Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents
This article examines the ways in which a high-quality system of undergraduate education is represented in recent policy documents from a range of actors interested in higher education. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's ideas, the authors conceptualise the policy documents as reflecting a struggle o...
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32478/ |
| _version_ | 1848794417040719872 |
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| author | Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica |
| author_facet | Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica |
| author_sort | Ashwin, Paul |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article examines the ways in which a high-quality system of undergraduate education is represented in recent policy documents from a range of actors interested in higher education. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's ideas, the authors conceptualise the policy documents as reflecting a struggle over competing views of quality that are expressed through pedagogic discourses. They identify two pedagogic discourses: a dominant market-oriented generic discourse and an alternative discourse that focuses on transformation. They argue that the market-oriented generic discourse is dominant because it is more coherent and more consistently presented than the alternative discourse, which is much more fractured. In conclusion, they argue that refocusing the alternative discourse of quality around students' relations to academic knowledge may offer a way in which to bring the different actors from the higher education field together in order to form a stronger, more cohesive voice. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-32478 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:51Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-324782020-05-04T20:10:32Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32478/ Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica This article examines the ways in which a high-quality system of undergraduate education is represented in recent policy documents from a range of actors interested in higher education. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's ideas, the authors conceptualise the policy documents as reflecting a struggle over competing views of quality that are expressed through pedagogic discourses. They identify two pedagogic discourses: a dominant market-oriented generic discourse and an alternative discourse that focuses on transformation. They argue that the market-oriented generic discourse is dominant because it is more coherent and more consistently presented than the alternative discourse, which is much more fractured. In conclusion, they argue that refocusing the alternative discourse of quality around students' relations to academic knowledge may offer a way in which to bring the different actors from the higher education field together in order to form a stronger, more cohesive voice. Taylor & Francis 2015 Article PeerReviewed Ashwin, Paul, Abbas, Andrea and McLean, Monica (2015) Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents. Studies in Higher Education, 40 (4). pp. 610-623. ISSN 1470-174X Higher education policy Pedagogic discourse Quality Basil Bernstein Undergraduate education http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2013.842211 doi:10.1080/03075079.2013.842211 doi:10.1080/03075079.2013.842211 |
| spellingShingle | Higher education policy Pedagogic discourse Quality Basil Bernstein Undergraduate education Ashwin, Paul Abbas, Andrea McLean, Monica Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents |
| title | Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents |
| title_full | Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents |
| title_fullStr | Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents |
| title_full_unstemmed | Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents |
| title_short | Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents |
| title_sort | representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in english higher education policy documents |
| topic | Higher education policy Pedagogic discourse Quality Basil Bernstein Undergraduate education |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32478/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32478/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32478/ |