Higher Education and Professional Learning Research Group

The Higher Education and Professional Learning Research group focuses on two interconnected strands of work: Higher Education policy and professional learning in work-based contexts and higher education (HE). We define professional learning broadly to encompass vocational education and training (VET). The group has a common set of interests in the sociology of knowledge, teaching and learning, work-based learning, organisational change, and the politics of educational reform.

The project Degrees of Success – The Transition between VET and HE illustrates the research group’s commitment to research located at in the interface between learning in VET and HE. This project is funded by Hefce through the ESRC’s TLRP phase on Widening Participation in Higher Education.

The areas of interest of the Research Group include

• Higher education reform and financing
• Higher Education, innovation and the economy
• Access to VET and HE
• Innovation in teaching and learning
• Comparative issues in VET and HE
• Qualifications and their currency in the labour market
• School-based VET and the world of work
  Research policy, assessment and governance
  Knowledge systems and knowledge exchange
  

The research group is convened by Geoff Hayward and Hubert Ertl and its academic staff members and research staff include Ingrid Lunt, David Mills, Alis Oancea, Ioanna Kinti, Andrea Laczik and Stephanie Wilde. Cathy Stasz (RAND Corporation) is a Departmental Research Fellow attached to the research group.

We work closely with the ESRC Research Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), the OSAT Research Centre and the 14-19 Nuffield Review. Our international research partners include the OUAL Research Group at the University of Technology in Sydney, the Department of Human Resource Education (Wirtschaftspädagogik) at the University of Paderborn, LIHRE at the University of Toulouse, the GRET research group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Department of Sociology at the University of Heidelberg, and the Institut für Höhere Studien.