The conceptions of faculty to risk taking and approaches to academic practice

Among recent developments in the field of higher education is the emergence of New Public Management (NPM) and of what has been labelled as ‘risk university’.

NPM is a management / development system that is utilised in companies, agencies and countries in their entirety. This system emphasises the concept that ideas used in the private sector must be successful in the public sector.

This project, in collaboration with Professor Nicholas Theodorakopoulos at Aston University, aims to redress the lack of discussion over the role that risk taking plays in academic practice by exploring what faculty understand academic risk taking to be and how they enact this understanding in their tasks.