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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Higher education environments have become increasingly competitive and institutions have to compete for students in the recruitment markets. With the introduction of student fees, it is hypothesised that potential applicants to HE will increasingly become consumerist. The research upon which this paper was based was aimed at finding out the factors students consider important in their decision making related to choice of university and courses of study. Design/methodology/approach -Five sixth form schools and colleges in the Southampton University Partnership Scheme participated in the study. Three hundred and eighty seven students (186 male and 201 female) voluntarily participated. The study involved a survey questionnaire based on a 10 point Likert scale and included 35 university choice factors which students were to rank accordingly. It also included 10 items similarly ranked to identify factors influencing university subject or course choice. Simple descriptive statistics were used to identify the factors students consider most important in their choice and decision making. Findings -Two key signals have been identified. First is that, students seem to be adopting a consumerist approach to their HE decision making. The importance attached to labour market motives in terms of employment and career prospects significantly outweigh those related to pursuing HE on the basis of subject interest and a love for the subject. Second is that as a result of this, students consider programme and price related issues as more important than other elements of universities marketing mix. Research limitations/implications -There are no claims for generalisability of findings from this research on account of the small sample of participants and the use of convenience sampling employed in the study. However, the findings generally support what is already known about factors influencing university choice and go beyond to show signals of change within the undergraduate recruitment market. Practical implications -The findings have implications for university positioning in a diversifying recruitment market, and for a reconsideration of marketing and recruitment strategy at institutiona...

PurposeInternational students' HE decision making is a high stakes process. There is an insufficient evidence base that would aid university level strategic planning in areas of recruitment from the African continent and in supporting its students to maximise the benefits from a UK HE experience. This paper aims to explore the decision making and experience of African students in UK HE and provides hypothesis for re‐conceptualising these processes.Design/methodology/approachThe research was exploratory and part of a bigger project on international students' experience of UK HE. It employed focus group interviews with 28 students studying in two universities in the South of England together with semi structured discussion with staff in those institutions with a specific remit for recruiting from Africa.FindingsA six element model of decision making was developed from the data which identifies a range of push and pull factors operating within constraints of fears and anxieties about studying in UK HE. The data suggest that African students come to study in England on the promise of getting a truly international HE experience. Questions are however raised about whether this promise is delivered in full.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size and use of focus groups as a single data gathering strategy does not allow broad generalisation of findings. However, the evidence obtained enabled the generation of useful hypothesis to stimulate further research in this area. The research identifies implications for strategic decisions for recruitment, student support and curriculum and for future research in this area.Originality/valueThis is an area with patchy research and the research reported here provides a good basis for developing a broader research agenda in Africa to support decision making on a wider scale.

The paper suggests that multiple deprivation is a concept as yet lacking in substantial theoretical analysis and that its application as a research framing tool in education is relatively recent. As a concept, multiple deprivation suggests a confluence of factors which depress learning and place unique challenges on leadership and which act in combination rather than in isolation. Given that more than three quarters of schools in South Africa are officially described as dysfunctional and that many of these schools serve communities facing multiple deprivation, the article calls for a new theoretical approach which focuses on how best schools in these circumstances can best be led. Based on extant evidence in the field, the paper identifies generative leadership practices upon which a new theory of leadership for these contexts could be constructed. Specifically, it suggests that a cocktail of leadership forms which include transformational, distributed, instructional, ethical and asset based leadership could offer the most promise for schools faced with multiple deprivation. The paper also provides an overview of the articles selected for this special edition.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Higher education (HE) marketing the world over is in a state of crisis that manifests itself on three fronts. First, there continues to be sizeable resistance towards the marketing idea in the academy of many universities across the world. Second, HE itself has failed to identify its core business without which the sector can not have a firm marketing foundation. Third, HE marketing has not adequately domesticated itself and continues to rely on imported wisdom from the business sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore these problems using evidence from international research and propose a curriculum focused marketing model which should help refocus HE marketing, domesticate it appropriately and reduce the internal resistance with which it is frequently associated. Design/methodology/approach -The paper begins by examining the imperatives for marketisation in HE. It then reviews the extent of the three obstacles using evidence from research in different parts of the world. It concludes by offering a curriculum focused marketing model (CORD) which could serve the basis for future HE marketisation. Findings -Based on wide ranging data from the developed and less developed countries, obtained through national and regional surveys and a review of secondary findings, the paper suggests that a way out of this crisis is for universities to identify their core business as the development of their curricula and to base their marketing on a proposed curriculum centred marketing model. Originality/value -The CORD model represents an attempt at addressing the crisis that HE marketing faces today.

PurposeAlthough internationalisation has become a key strategic element of universities across the world, there is little empirical evidence suggesting the nature and extent of integration of internationalisation into the strategic mission of individual institutions. Little is also known about challenges faced by institutions in their quest to integrate internationalisation into their broad strategic choices. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory study is conducted in six universities in the UK selected from the Russell pre‐1992 group, the post‐1994 group and former colleges of higher education (HE). The study has three distinct but interrelated aims: how internationalisation is conceptualised in the study institutions; the available evidence for its structural integration into the university services and understanding the perceived challenges institutions face in the quest to integrate the idea as a broad strategic element of those institutions.FindingsThere exist a range of distinct barriers working against the full integration of the concept into the institutional cultures. These include: conceptual and structural deficiencies in the organisation of institutional internationalisation; over emphasis on human exchange initiatives over cultural integration efforts and increasing undercurrents of feelings among staff and students of local neglect at the expense of global attention.Originality/valueThe paper creates a sound basis for a more broad‐based study across the HE sector. Specifically, the paper suggests that the increasing cultural diversity in UK HE brought about in part by internationalisation and also by general human migration occasions new thinking and practices in organisational and management terms to address the needs of the “mosaic or cultural melting pot” phenomena characterising the increasingly multicultural HE learning environments.

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The paper reports on work in progress for a Department for Education and Skills (DfES)