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The primary aim of this paper is to illuminate the critical issue of the degree awarding gap in the UK, which significantly impacts students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups. By conducting a systematic review of existing literature following the PRISMA protocol, this study seeks to uncover the complex web of explanatory factors that mediate the relationship between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and degree awarding disparities. Addressing this gap is vital for promoting social justice, enhancing the economy, safeguarding the reputation of UK universities, and adhering to legal responsibilities. This paper endeavours to provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying causes of degree awarding gaps and offer evidence-based recommendations for the higher education sector to mitigate these disparities.

This study employs a systematic review design, adhering to the PRISMA protocol, to meticulously analyse the existing body of literature concerning the degree awarding gap in UK higher education. By systematically gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing relevant studies, the review aims to identify and understand the multifaceted factors mediating the link between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and the disparities observed in degree awarding. This methodological approach ensures a rigorous and transparent examination of the literature, enabling the identification of both the breadth and depth of research on the topic. Through this design, the paper aspires to uncover nuanced insights into the mechanisms driving degree awarding gaps.

The review’s findings reveal that degree awarding gaps in UK universities are influenced by a constellation of factors, highlighting the complexity of this issue. Key among these are unconscious bias, limited student engagement opportunities with academic staff, institutional racism, inadequate support systems, and a scarcity of social and cultural capital. These factors collectively contribute to significant disparities in degree outcomes, disproportionately disadvantaging students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups. The evidence suggests that institutional practices and culture play a pivotal role in either exacerbating or alleviating these disparities, indicating the need for targeted interventions to address the root causes of degree awarding gaps.

One strength of conducting a systematic review is its rigorous and meticulous nature, which ensures that the process is carefully planned and executed. This comprehensive approach allows for the elimination of biases, as the review systematically gathers and analyses existing literature on the topic. By adhering to a structured methodology, the systematic review enhances the validity and reliability of the findings, providing a robust and unbiased synthesis of the available evidence. This strength lends credibility to the research and reinforces the confidence in the conclusions drawn from the review.

The practical implications arising from this information indicate that universities need to address the identified issues directly by implementing supportive strategies and interventions. By doing so, they can create a learning environment that is more inclusive and equitable, allowing all students to unlock their full potential. This may involve measures such as raising awareness about unconscious bias, promoting engagement between academic staff and students, implementing anti-racist policies, establishing comprehensive support systems, and actively fostering social and cultural capital. Such practical actions will contribute to reducing the degree awarding gaps and promoting equal opportunities for all students, ultimately leading to a more equitable and successful educational experience.

The social implications derived from this information are significant. By implementing supportive strategies and interventions to address the identified issues, universities can contribute to creating a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. This has the potential to have a transformative impact on society by providing equal opportunities for all students to unlock their full potential. By raising awareness about unconscious bias and implementing anti-racist policies, universities can foster a more diverse and inclusive community. Promoting engagement between academic staff and students and establishing comprehensive support systems can enhance social cohesion and create a sense of belonging. Ultimately, these efforts can lead to reduced degree awarding gaps and contribute to a more equitable and successful educational experience, positively influencing broader social equality and cohesion.

This paper contributes significantly to the literature by offering a comprehensive, systematic review of the factors contributing to the degree awarding gap in UK higher education, highlighting its originality and value. By focusing on the interplay between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and degree awarding disparities, the study provides novel insights into how these dynamics contribute to educational inequities. Furthermore, the evidence-based recommendations for institutional interventions presented in this paper furnish the higher education sector with actionable strategies to foster a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. This work not only advances academic understanding of degree awarding gaps but also offers practical value to policymakers and educational institutions aiming to enhance social justice in higher education.

This paper describes the rationale and key aspects of how one school-university partnership leveraged resources to create, implement and refine an innovative professional pathway called the Early Childhood Certificate (ECC) program which reflects the National Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Essential Guideline 4: Reflection and Innovation. The ECC program is an innovative, career-building model that leverages resources between a predominantly white regional state university, a nonprofit organization serving as a Head Start grantee, a large urban school district and community-based education settings across a Midwestern metropolitan region.

This descriptive narrative documents how the ECC program developed as a professional pathway for early childhood educators to scale up their skills for teaching young children while strengthening their capacities and credentials within the early childhood education (ECE) profession pipeline. The narrative includes relevant literature and examples from the field.

This paper includes a discussion of the benefits and challenges related to the design, implementation and refinement of the professional learning ECC program.

This is a descriptive narrative. As such, generalizability is lacking. Research is needed to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of innovative teacher education programs.

Relevant research and lessons learned provide guidance for other school–university partnerships to consider how to meet workforce and career needs for educators in the field of ECE.

School–university partnerships can be change agents and positively impact early childhood educators' career development.

This paper addresses the need for understanding how predominantly white early childhood teacher education programs can partner with schools and agencies and then together leverage resources to support workforce and career development opportunities.

The aim of this paper is to explore mindfulness and self-compassion teachings and practices embedded in a leadership course and their outcome on stress regulation of doctoral-level students.

Eight valid and reliable pre-and post-assessment inventories were administered prior to the first week of class and following the completion of the doctoral-level class. The test scores were measured for improvement and for differences between various demographic groups.

The results suggest significant improvement on almost every mindfulness subscale with approximately 5–22% of the variance in subscale scores attributed to participation. Doctoral students over 40 indicated more score improvement than students under 40, and doctoral students of color indicated more significant score increases than White students.

The research involves doctoral-level students which limits generalizability to other levels of education. Based on the findings, scaling analysis should be conducted on other types of students for generalization purposes.

Institutions looking to incorporate wellness practices into curriculum can embed these types of practices into their course design.

Faculty can become more intentional in how they engage students in mindful compassion skills within their academic programs.

The paper adds a quantitative study into the literature surrounding efficacy of wellness practices in structured curriculum. Institutions looking to provide more resources to students to improve their wellness may find the model useful on their campuses, particularly for students over 40 and students of color.

This paper describes an exploratory, international research collaboration that seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the development and experiences of peer leaders in higher education across different international contexts, namely the USA, Canada (CAN), Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) (ANZ), the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa (SA).

Data are summarized and compared across each of the participating countries, providing a more global context and depth of perspective on peer leadership (PL) in higher education than is currently available in the literature.

The findings highlight some apparent differences between countries in relation to student engagement in peer leader roles and the ways in which PL is supported by higher education institutions, as well as some similarities across the different international contexts, particularly in the way peer leaders view the benefits of their involvement in PL.

These insights provide a valuable addition to the literature on PL and practical information to higher education institutions for supporting student leadership development and involvement.

Despite increasingly persuasive women-focused marketing of gambling products, there has only been limited investigation around women sports betting. Men remain the focus of much of the conversation about sports betting as they have generally been found to be the most active sports bettors and the most at risk of experiencing harms associated with their behaviour. This chapter aims to fill this gap by exploring the characteristics of young women sports bettors in the United Kingdom and the relationship between sports betting and the experience of gambling harms. To do this, we created two models of analysis. Our analysis is based on data from the first wave (2019) of the Emerging Adults Gambling Survey (EAGS) dataset (n = 3,549). The EAGS is a non-probability longitudinal survey that includes individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 who were residents in Britain at the time of data collection. Firstly, we examined the associations between women sports bettors and several factors identified as important predictors of sports betting. Secondly, we sought to understand the relationship between women's sports betting and the harms associated with this activity. From these models, we found that women's sports betting was most reliably predicted according to fandom and peer influence. We also found that women sports bettors were more at risk of experiencing harms associated with difficulties with family and friends than women gamblers using other products.

This study examined the perceptions of tribal members regarding the strengths, challenges and opportunities presented by tribal winery operation. Issues of business diversification, marketing, perceived barriers to success, potential benefits to the tribe and the role of agriculture in the preservation of tribal heritage were considered.

A modified mixed-methods exploratory sequential research model was used to collect and organize data in two studies. In Study 1 quantitative data was used to inform the development of Study 2 which included a qualitative interview protocol. Qualitative interviews followed to elaborate on the various aspects of each of these areas of consideration.

Results indicate that there is neutral to positive opinion on tribal wineries and that any venture would have to be carefully thought out in terms of marketing and preserving tribal heritage.

This research examined the potential strengths, challenges and opportunities provided by tribal winery operation that can be used to inform future business practices.

The results of this research provide a framework for consideration of the potential strengths and opportunities provided by tribal winery operation.

Using longitudinal data, this study aims to provide a greater understanding as to how parenting factors, including the employment of various disciplinary techniques, during a young person's early adolescence may contribute to excessive Internet use (EIU) in later adolescence.

Employing “Problem Behaviour” theory (PBT) as a guiding framework, this study uses data from the Growing Up in Ireland ’98 Cohort to investigate the effect of proximal and distal parental influences, measured when children were 13 years old, on symptoms of EIU in young adults at 17 or 18 years. Multiple regression models control for other child and family factors, and separate models for males and females examine sex differentials.

Estimation did not find a statistically significant association between internet-specific mediation practices in early adolescence and EIU in later adolescence. However, regularly playing games or sports together is a protective factor. Parent-adolescent conflict and spending time home alone are estimated as risk factors. How parents deal with misbehaviour is a strong predictor of EIU, with the direction of association dependent upon the type and frequency of discipline employed.

The findings are of practical significance in informing parents of modifiable aspects of their behaviour that can lead to EIU.

The study applies a longitudinal modelling framework and considers the effect on EIU of various parental disciplinary techniques, representing a novel contribution.

This brief considers how small and specialist higher education providers in England have approached creating an inclusive learning community, particularly focusing on ethnically diverse students. It notes that sector efforts are surrounded by controversy and sometimes viewed by politicians or the media as either misunderstood, deliberately positioned as “wokery” or against the principles of free speech. Yet there is substantial evidence and a regulatory requirement to improve the student experience and outcomes of diverse students. Through the models of anti-racism and allyship, GuildHE has created a package of support for small and specialist institutions to navigate the complexities of institutional change. This brief provides examples of how our members have made positive steps to become more inclusive, thoughtful, knowledgeable and impactful and provides recommendations to government, HEIs and individuals to continue to improve experiences and outcomes for students.

This study examines the relationship between partners' locus of control and their spouses' domains of job satisfaction (job satisfaction and its domains, personal income and promotion) among Australian couples.

Data were obtained from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) Survey. Various estimation strategies including ordinary least squares (OLS), Mundlak approach and instrumental variable (IV) method are used to reveal the relationship between spouse's locus of control and domains of job satisfaction.

To reduce sex heterogeneity, the analysis used in this study is disaggregated by sex. In particular, the findings of this study show that wives' locus of control positively influences husbands' satisfaction with pay and working hours, while there is no relationship between husbands' locus of control and wives' domains of job satisfaction.

The study's findings emphasize the importance of locus of control in couples. A good work–life balance and a healthy marital relationship potentially facilitate positive effects of characteristics from the partner on employees' job satisfaction. Thus, on the organizational level, employers may consider creating a working environment that promotes a healthy marital relationship for their staff, including flexible working schedules, work from home options, family days or family-extended staff events.

This study is the first to reveal the relationship between spousal locus of control and domains of job satisfaction, enriching the current literature on this topic.

This study aims to identify the attitudes of Chinese residents towards tourists and tourism development. Based on periods of observation, temporary residency and several visits for more than a decade, and supplemented by data collected from 478 residents, the study examines to what extent the rural villagers identify the tourism induced changes as being an outcome of official Chinese policies. The villages, Xidi, Hongcun and Nanping, are three heritage villages in Anhui Province and represent appropriate case studies for such an examination due to their differing histories of tourism administrative procedures. Findings contribute to scholarly knowledge by putting pro-poor tourism and community participation under scrutiny in Chinese context. A change of residents’ perceptions towards tourism could potentially be consequential for tourists’ experience and the sustainability of tourism development, particularly in emerging rural destinations.