The UK higher education has been one of the top destinations for international students over the last few decades, and it is beneficial to the UK local and national economy. However, recent changes of the governmental policies on the way UK universities are funded and the recession that still affects economies around the world have left many universities around the UK at financial survival risk. With relatively limited access to reduced research funds, student recruitment has a vital importance for most universities. It has been well established in the literature that academic reputation and the level of services have the most significant impact on national and international students. Thus, universities, to maintain their market share, must spend much energy and resources to improve the level of services offered to their students. The recently introduced National Student Survey (NSS) has become one of the most important metrics to assess student satisfaction that influences directly the university league tables and the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which in turn effects international and national student recruitment. It is not surprising that underpinning student satisfaction has become the major target of UK universities. Therefore, a research investigation has been carried out to identify the most influential factors that comprise to the decision of overall satisfaction for the students studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. On this purpose, a detailed statistical analysis was carried out on the NSS results and it was concluded that there is strong evidence, that “teaching” and “organisation and management” are the vital influential factors on the overall satisfaction of students.

Motivated by the nonlinear dynamics of mathematical models encountered in power systems, an investigation into the dynamical behaviour of the swing equation is carried out. This paper examines analytically and numerically the development of oscillatory periodic solutions, whereby increases of the control parameter, lead to a cascade of period doubling bifurcations, before eventually loss in stability is exhibited and effective forerunners to chaos revealed. Gaining an understanding on the dynamical behaviour of the system can help to produce a deeper insight of the bifurcations entailed, with the appearance of the triggered sequence of the first period doubling’s acting as precursors of imminent danger and difficult operations of a practical system.

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic put a halt provisionally to face-to-face teaching throughout the educational sector impeding in addition, university students from receiving their traditional on campus teaching learning experience. Educators, academics, and the higher institutional authorities had to act fast and change their mode of teaching delivery to online platforms, with many students transferring their learning habits and customs to various online mediums and tools. In view of the struggles and adjustments many students underwent with this new method of teaching, a research study was conducted to identify whether online learning had an effect on student performance for a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related module. On this purpose, this paper evaluates different statistical test measures to compare the two different teaching techniques adopted by a university foundation level module, Analytical Mathematics. Results from the pursued quantitative analysis show a decrease in the success of students’ performance whilst receiving online teaching, suggesting a lesser impact on improved learning compared to the customary face-to-face delivery for this specific module. With regards to engagement, observations from the qualitative analysis of the study show a lack of involvement and participation from students with their lecturer and peers whilst in an online environment, echoing its influence on student performance. The deductions of the analyses of this study, emphasize that the necessary transition to online delivery and learning during the pandemic did lead to a challenging and negative experience on students and their performance for this STEM related subject.

A study is conducted to obtain a deeper insight into the primary and subharmonic resonances of the swing equation. The primary resonance, which can result in increased oscillatory responses, voltage instability, and potential system collapse, happens when the external disturbance frequency coincides with the natural frequency of the system. Subharmonic resonance occurs when the disturbance frequency is an integer fraction of the natural frequency, leading to low-frequency oscillations and possible equipment damage. The purpose of this study is to provide an extension of the existing literature of the effects of primary resonance and further provide a thorough understanding of subharmonic resonance on the stability of a certain power system paradigm. Motivated by the rich nonlinear dynamical behaviour exhibited by this evergreen model, analytical and numerical techniques are employed to examine the underlying principles, creating an efficient control solution for this resonant-related problem. The main objective of this research is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the primary and subharmonic resonances considering the dynamical and bifurcational behaviour of the underlying swing equation, whereby both analytical and numerical techniques are employed, allowing for an identification of certain precursors to chaos that may lead and cater for the safe operation of practical problems.