovation in vocational education, may instead intensify structural divides without equity-oriented policy support, and concludes by proposing clearer regulatory guidance, capacity-building measures and differentiated funding as conditions for more just and sustainable GenAI integration in the FE sector.
The transition from further to higher education is a critical period that can impact success and retention, particularly for traditionally underrepresented students. This study surveyed 54 first-year Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation students at a UK university to explore expectations and experiences during transition to higher education with a focus on educational background and socio-economic status. Findings revealed differences in expected communication and perceived factors important for success. Transferable skills were undervalued, particularly technological, especially among BTEC-qualified and first-generation students. Those from low participation areas also reported higher work hours, highlighting financial pressures. Recommendations to support an inclusive and flexible transition period are offered.
The paper investigates seven socio-economic factors influencing Saudi students' perception of enrolling in Jeddah College of Technology (JCT). The student survey is composed of 340 students pooled in three strata, i.e., sampling by department, by living place, and by students' seniority at the JCT. The study has used a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, which was analysed using the Chi-square test. The prevalence of the socio-economic factors is appraised using an original ranking method, which combines the Chi-square significance level and the pooling method. The study findings disclosed that the primary motivating factors to enrol at the JCT are, in order, the "location proximity", the "family professional success", and the "job availability at graduation", and equally the "parents' aspiration" with the "society esteem". The "Peers' influence" and the "Aversion to theoretical classes" factors are not influential with regard to the students' perception. To account for the inflation of Type I error rates resulting from multiple comparisons, a Holm-Bonferroni correction was applied. Only one factor, "location proximity", was interpreted as statistically significant despite that the Cramer's V of the other factors shows a medium association with students' perception.
Lifelong learning competencies have become central to contemporary higher education; however, limited empirical attention has been paid to how these competencies begin to develop during the early stages of university education. This study examines how preparatory class students develop lifelong learning competencies - particularly self-directed learning, collaboration, problem-solving, and self-awareness - through engagement in a structured community-based learning experience. Based on qualitative interview data from ten preparatory students, the findings indicate that participation in authentic, practice-based learning contexts can foster increased learner responsibility, autonomy, and awareness of learning beyond formal classroom boundaries. Participants described shifts in their understanding of learning, reporting enhanced confidence, ownership of tasks, and greater engagement in collaborative and reflective processes. The study contributes to lifelong learning literature by providing empirical evidence that foundational lifelong learning competencies can begin to emerge in early university education when students are positioned as active contributors within meaningful learning environments.
This article examines the Development Apprenticeship (DAship) Programme of Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) as a distinctive model for grooming grassroots development professionals in India. Drawing on qualitative documentary analysis of 21 retrospective first-person narratives published in NewsReach between 2001 and 2019, the study explores how extended field immersion, mentorship, and reflective learning shape participants' professional trajectories and personal transformation. Using narrative and qualitative content analysis, the paper analyses apprentices' early field experiences, learning processes, identity formation, and subsequent career paths. The findings suggest that DAship functions as an experiential learning model grounded in 'learning by doing,' in which communities serve as primary teachers, and mentors facilitate critical reflection and skill development. The programme enables apprentices to align cognitive, emotional, and practical competencies while assessing their long-term commitment to grassroots work. The sustained engagement of most alums in the development sector highlights DAship's effectiveness as a durable, replicable approach to professional formation in rural development, with implications for development practice, education, and policy.
Addressing Foundation Skills (language, literacy, numeracy and digital (LLND) capability) has long been recognised as important for learner progression and workforce participation in vocational education and training (VET). However, meeting the needs of diverse learners within cohort style provision remains a pedagogical challenge. This qualitative case study examines how differentiated task design can be enacted through a shared project structure aligned to common outcomes. Three learners completed interest-based projects culminating in a digital artefact and reflective writing task. Educator-mediated generative artificial intelligence was used as a planning support to draft level-appropriate materials. Thematic analysis of artefacts, reflections and observation notes identified three themes: contextual relevance, integrated application of foundation skills, and reflective awareness of learning. The findings provide applied insight into how structured project design can support differentiation in small-scale VET settings without fragmenting foundation skills development.
In an era characterised by the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis and COVID-19, this research examines the effects of the UK's cost-of-living crisis on the well-being, attendance, and retention of undergraduate Business School students through an online questionnaire. The findings unveil that students grappling with soaring rent and mortgage expenses endure adverse effects on their mental health rating and attendance in classes. Moreover, it is revealed that students are more inclined to discontinue their studies in the face of rent or mortgage rate hikes. Additionally, students burdened with high commuting costs, caregiving responsibilities, stagnant incomes, or job loss face heightened risks to their mental well-being and are prone to increased absenteeism, thereby considering abandoning their education. Furthermore, the research sheds light on the hurdles students encounters due to the cost-of-living crisis, their coping mechanisms, and proposed solutions from the university.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a prominent platform for teacher professional development, particularly in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). This exploratory study employs corpus linguistics methods, specifically keyword, collocation, and thematic analyses, to examine learner perspectives on the 'TESOL specialization' MOOCs on Coursera, which consist of eight courses designed for English language teachers. By analysing a corpus of 6776 online reviews, the study identifies the major themes characterising learners' experiences. Key findings reveal that learners highly value these MOOCs for their engaging and informative content, well-presented, easy-to-follow materials, thought-provoking peer-reviewed assignments, practical applicability to classroom teaching, and contribution to professional growth. These insights provide valuable implications for MOOC designers, highlighting the need for courses that are not only pedagogically rich but also user-friendly and directly relevant to teaching practice. This research contributes to understanding effective MOOC design in teacher education, offering a data-driven approach to enhancing online learning experiences.
The aim of this article is to explore foreign-born teachers' (FBTs') professional development (PD) in higher education institutions in Finland. The uniqueness of the study comes from its narrative research approach, which gives voice to FBTs, who are situated on the edges of the faculty of the universities of applied sciences (UASs). The research data consist of narratives written by 18 participants from 13 different UAS organisations in Finland. Three typical thematic categories were identified from their narratives: managed by myself, shadowed by inequity, and gradual progression. These emergent themes from the narratives highlighted barriers to FBTs' PD, such as prejudice in their work communities, and the importance of reflective practices in their work as teachers. In the FBTs' PD, the positive effects of their immediate communities of practice (composed of colleagues and students) support the FBTs' careers as teachers. Additionally, FBTs' PD paths highlight the importance of one's own activities to survive and to cope with the teaching work to benefit student learning. The results revealed the need for appropriate leadership practices that emphasise supporting elements, such as mentoring.
The paper adopts an approach derived from critical theory and structuralism. It sets itself four main tasks. Firstly, to set the discussion within an engagement with vocational education and training (VET) that serves to explore its conceptualisations, considering their limits and radical possibilities. This section morphs into the second, which examines the capitalocene, which locates the climate crisis in the context of class society. Here again, there is an engagement with VET which requires its re-thinking, allied with the necessity to move beyond neo-liberalism and more specifically capitalism. It calls for the development of an anti-capitalist stance that could transcend the status quo. The third section draws on a literature that, whilst critiquing neo-liberalism, rests on a capitalist terrain. The fourth section revisits the English policy context in which VET is located. It calls for not only a rethinking of VET, together with its links to social democracy, but also an acknowledgement of social antagonism and a recognition of struggle.
Trust is a fundamental element in the student-institution relationship, yet little is known about how students experience distrust within higher education. This qualitative study examines how undergraduate, graduate, and professional students perceive, experience, and respond to distrust in their higher education institution (HEI). Drawing on data from seven focus groups, three primary themes emerged through a reflexive thematic analysis: 1) experiential distrust rooted in past harms and institutional betrayal; 2) distrust stemming from a perceived lack of value, where students felt deprioritised in a profit-driven system; and 3) cultural and linguistic harm, particularly among students of colour and international students. Findings reveal that students' distrust is shaped by perceived harm, systemic inequities, and unmet expectations, and often leads to decreased academic focus and increased self-protection. The current study contributes to trust theory by demonstrating that distrust is a distinct and multifaceted process, not merely the absence of trust. Implications for institutional accountability, inclusive governance, and culturally responsive practices are discussed. Limitations and directions for future research are also explored.
Creating cultural change within large organisations is a complex process that involves action across all levels of the institution. In the context of incomplete and uneven processes of marketisation, 'top-down' managerial approaches pose further challenges for organisational change in the UK Higher Education sector. Drawing on a study exploring the implementation of 'good practice' recommendations for addressing BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) or GEM (Global Ethnic Majority) awarding and continuation gaps at a post-1992 institution in England, we suggest that individual and peer-driven initiatives might be more effective at driving change within HE, rather than external 'top-down' approaches that risk demotivating staff. Through our discussion of what drives equality work in universities, we highlight the power of harnessing the autonomy, innovation and commitment of HE staff and aligning equality work with their own existing personal values and identities.
Teacher-student relationships (TSRs) in higher education impact many aspects of the student experience, including engagement and performance. However, relatively little is known about the mechanisms of establishment of TSRs, and in particular, how these are influenced by specific learning environments and contexts. Here, we undertake an exploratory investigation using first-year biological sciences undergraduate residential field courses to examine how this teaching context affected the frequency and nature of teacher-student interactions, and consequently the development of TSRs. Data were collected from teacher and student participants using questionnaires and focus groups. We found that interactions during fieldwork took place frequently and tended to be more positive than on campus. At the end of the field course, we found a statistically significant increase in students' perceptions of their teachers as supportive and honest, which may be attributable to teachers providing immediate feedback on student work. Findings also indicate that positive effects may persist beyond the fieldwork, with students being more comfortable approaching teachers back on campus. These findings have important implications for the value of experiential learning environments such as fieldwork for the development of positive TSRs.
This study investigates how curriculum co-creation facilitates authentic learning through negotiated curriculum transformations using the context of business and management education. Drawing on the negotiated curriculum lens, it examines 22 scholarly contributions via an abductive, integrative review to identify curriculum transformation mechanisms, their relationships with authentic learning and contingencies therein. A conceptual framework is developed, linking co-creation practices, negotiated curriculum transformations and authenticity dimensions. This work contributes to curriculum studies by theorising co-creation as a negotiation process that, under certain contingencies, reconfigures epistemic legitimacy, relational dynamics and authority to facilitate authentic learning. Critically, the study extends existing perspectives on collaborative and democratic curriculum practices in business and management education. It also provides educators with a typology of negotiated curriculum transformations that can be adopted to streamline co-creation projects and cultivate authenticity.
Industry 4.0 necessitates enhanced digital competencies among vocational education and training (VET) teachers globally; however, significant gaps in technology integration persist, particularly in developing countries where resource constraints demand innovative solutions. This pilot feasibility study explores visual programming platforms as an accessible approach to enhancing VET teachers' digital competencies, with implications for broader post-compulsory education contexts. A single-group pre-post design was implemented with 20 VET office administration teachers from Indonesia over eight weeks, using Thunkable-based programming. Digital competencies were measured using a validated 40-item instrument encompassing foundational concepts, design capabilities, programming logic, and educational content integration. Analysis revealed significant improvement from pre-test to post-test, with a medium effect size. The strongest improvements occurred in foundational concepts and design capabilities. Cost-effectiveness analysis demonstrated substantial advantages compared to international programmes. However, a quarter of participants exhibited negative response patterns associated with technology anxiety. While the single-group design limits causal inference, preliminary findings suggest that visual programming platforms may offer cost-effective approaches to enhancing VET teachers' digital competencies when appropriately adapted to local contexts, warranting controlled studies across diverse post-compulsory education environments.
Despite the high number of students enrolling each year in engineering degree programmes at universities across the United Kingdom, relatively few studies have examined the teaching and learning experiences encountered by these learners. This study addresses that gap by comparing the perspectives of 209 first-year engineering students at a post-92 English university with their prior educational backgrounds in further education settings. Findings indicate a clear preference among participants for laboratory and lecture-based instruction over seminars. Additionally, students reported significantly less interaction with university staff, both during and outside of classes, compared to their previous institutions. More than 95% of participants strongly agreed that high-quality teaching, critical thinking skills and the ability to work independently were essential to achieving success in their engineering studies. The study offers practical recommendations for supporting university provision to better align with the expectations and learning needs of new engineering cohorts. Future research avenues and limitations are also outlined.
TVET (technical and vocational education) colleges often launch improvement initiatives yet struggle to sustain results in daily practice. This study examines what enables and hinders Dutch middelbaar beroepsonderwijs (MBO, secondary vocational education) teams in embedding quality improvement (QI) in routine work. We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with managers, team leaders, and teachers across multiple MBO programs. Data were analyzed abductively: open coding was informed by sensitizing concepts from improvement and high-performance literature, followed by iterative clustering to identify practical conditions and failure modes. Program-led approaches, such as campaigns and tool roll-outs, rarely endured. Durable change emerged when three conditions co-existed: (1) leadership constancy, expressed in visible presence at the point of work, blocker removal, and a short list of non-negotiable priorities; (2) daily integration, with QI embedded in team rhythms through stand-ups, after-action checks, and visible follow-up rather than separate projects; and (3) managed person-dependence, through shared standards, coaching routines, and fair retention practices that reduce reliance on individual heroes. Hindrances included initiative overload, unclear decision rights, and compliance pressures undermining intrinsic motivation. Improvement in TVET works best as a daily operating capability, not a periodic program. A concise three-conditions-by-daily-routines checklist offers actionable guidance for MBO teams and college leaders.
