Book | Quality Work in Higher Education: Organisational and Pedagogical Dimensions

The edited volume that summarises some of the key findings from the project was recently published with Springer.

About the book: This book focuses on quality work in higher education, and examines the relationship between the organizational and pedagogical dimensions of quality work in higher education. Bringing together different disciplinary traditions, including educational science, sociology, and organisational studies, it addresses the following principal research question: How is quality work carried out in higher education? The book addresses a wide variety of academic, administrative and leadership practices that are involved in quality work in higher education institutions. The chapters in this book examine core issues crucial in the design and content of study programs, such as modes of teaching, learning and curricula design, as well as institutional practices regarding assessment and quality enhancement. The introductory and concluding chapter present an overarching focus on quality work as a lens to analyse intentional activities within higher education institutions directed at how study programmes and courses are designed, governed, and operated.

The book contains following chapters:

  • Researching ‘Quality Work’ in Higher Education by Mari Elken and Bjørn Stensaker
  • Quality Systems in Higher Education Institutions: Enabling and Constraining Quality Work by Mari Elken, Nicoline Frølich, Peter Maassen and Bjørn Stensaker
  • The Relationship Between External Quality Assurance and the Work of Study Programme Leaders: A Comparative Study by Per Olaf Aamodt, Ebbe Krogh Graversen, Elisabeth Hovdhaugen, Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt, Peter Maassen, and Bjørn Stensaker
  • Technology as Quality Work? Educational Leaders and Teachers’ Use of Digital Technology by Trine Fossland and Cathrine E. Tømte
  • Layers of Consistency in Study Programme Planning and Realization by Tine S. Prøitz, Anne Line Wittek, and Thomas de Lange
  • Exploring Student Participation Challenges in Student-Centred Learning Environments by Monika Nerland
  • Making Group Learning Work. Processes and Pedagogical Designs in Higher Education by Crina Damşa and Anne Line Wittek
  • Plenary Teaching: Examining Opportunities for Student Involvement and Knowledge Exploration in Large Classroom-Settings by Thomas de Lange, Anne Line Wittek, and Trine Fossland
  • What Counts as Quality Feedback? Disciplinary Differences in Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Feedback by Rachelle Esterhazy, Trine Fossland, and Odd-Rune Stalheim
  • Quality Work: Reflections and Refinements by Mari Elken and Bjørn Stensaker

The book is edited by Mari Elken, Peter Maassen, Monika Nerland, Tine S. Prøitz and Agnete Vabø.

There will also be an event associated with the publication later this autumn.

Edited volume coming in summer 2020

Researchers on the project have for the last two years been working on an edited volume. The book has now a release date, and is scheduled to be out by 6th of June. About the book:

This book focuses on quality work in higher education, and examines the relationship between the organizational and pedagogical dimensions of quality work in higher education. Bringing together different disciplinary traditions, including educational science, sociology, and organisational studies, it addresses the following principal research question: How is quality work carried out in higher education?

The book addresses a wide variety of academic, administrative and leadership practices that are involved in quality work in higher education institutions. The chapters in this book examine core issues crucial in the design and content of study programs, such as modes of teaching, learning and curricula design, as well as institutional practices regarding assessment and quality enhancement. The introductory and concluding chapter present an overarching focus on quality work as a lens to analyse intentional activities within higher education institutions directed at how study programmes and courses are designed, governed, and operated.

The book consists of 10 chapters by researchers in this project, covering a wide set of themes and empirical settings.

Congratulations to Dr. Rachelle Esterhazy

Rachelle Esterhazy successfully defended her thesis for the degree PhD on Friday, marking an important milestone of the project. Rachelle was supervised by Monika Nerland and Crina Damsa and her thesis was titled ”
“Productive feedback practices in higher education. Investigating social and epistemic relations in two undergraduate courses ”

Read a summary of her thesis here.

Professor Monika Nerland, Dr. Rachelle Esterhazy and Dr. Crina Damsa

When asked about her highlights from the PhD period, Rachelle particularly emphasized all the new colleagues and friends made at both UiO and NIFU. She is currently applying for post-docs positions and hopes to continue working on assessment environments and how students navigate these over time.

Rachelle Esterhazy will defend her PhD thesis on 21st of June

Rachelle Esterhazy, UiO

Rachelle Esterhazy has been one of the PhD students in the project and she is now scheduled to publicly defend her thesis on 21st of June at 12.15. The defence will take place at the University of Oslo campus, Helga Engs hus, Auditorium 3.

Rachelle has been supervised by Monika Nerland and Crina Damsa who were both a part of the project, and were working on Part C of the project.

Her thesis is titled “Productive feedback practices in higher education. Investigating social and epistemic relations in two undergraduate courses“.

Her trial lecture will be held on Friday 21st of June at 10.15 – 11.00 on the topic “Feedback to meet 21st century student learning needs: Problems and potential practices to prepare university students for an uncertain future.”

The defense is public for all interested people.

Read more at UiO webpage.

Article about digitalization in higher education in Quality in Higher Education

Based on the comparative analysis of data from the Norwegian and Danish surveys among study programme leaders, Cathrine Tømte (NIFU), Trine Fossland (UiT), Per Olaf Aamodt (NIFU) & Lise Degn (CFA, Århus University) have recently published an article titled “Digitalisation in higher education: mapping institutional approaches for teaching and learning” in Quality in Higher Education.

Note that the article is available open access!

Abstract. This paper explores the digitalisation of teaching and learning understood as external processes, influenced by government and international trends and as internal processes within the institutions, in Denmark and Norway. These are countries with similarities regarding digitalisation and educational systems. In the internal processes, there was some use of digital technology in teaching and learning when initiated from administration including IT-staff, in collaboration with academic leaders. There was little or only limited reported use of technology for teaching and learning, when the processes were initiated by administration together with enthusiasts among faculty staff, who did not have leadership roles or influence on change. There was more reported use of technology in teaching and learning in Denmark than Norway. The paper discusses possible explanations for these findings and thus illuminates how processes of digitalisation are influenced by broader governance arrangements, institutional maturity and academic and administration staffs.

  • Research Professor Cahtrine Tømte, NIFU
  • Associate Professor Trine Fossland, UiT
  • Research Professor Per Olaf Aamodt (NIFU)
  • Dr. Lise Degn, CFA/Aarhus University