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During a period of significant crisis within HE on a global scale, there is a clear need for colleges to clearly articulate the distinct nature of their higher vocational education provision. This need is particularly acute given the current financial and political pressures impacting on a diverse HE landscape. The purpose of this paper is to argue that colleges are well placed to develop and implement an approach to scholarly activity which revitalises links with local communities.

This paper provides a synthesis of recent research on scholarly activity within college-based higher education (CBHE) and the concept of a “civic university”. It also provides a brief case study of how scholarship within the college context can be utilised to promote meaningful community engagement.

Working productively with community organisations, groups and individuals, colleges will be provoked to recast the complex relationship between teaching, research and community engagement in a manner appropriate to their immediate context rather than a national agenda. Moreover, a strengthened relationship between colleges and their local communities will recapture the rich heritage of vocational education in widening participation and raising aspirations towards education in general.

This paper attempts to relocate current discussions of CBHE scholarly activity within the context of civic engagement. It will be of interest to colleagues across the higher vocational education sector, both nationally and internationally, in situating their institutional and departmental scholarly activity strategies within the context of the communities which they serve.

The purpose of this paper is to present the viewpoint that student role identity, its dimensions and salience, impact strongly on student expectations of college-based higher education (CBHE) within the UK.

The paper draws on doctoral research undertaken within the context of CBHE in the UK and is further supported through engagement with a range of pertinent literature.

The paper suggests ways in which the individually constructed student role identity may impact on the expectations of the experience of CBHE. In so doing, the paper highlights the way in which expectations of higher education recursively influence, and are influenced by, perceptions and actions played out from within the student role.

The empirical research, from which the paper draws its theme, was undertaken in one large institution. The author recognises that a wider, longitudinal study would be beneficial in recognition of the diversity of provision in the CBHE sector.

The paper proposes that greater awareness of the way in which students construct and moderate their perceptions and understandings of studenthood would be beneficial to a range of strategic considerations, such as promotional information, partnership activity, peer relations and the nature of pedagogies and learning architectures.

The paper foregrounds the political remit of CBHE as a progression route for “non-traditional” students, and considers the varied understandings of the meaning of the student role adopted by students attending colleges. Engagement with issues of multiple roles, identity salience and variable role porosity highlights social and pyschosocial issues faced by many such students.

The paper considers role identity in the context of Kurt Lewin’s conceptualisation of life space and uses this framework to highlight issues that may face students and colleges in raising awareness of student expectations. It challenges the homogenous conceptualisation of the term “students” through consideration of the psychic state at a given moment in time.

The purpose of this paper is to review a year-long project entitled SaP@Parsons, which aims to bridge the gap between our current foundation degree curriculum and a revised curriculum where research and enterprise education were interwoven throughout, helping to better equip our graduates with the enhanced capacity to generate ideas and the skills to make them happen QAA (2012). The project used Student as Producer as a theoretical framework to embed research and enterprise into the curriculum. It was originally led by Professor Mike Neary at the University of Lincoln.

The paper reflects on the process of embedding research and enterprise education into the curriculum, including the experiences of the author and students.

It was found that reorientation of the curriculum is possible, without integrating enterprise specific learning aims into the programme to embed enterprise and research, can have a positive impact on both staff and student experience.

The paper provides a summary of strategies and examples of the effective use of Student as Producer as a framework for helping to embed research, enterprise and employability into a foundation degree curriculum and the resultant positive outcomes. The setting for this was HE provision within an FE college.

This paper highlights the innovative nature of the project in seeking to engage students in research and enterprise from level 4, rather than levels 6 or 7 within College-based Higher Education, through working with local social enterprises.

This chapter attempts to capture what teaching excellence looks and feels like for students. Our research reports on research conducted by two student authors at separate institutions. It suggests that the most crucial aspect of the student experience of ‘teaching excellence’ is a teacher's ability to build rapport and create meaningful interpersonal relationships with their students. Leanne Hunt's research was conducted with her fellow students at the University of Bradford. She outlines how, for her participants, the student–teacher rapport informed a positive learning experience which translated into a mutual understanding of excellent teaching. Widening participation, college-based HE student Hollie Shaw, now at Sheffield Hallam University, defines teaching excellence as flexible enough to respond to student learning needs, but strong enough to inspire interest in the discipline. In this chapter, we consider their separate testimonies carefully: we argue that exploring unconscious bias furthers understanding of how differences between student and teacher may compromise interpersonal relations and so student recognition of a tutor's positive and crucial role in the student experience and the implications of how one might measure this given the emphasis on proxies for teaching excellence in the TEF. We suggest breaking down unconscious bias calls for embracing differences, reflection and recognising the complexities of contemporary staff and student university lives. This chapter's exploration of staff–student partnership opens up potential for the creation of more equitable and honest learning dynamics in higher education – where a nuanced understanding of ‘teaching excellence’ can be defined, understood and evidenced within a HEI, with external bodies such as the Office for Students, and included in the Teaching Excellence Framework.

This paper considers the issues facing an institution as it confronts the transition from college to university. Utilizing insights from the UK experience of polytechnics moving to university status the authors seek similarity and a direction of action for a Cypriot Higher Education College. Based on interviews and focus groups a proposed model for managing change in educational institutions undergoing this transition is offered.

This study aims to provide an overview of the past two decades of lifelong learning (LLL) policies for enhancing employability and reduce social exclusion in young people of European countries through the development of the so-called LLL key-competences.

Built on a quasi-systematic review, this contribution explores traditional and new methods for promoting the LLL transition, and then employability, in young adults (e.g. apprenticeship, vocational training, e-learning, etc.).

It argues the need to identify all the possible approaches able to support policymakers, as they can differently impact key-competence development.

Finally, based on the consolidated EU policy experience, we propose a strategy of implementation of the LLL programmes that facilitates the institutions’ decision processes for policy-making through the use of decisional support system.