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This study aims to ascertain student perceptions of a quality experience in higher education. The empirical research made use of focus groups involving a range of higher education students. The main findings are that the quality of the lecturer and the student support systems are the most influential factors in the provision of quality education.

Aims to explore the various factors that influenced the outcomes of an orientation course for nurses and midwives entering higher education for the first time. Data were gathered by questionnaire and findings analysed to determine potential enabling and inhibiting factors affecting individual academic performance. Evidence suggests that there are a number of interrelating influences which affect success or failure and quality issues related to courses of this type must take a wider view than just the initial academic profile of the individual.

Responding to government initiatives which demand that quality in education be identified in a measurable way, nursing, in its move to professionalization, has sought to gain academic parity with other professions allied to medicine and has entered higher education (HE) institutions. In setting up new courses, it is now necessary to work within an identified model of quality and use it as the basis for evaluation. Describes how the authors set up an access module for nurses who had never studied within HE but had come from a traditional “training” background. In the early planning stage it became evident that no established framework for quality was suitable for this module. As a result, a model was designed based on the work of several authors (Donabedian, 1966; Holzemer, 1992 and Maxwell, 1984). The major categories within this model were identified as context, process and outcome. These were chosen from the literature as they reflect key concepts in nursing practice familiar to all nursing practitioners. Within each category, several sub‐components were later identified. Having used this model to plan, implement and evaluate several modules over a two‐year period, it appears to be a useful tool in recognizing and measuring appropriate quality issues for access courses for nursing. Although it was constructed specifically for this purpose, it could be of use in a wider education arena for mature students returning to study.

Power relations affect all aspects of our lives. MacGregor Burns states that “Power is ubiquitous; it permeates human relationships … Power shows many faces and takes many forms”. The purpose of this paper was to explore women principals’ experiences with power relations in the schools during times of increase in decentralization and accountability. The findings of this phenomenological study were that the six principals viewed power as an enabling, and a positive energy for change and growth in schools rather than a source of “top‐down” domination. Their descriptions of power also asserted that “power is not reducible to any one source”, and that an understanding of poststructuralist and structuralist theories of power will be essential for school leaders facing the dilemmas and challenges of the twenty‐first century.

Aims to focus on research and findings relating to the Z‐server response times and the performance of Z39.50 for parallel searching.

This paper begins by briefly outlining the evolution of Z39.50 and the current trends, including the work of the JISC CC‐interop project. The research crux of the paper focuses on an investigation conducted with respect to testing Z39.50 server (Z‐server) response times in a broadcast (parallel) searching environment. Customised software was configured to broadcast a search to all test Z‐servers once an hour, for 11 weeks. The results were logged for analysis.

Most Z‐servers responded rapidly. “Network congestion” and local online public catalogue usage were not found to influence Z‐server performance significantly. Response time issues encountered by implementers may be the result of non‐response by the Z‐server and how Z‐client software deals with this. The influence of “quick and dirty” Z39.50 implementations is also identified as a potential cause of slow broadcast searching.

The paper indicates various areas for further research, including setting shorter time‐outs and greater end‐user behavioural research to ascertain user requirements in this area. The influence more complex searches, such as Boolean, have on response times and suboptimal Z39.50 implementations are also emphasised for further study.

This paper informs the library and information science (LIS) research community and has practical implications for those establishing Z39.50 based distributed systems, as well as those in the web services community.

The paper challenges popular LIS opinion that Z39.50 is inherently sluggish and thus unsuitable for the demands of the modern user.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from health care research with those in service research to identify key conceptualizations of the changing role of the health care customer, to identify gaps in theory, and to propose a compelling research agenda.

This study combines a meta-narrative review of health care research, and a systematic review of service research, using thematic analysis to identify key practice approaches and the changing role of the health care customer.

The review reveals different conceptualizations of the customer role within the ten key practice approaches, and identifies an increased activation of the role of the health care customer over time. This change implies a re-orientation, that is, moving away from the health care professional setting the agenda, prescribing and delivering treatment where the customer merely complies with orders, to the customer actively contributing and co-creating value with service providers and other actors in the ecosystem to the extent the health care customer desires.

This study not only identifies key practice approaches by synthesizing findings from health care research with those in service research, it also identifies how the role of the health care customer is changing and highlights effects of the changing role across the practice approaches. A research agenda to guide future health care service research is also provided.

In the 1950s, Einstein predicted that if humankind is to survive, we will need a substantially new manner of thinking. He believed that our task in life must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its infinite beauty. The combined disciplines of mindfulness, ecopsychology, and sustainability education offer humanity a chance to develop this new way of thinking and being in the world. In this chapter, I describe my experience of teaching and designing curriculum that integrates contemplative practices with sustainability education in the space of higher education. The course I will be discussing, where nature-based mindfulness activities are offered, is called “MindBody Wellness.” As a part of the course, it is hoped that students will cultivate an expanded vision of the self—one known as the “ecological self”—a term coined in the 1980s. The ecological self is perceived to be a wide, expansive, or field-like sense of self, which ultimately includes all life forms, ecosystems, and the Earth. Preliminary research in the field indicates that cultivating loving-kindness and practicing mindfulness leads to a greater level of nature connectedness and need to care for and protect the natural world. However, my colleagues and I did not find this to be the case and needed to explicitly give students instructions to care for the environment.