In a series of recent papers, Nick Zepke has criticised those researching student engagement in higher education for uncritically supporting neoliberalism. The current highly politicised nature of higher education means that clarity about the political implications of engagement research is crucial. This conceptual paper argues that in focusing on literature on students' engagement in learning, Zepke overlooks another substantial body of engagement literature, on students' participation in decisions about learning and teaching. By exploring the political alignment of two of the key models used to conceptualise students' engagement in decision-making, the paper argues that a central element of the research into student engagement is in fact directly opposed to neoliberal approaches to higher education. Student engagement has been deployed both for and against neoliberalism. Zepke has argued that the research on engagement sides with neoliberalism; I show that the research that focuses on student engagement in decision-making supports the opposition

This paper argues that the term ‘student engagement’ as used in UK higher education covers activities with two distinct sets of benefits: those that are pedagogical, and those that are political. Without an overarching account of the value of student engagement that can unify these two sets of benefits, the concept of student engagement in the UK is therefore fundamentally fractured. The paper proposes that critical pedagogy can provide that underpinning account, but at the expense of the current mainstream nature of student engagement. The paper therefore argues that those working in student engagement in UK higher education face a dilemma: either sacrifice the idea of student engagement as a popular solution to mainstream challenges, or give up the idea that student engagement has a unified set of benefits and coherent purpose

+44 (0)20 7848 3838 *corresponding author and location of research Camille is a Senior Lecturer and Academic Head of Student Engagement at King's College London. Her current research focuses on international and comparative higher education, with areas of interest in student outcomes and learning gain, student engagement and the curriculum; interdisciplinarity and creativity; academic motivation, prestige and gender; and developing the use of concept mapping in higher education and intersectionality in research design. AbstractStudent engagement has become a key feature of UK higher education, but until recently there has been a lack of data to track, benchmark and drive enhancement. In 2015 the first full administration ran in the UK of a range of survey items drawn from the US-based National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). This is the latest example of international adaptations of NSSE, and was prompted by the need to collect actionable data, related to core elements of learning and teaching, that can be used for institutional improvement efforts. This paper describes the background and development of the UK Engagement Survey (UKES) focusing on the two pilot years in 2013 and 2014 and the full administration phase in 2015. This involved a complementary mix of qualitative and quantitative data analysis and engagement with students in the testing process. Cognitive testing was conducted with 85 students over two years and data from the full 2015 administration involved 24,387 students. The political context of student engagement in relation to national satisfaction surveys and the implications of running a generalist-based survey in a subject-specific higher education context are discussed.

Neural type–specific expression of clustered Protocadherin (Pcdh) proteins is essential for the establishment of connectivity patterns during brain development. In mammals, deterministic expression of the same Pcdh isoform promotes minimal overlap of tiled projections of serotonergic neuron axons throughout the brain, while stochastic expression of Pcdh genes allows for convergence of tightly packed, overlapping olfactory sensory neuron axons into targeted structures. How can the same gene locus generate opposite transcriptional programs that orchestrate distinct spatial arrangements of axonal patterns? Here, we reveal that cell type–specific Pcdh expression and axonal behavior depend on the activity of cohesin and its unloader, WAPL (wings apart–like protein homolog). While cohesin erases genomic-distance biases in Pcdh choice, WAPL functions as a rheostat of cohesin processivity that determines Pcdh isoform diversity.

Dynamic linking in modern execution environments like .NET is considerably more sophisticated than in the days of C shared libraries on UNIX. One aspect of this sophistication is that .NET assemblies embed type information about dynamically linked resources. This type information implicitly represents compile-time assumptions about the resources available at run-time. However, the resources available at run-time may differ from those available at compiletime. For example, the execution environment on a mobile phone might provide fewer, simpler classes than on a desktop PC. As bytecode cannot adapt to its execution environment, component reuse is restricted and development costs are increased. We have designed and implemented a "flexible" dynamic linking scheme that binds bytecode as late as possible to the assemblies and classes available in a .NET execution environment. We describe the scheme's integration with the .NET linking infrastructure, review important design decisions and report on experiences with the "Rotor" shared source version of .NET.

Context. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) hosts many known high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), and all but one (SMC X-1) have a Be companion star. Through the calibration and verification phase of eROSITA on board the Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) spacecraft, the Be/X-ray binary XMMU J010429.4-723136 was in the field of view during observations of the supernova remnant, 1E0102.2-7219, used as a calibration standard. Aims. We report timing and spectral analyses of XMMU J010429.4-723136 based on three eROSITA observations of the field, two of which were performed on 2019 November 7-9, with the third on 2020 June 18-19. We also reanalyse the OGLE-IV light curve for that source in order to determine the orbital period. Methods. We performed a Lomb-Scargle periodogram analysis to search for pulsations (from the X-ray data) and for the orbital period (from the OGLE data). X-ray spectral parameters and fluxes were retrieved from the best-fit model. Results. We detect, for the first time, the pulsations of XMMU J010429.4-723136 at a period of -164 s, and therefore designate the source as SXP 164. From the spectral fitting, we derive a source flux of ~1 × 10−12 erg s−1 cm−2 for all three observations, corresponding to a luminosity of ~4 × 1035 erg s−1 at the distance of the SMC. Furthermore, reanalysing the OGLE light curve, including the latest observations, we find a significant periodic signal that we believe is likely be the orbital period; at 22.3 days, this is shorter than the previously reported values. The Swift/XRT light curve, extracted from two long monitorings of the field and folded at the same period, suggests that a modulation is also present in the X-ray data.

Since 2014, the government in England has undertaken a programme of work to explore the measurement of learning gain in undergraduate education. This is part of a wider neoliberal agenda to create a market in higher education, with student outcomes featuring as a key construct of value for money. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (subsequently dismantled) invested £4 million in funding 13 pilot projects to develop and test instruments and methods for measuring learning gain, with approaches largely borrowed from the US. Whilst measures with validity in specific disciplinary or institutional contexts were developed, a robust single instrument or measure has failed to emerge. The attempt to quantify learning represented by this initiative should spark debate about the rationale for quantification—whether it is for accountability, measuring performance, assuring quality or for the enhancement of teaching, learning and the student experience. It also raises profound questions about who defines the purpose of higher education; and whether it is those inside or outside of the academy who have the authority to decide the key learning outcomes of higher education. This article argues that in focusing on the largely technical aspects of the quantification of learning, government-funded attempts in England to measure learning gain have overlooked fundamental questions about the aims and values of higher education. Moreover, this search for a measure of learning gain represents the attempt to use quantification to legitimize the authority to define quality and appropriate outcomes in higher education.

Chords are a declarative synchronisation construct based on the Join-calculus, available in the programming language C-omega. To our knowledge, chords have no formal model in an objectoriented setting.In this paper we suggest SCHOOL, a formal model for an imperative, objectoriented language with chords. We give an operational semantics and type system, and can prove soundness of the type system.