Leadership Foundation

Leading Equality and Diversity

The following research projects and stimulus papers have been commissioned:

• Towards the child-friendly university: implications for policies and practices in Higher Education
• The impact of popular technologies on higher education and their significance for the inclusion agenda
• Tracking the Careers of TMP Alumni

Towards the child-friendly university: implications for policies and practices in Higher Education
Dr Marie-Pierre Moreau, University of Bedfordshire
Stimulus Paper, August 2013

In England, the widening participation agenda has been associated with a diversification of the student body and these days, parents represent a significant proportion of the student population (NUS, 2009). This socio-demographic shift and the different needs and expectations of student parents compared with their ‘childfree’ counterparts raise some challenges for university leaders and managers, in a context where the growing presence of this group has not been matched by an equivalent interest in policy circles, nor in academic research (Moreau and Kerner, 2012).

The proposed paper will address the following questions:

1. What does the evidence available tell us about student parents enrolled on university programmes?
2. Which provision and intervention is in place at institutional level?
3. What can be done by universities to address the presence of students with young children and other ‘dependents’ in academia?

Although the focus of this paper will be on England, some parallels will also be made with other parts of the world, drawing on the literature. To address these questions, this paper will draw on a review of the evidence available on this group in general and on the author’s recent research in this area in particular (Moreau & Kerner, 2012). The overall ambition of this paper is to provide university leaders, managers and governors with a view of the challenges that the presence of student parents in academia raises for institutions, shed light on the range of policies and practices in place in this area, and will provide some recommendations in terms of what can be done to address the challenges they face.

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The impact of popular technologies on higher education and their significance for the inclusion agenda 
Professor John Traxler, University of Wolverhampton
Stimulus Paper, October 2013

This paper will briefly review the progress and problems of the substantial and unique programme of mobile learning across UK HE over the last decade. It will raise significant questions about its meaning and direction in a world where now there is more, better, cheaper, faster, newer technology in the hands of students, potential students and everyone else than there is routinely in the educational institutions themselves. Universities and colleges are no longer credible gatekeepers to knowledge and its technologies and the meaning and relevance of ‘inclusion’ are much less clear. This paper follows on from the ‘Changing the Learning Landscape’ that has promoted strategic thinking around use of learning technology and will stimulate thinking at a strategic level, linking new technology to the key goals of HEIs.

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Tracking the Careers of TMP Alumni
A joint LF and ECU research project: A research team based at Oxford Brookes University has been selected to carry out this study.
Research project, November 2013

In the UK recent data indicate that 56.4% of undergraduates are women. However, there is still a gender gap globally in the senior leadership of HE and while no statistics are yet available on the demographic profile of senior managers in the UK, at the most senior level, that is vice-chancellor, less than 20% are women. Furthermore, only one vice-chancellor is from a minority ethnic background.

This project will examine the career trajectories of a selected sample of alumni from the Top Management Programme (TMP) of the Leadership Foundation. The findings will be used to inform the Leadership Foundation, ECU and the higher education sector, as to how to make more progress both in improving the diversity of the sector's leadership and enhancing leadership for diversity. While the project will focus primarily on gender, the research will place a strong emphasis on intersections of ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and other aspects of diversity.

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For further details about the projects contact:
Eleni Stamou, Research Manager
T: 020 3468 4829