Experiential examination of higher education partnerships in the UK: a knowledge management perspective

Purpose Higher education institutions possess a plethora of knowledge at the institutional, departmental and individual levels. Therefore, knowledge management plays a vital role in assisting partnerships to synergise knowledge and strengthen market competitiveness when working collaboratively. The purpose of this study is to identify and critically discuss the role of knowledge management concepts that support development of UK higher education partnerships. This knowledge management research was undertaken with the purpose of exploring components of behavioural constructs in assisting the development of successful partnerships between higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach This research embraces a qualitative methodology and makes use of an expert panel method to gather field data and assess the relevance, robustness and applicability of a conceptual model developed in the context of higher education partnerships. Guided by two research questions, the researchers elicited knowledge from eight experts, academics and practitioners, who had initiated and led partnership development between UK higher education institutions. The experts were invited and selected to attend the panel using the criteria of “Years of Experience in the Higher Education sector”, “Job Positions and Experiences” and the “Partnership Scope and Impact”. Findings Depicting in a tree analogy, the conceptual model indicates that effective knowledge management will require higher education executives, managers and practitioners to centre on nurturing “tree roots” presented as behavioural knowledge management constructs and include institutional culture, trust, absorptive capacities and communication channels. The research findings elaborate on previous research and provide a categorisation of partnership outcomes between higher education institutions, explaining that partnership outcomes can be of an “Academic”, “Marketing and Finance” or “Managerial” nature. Importantly, practical use of the model could be implemented using audit methods or benchmarking methods, whereby the categorised elements of the model are used as a criterion of assessment for audit teams. Originality/value The conclusion extracted experiential insights to provide guidance as to how higher education executives, managers and practitioners can make use of knowledge management behavioural constructs and activities to assist collaborative undertakings in the higher education sector. This paper provided a new, modified, knowledge management higher education partnership tree, thus giving researchers and academic practitioners a holistic viewpoint of important partnership knowledge management factors.

Exploring Institutional Behavioural Elements Needed to Support Knowledge Management in Higher Education Partnerships

As market competitiveness in the higher education sector continues to grow, higher education executives and managers are exploring alternatives of maintaining and growing market share by forming partnerships with other higher education institutions. Collaborative initiatives amongst higher education institutions are driven by key stakeholders, higher education executives, managers, academics, and administrators, who are involved in a significant amount of knowledge exchange processes at institutional and departmental levels. Entering into a partnership and managing knowledge at intra-institutional levels becomes a very important, challenging, and complex task. This chapter argues that in order to develop effective higher education partnerships, executives and managers will need to channel their efforts and resources on four institutional, behavioural elements, which include institutional culture, trust, absorptive capacities and communication channels.

Transnational partnerships for tertiary agricultural education in Africa.

This chapter examines ways in which an equal balance of power can be established in designing and implementing higher-education partnerships. The partnerships featured here are transnational - both within and outside Africa - so they typically have different academic structures, traditions and resources. The chapter presents an approach to partnership design and implementation with the intention of helping African tertiary agricultural education (TAE) institutions strategically pursue arrangements which build enduring institutional and human-resource capacity through joint and equitable engagement in their core mandates: educational instructional, research and outreach.

Knowledge Management Evaluation in British Higher Education Partnerships

The purpose of this research is to encourage higher education institutions working in partnerships to evaluate the development of partnerships not only on the basis of financial indicators but take into consideration the newly created knowledge as a result of social capital, monitoring and reviewing and continuing professional development of staff. The empirical data were collected through a survey instrument originally used for a PhD study. This research study provides a better understanding of the knowledge management evaluation stage of partnership development. Findings point out that although embedded knowledge management practices support social capital development, it is expected that higher education institutions could exploit their available knowledge to a greater extent in order to improve their impact on social capital in the context of partnership development. Research findings suggest that evaluation frameworks implemented and controlled by higher education institutions regulatory and governing bodies would benefit from particular inclusion within “assessment of performance” of Higher Education partnerships that specifically consider the social impact of partnership ventures. Knowledge management is a developing theme within academia, and findings imply that executives within higher education are committed to include knowledge management training in CPD strategies, as this not only benefits higher education institutions but will also benefit higher education partnership development. In terms of originality and value, this paper straightens the critical importance of knowledge management evaluation as part of the last stage of partnership development in order to advance in the understanding of the benefits deriving from higher education institutions partnerships. Students, scholars and practitioners of knowledge management can gather a range of insights pointed at performance and knowledge creation within a partnership context.