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This is the first of two related articles examining the trend towards initiatives to ensure quality in teaching which has led to an increased emphasis on quality assurance or control measures which ensure that teaching and learning reach some minimum acceptable level. This first part presents a case study where a quality assurance mechanism, in the form of programme validation procedure, prevented the offering of a poorly developed degree proposal. It concludes with the understanding that quality assurance measures were crucial in providing the window of opportunity for the subsequent development of a radically different second proposal. The quality assurance measures could not, however, be responsible for the transformation that happened. The quality enhancement initiatives that occurred as a result of the opportunity provided by the quality assurance mechanism are the focus of the second paper.

The second of two related articles examines the quality enhancement initiatives that led to the development of a substantially different degree proposal, after the rejection of the first proposal at course validation. The case study continues with a review of the initiatives that allowed the development of a course team that felt ownership of the second proposal, and the staff development initiatives that provided the substance on which the implementation phase was able to progress. The case study illustrates the limitations and powers of quality assurance and shows that it is most effective when operating in concert with educational development processes.

The purpose of the study is to explore the interrelation between internal factors of learners and the external environment. The results of this study help to design a learning environment that improves students' self-efficacy and consequently self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors of students.

The study adopts a quantitative approach to explore the relationship between learner's self-efficacy, self-regulation behavior and three factors in the online learning environment: course design, learning activities and relationship with instructors and peers. Participants of the study are 350 students in two universities in Vietnam.

The study finds that factors in the learning environment namely course design, learning activities and relationship within class significantly affect students' self-regulation. Moreover, results show that students' self-efficacy plays the mediating role in the relationship between learning environment and self-regulation.

Samples are taken by convenience sampling method, which may lead to sampling bias, and results may, to some extent, be misleading. The study was conducted in only two universities with limited student populations. A larger sample of students from other institutions may contribute to a better explanation of the relationships.

The study has a practical implication of contributing to the limited understanding of learners in an underdeveloped-research country context. The study also implies necessary changes to the long-standing, prevalent yet ineffective teaching and learning style.

The study calls for a renovation in the nation's traditional educational practices, having a social implication of creating a learning environment beneficial for learners.

This study is the first to investigate the impact of online learning environment and students' internal factors on their learning behaviors in Vietnam. The study is among the very few empirical research studies on the country's education generally and on self-regulation specifically, contributing to better understanding of learning experiences and the improvement of teaching.

Action research involves practitioners in attempting to improve their own teaching through cycles of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. This idea was adopted by a group of interested staff to evaluate the industrial training in the third year of the four‐year sandwich course, B.Eng. (Hons) in Building Services Engineering, at Hong Kong Polytechnic. As there are foreseen difficulties in locating suitable and adequate high quality industrial placements, research was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing arrangement. Assesses attitudes of BSE staff, students and industrial supervisors towards the training. Results of the survey indicated that objectives of the training were not wholly fulfilled. Suggestions are included to improve the management of the training system.

The paper aims to present and discuss research findings on the relationship between culture and learning styles, as defined by Honey and Mumford, and the potential implications for both hospitality management education as well as for the training and career development of international hospitality managers.

Primary research was undertaken at an institute of hospitality management in Switzerland to investigate whether a relationship between culture and learning style preference would be found. The research, carried out with a paired sample of hospitality management students (n=55) at a one‐and‐a‐half‐year interval, was quantitative in nature.

The data support a link between culture and preferred learning style at the outset of the students' higher education programme, which seems to become less marked over time showing a certain convergence amongst all the students in their preferred learning styles.

At this stage in the research the results are only available for one paired sample. From 2007 onwards, however, it is planned that bi‐annual sets of paired sample results will be available for several years to come.

As management and career development take on increasing importance, on the job educators need to look not only to industry for guidance but also to educational institutions for advice on how to optimise their courses and the attainment of learning outcomes by their employees.

These findings have relevance for both hospitality educators as well as industry looking at how to best develop international managers at both junior as well as senior levels.

Researchers frequently come across teachers who distrust a learning environment as embodying the beliefs of the designers and not their own pedagogy. Following the lead provided by user modelling work carried out in the field of human‐computer interaction, there has been much research on student modelling and adaptivity to individual learners; however, the role of the teacher as the manager of the learning process and hence a much more significant user of a learning environment has been ignored. This paper discusses the need for a human teacher model in any computer‐based learning environment and recommends configurable, incremental and re‐structurable contributive learning environments (CIRCLE) architecture to ensure wider acceptance and greater reuse of the phenomenal creative effort that goes into designing a good learning environment.

The present study seeks to compare scores on factors from the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) with scores on an abbreviated version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) and examination grade among undergraduate psychology students. The purpose is to investigate the relationship between course experience and approaches to learning, and to examine their relative importance as predictors of academic achievement.

Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modelling were utilised in order to find measurement models for each of the constructs and to test hypothesised structural relations between these constructs.

The original CEQ and ASSIST factors were reproduced. A model in which course experience factors predicted SAL was supported, but the same model did not provide evidence for any indirect or mediator effect between course experience, approaches to learning and academic achievement. Indirect empirical support for a hypothesised causal link between course experience and approaches to learning was found.

Weak relations between the predictor variables (course experience/approaches to learning) and academic achievement limited the possibility of identifying mediator effects, and future research should address this issue.

Lecturers and course designers should take into account that students' approaches to learning are influenced by course experience, especially with respect to the adoption of a surface approach to learning.

This paper included a comparison between course experience, approaches to learning, and academic achievement, whereas most previous research has not included academic achievement. The utilisation of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling gave a stronger test of construct validity than exploratory analyses, and it facilitated the testing of hypothesised structural models.

The present study adopts the analytical framework of new managerialism (NM) to explore the progress, challenges and outlook of self-financing post-secondary institutions in Hong Kong since 2000. This study also identified issues and related managerial implications for developing this niche form of higher education in Hong Kong.

This study conducted a critical review of self-financing post-secondary institutions in Hong Kong, including the sub-degree and degree sectors, via collecting a series of policy documents and archives from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, the Public Records Office and other government bodies. To supplement the findings, semi-structured in-depth interviews of 18 academic staff of Hong Kong's self-financing post-secondary institutions were carried out.

The study shows that self-financing post-secondary institutions not only encounter challenges related to insufficient resources but also face pressure from accreditation requirements of various international organisations. The study also suggests that massification and privatisation of self-financing post-secondary institutions, and embracing a managerial approach for operation and governance will induce a new wave of self-financing post-secondary institutions in the near future.

This study offers insights for self-financing post-secondary institutions into implementing appropriate strategies to maintain competitiveness and retain talents in the coming years.

Individuals learn in different ways, using several learning styles, but lecturers may not always present information and learning experiences that match students’ learning preferences. Mismatches between learning and teaching styles can lead to disappointment with the course of study, personal discouragement and underperformance. The learning styles of 735 undergraduate Accounting students and the teaching styles of 46 lecturers from one United Kingdom and one South African university were empirically surveyed, using the Felder‐Solomon Index of Learning Styles questionnaire to consider the students’ learning styles, and an adaptation of the questionnaire to analyse the lecturers’ teaching styles. The study compared learning and teaching styles between two universities in two different countries and then examined possible matches/mismatches between learning and teaching styles. Little mismatch was found (p‐values smaller than 0.3). Other results are discussed and recommendations are made in relation to understanding and meeting students’ learning needs and the needs of professional bodies.

This paper aims to explore and analyse the impact of higher education programmes, structures and culture on students' entrepreneurship intentions and attitudes. It investigates the relationships between education and entrepreneurship using a case study research approach.

During the academic year 2008‐2009, a questionnaire survey was distributed to a sample of 603 first‐year and final‐year students studying business and management studies at two public HEIs in Greece. Furthermore a series of in‐depth and semi‐structured interviews was conducted with students in order to capture the integral aspects of the phenomena under investigation (i.e. a more comprehensive understanding of the students' adverse intentions towards entrepreneurship), and with faculty members in order to enter their perspective on entrepreneurship and education, as well as unveil the structure (rules and regulations) and the culture (shared beliefs and attitudes) of HEIs.

The findings suggest that students' entrepreneurial intentions and aspirations deteriorate during their four‐year studies in universities, and that faculty members lack the mentality towards entrepreneurship education. Furthermore, the research data reveal that the structure and regulations of universities in Greece prohibit the commercialisation of knowledge, technology transfers, spin‐off enterprises and industry‐university collaborations.

Although the benefits of entrepreneurship education have been much extolled by researchers and policy makers in the advanced economies of the world, the impact that non‐entrepreneurial higher education programmes and cultures have on students' entrepreneurial intentions has never been tested before in the less developed regions of Europe. This study addresses this issue.