Steven Shelley

Changing values? : Early retirement and the new universities

Abstract This article examines the potential impact of the recent changes to the Teachers Superannuation Scheme (TSS) and the resulting wave of early retirements, on the nature of academic work and cultures in the ‘new’ universities. In doing so it considers the potential for one externally driven initiative, implemented outside of the control of organisational managers, to have a quite extraordinary effect on workers across a whole occupational sector. It assesses the force of an early retirement programme as a catalyst for increased managerialism, relative to other recent pressures, drawing upon the literatures of organisation culture, strategy and labour process; and utilising new empirical research concerning academic careers, culture, change and security. Findings indicate that academic staff in new universities may be insulated from the effects of managerialism, albeit that this may vary between and within institutions. It speculates on whether the effects of large‐scale early retirement will have a...

Labour strategies, cross-border solidarity and the mobility of health workers: Evidence from five New Member States

Shortages of health workers in Western Europe have been addressed, in part, by recruitment from New Member States. In addition to concerns regarding social dumping and cohesion, the loss of human capital and subsequent deleterious impact on services poses a new challenge for trade unions. The aim of this article is to examine the strategies and interventions of health worker trade unions in five countries: Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Union capacity is analysed through the dimensions of structural power (ability to cause disruption through industrial action); institutional power (lobbying and negotiating with appropriate bodies); and coalitional power (mobilizing support across borders with labour and non-labour organizations). While structural power is generally weak, the deployment of institutional and coalitional power has been more varied across the five countries.

Scaling the mobility of health workers in an enlarged Europe: An open political-economy perspective

The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007 and the marketisation of health care are increasing the mobility of workers and driving a scalar transformation of the sector across Europe. Drawing on questionnaires and interviews in 17 European Union countries, and focusing on two case study New Member States, we analyse inter- and intra-country drivers and impacts of health care labour mobility. The data are analysed from an open political-economy perspective underpinned by an understanding of scale as a socially constructed material entity mediated by national and supranational state institutions, and the collective agency of workers. We emphasise the contradictory and contested nature of rescaling health care and the complex micro-dynamics of mobility. Although absolute outward migration across borders is relatively small, the movement of health care specialists is having a disproportionate effect on sender countries and regions within them.

Investing in lifelong learning? : Employment management in higher education

Abstract The nature of employment management practices and the role of the Investors in People standard in United Kingdom higher education are examined. A dichotomy of process improvement outcomes of Investors in People (IiP) is identified: those which allow for continuous improvement and employee development; and those which operate to strengthen managerial command and control often in a more short-term manner, and at the expense of long-term staff development. The implications are contextualised in the lifelong learning debate. If the meaning of lifelong learning is taken to embrace liberal and emancipatory notions of education, the use of processes that reinforce ‘hard’ managerialism are unlikely to allow this to happen and, indeed, may operate against it. Alternatively, if lifelong learning means an emphasis on vocational functionalism, then the use of ‘hard’ managerialism may, indeed, provide the changes necessary to enable enhanced student access and increased student numbers.

Becoming an academic for the twenty-first century : What will count as teaching quality in higher education

This article explores quality in university teaching using a ‘futures’ perspective. In a recent article by Blass and colleagues, a number of scenarios were developed to explore the type of higher education workforce that might be needed within the UK by 2035. In discussion of these scenarios — leading knowledge creation, responsive knowledge creation, regional conglomerates, no government funding and total government funding — the team were mindful of how these scenarios would impact on academic work and the workforce needed to undertake different and perhaps a more differentiated set of work roles, responsibilities and ways of working. However, the issue of what counts as quality within these possible scenarios was not considered. In this article the definitions and differentiation of teacher and teaching quality are explored. Recent trends in Australian and English higher education policy in relation to teaching quality are also discussed. Teaching quality is then considered in relation to the underlying values and assumptions that might operate within each of these scenarios about teaching. The authors then speculate on the impact this would have on what might count as quality in teaching in 2020, and what academics may have to face within each of these scenarios in relation to their work roles, ways of working and opportunities for career progression. In conclusion, the authors suggest that the concept of ‘teaching’ in higher education may need to be radically reconsidered to match the needs of students whatever scenario may develop in higher education.