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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.

This chapter argues that there are many, just many many variables which contribute to academic performance as measured in degree outcome, and, as such, simple bivariate analysis is inappropriate. We use structural equation modelling, and explore the contribution of academic behavioural confidence, to make the point that it does contribute to academic performance, but to a lesser extent than self-efficacy theory argues. We suggest that this is because degree outcome is made up of many efficacy variables, which we argue are better captured overall in academic behavioural confidence.

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.

As its market and society open up, China has transformed itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an urban state and an economic force. This has released accumulated tourism demand, led to the development of a diversified industry, and the spread of university and vocational courses in this field. However, the industry faces challenges to recruit and retain staff, with tourism education in higher education blamed for the shortfall in numbers and quality of candidates with suitable purpose, knowledge, and passion to serve. This chapter provides a background to the development of and problems facing tourism education in China, and suggests how to support student engagement and hence the future workforce.

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.