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Exploring student nurse perceptions of their learning is important when attempting to enhance educational practice in the clinical setting.

In an increasingly neoliberal Higher Education sector, there is increased pressure on institutions to enhance learner engagement and student satisfaction. Many academics believe that students expect their university learning experiences to be enjoyable, and discourses of game-based learning reflect this, with a dominant narrative highlighting the fun of educational games. Whether students expect learning to be fun or see a relationship between fun and games is under-explored. To address this, we investigated student perceptions of fun in Higher Education using a thematic network analysis based on data from 37 in-depth interviews with undergraduate students. Here, we highlight five themes that encapsulate what students perceive to be a fun learning experience: stimulating pedagogy; lecturer engagement; a safe learning space; shared experience; and a low-stress environment. These aspects are not unique to games, and we conclude by considering the relationship between educational games and fun, and alternative playful approaches.

Recently much attention has been paid to the European Union's alleged 'new trade politics' expressed in terms of the novel centrality of moralised 'development' concessions in the Commission's pursuit of 'deep', 'behind-the-border' trade reform in developing countries. However, when these apparent novelties are considered in the historical perspective of EU relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, we can see that the fusion of ethics to economics within 'deep' trade agendas is nothing new in EU trade policy. Through the lens of contemporary EU assistance to ACP private sector development (PSD) under the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement (2000-), the article illustrates that moralised 'development' concessions are indeed being utilised in the EU's vigorous promotion of far-reaching liberal reform in developing states. Nevertheless, when current PSD normative concessions are considered in the historical context of the ACP-EU Lome´Conventions ' (1975-2000) Stabex programme and its moralisation of ACP structural adjustment, we can see that European moralised discourses and concessions have long been tied to the pursuit of 'deep' market-opening in the developing world.

The European Commission has promised to provide African countries with budget support to facilitate poverty eradication and the broader achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Moreover, European Union officials state that modern 'poverty reduction' budget support aligns with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development norms of country-ownership. In particular, they assure recipients that this aid modality will not be used to coerce African states to pursue second-generation liberalisation measures. Accordingly, European Union actors in the Post-Washington Consensus appear to have learned the lessons of structural adjustment reforms undertaken in the 1980s and 1990s, opting now to promote untied aid mechanisms. This article argues, however, that European Union budget support is still very much tied to premature trade opening and economic liberalisation in Africa. Examining the cases of Tunisia, Ghana and Uganda, it points to the strategic utilisation of budget aid as a means of donor leverage for free market reform detrimental to the needs of poorer citizens. In this context, the article argues that Nkrumah's concept of 'neo-colonial' states bears much significance for a contemporary evaluation of European Union budget support to Africa.