Today's global society creates an environment characterised by complex problems, solutions to which require transcendence of traditional discipline-based boundaries, and new forms of knowledge-sharing. Higher education (HE) has a central role in interdisciplinary knowledge creation and dissemination, reinforced by funding councils, professional bodies and government policy. That notwithstanding, there is currently no recognised best-practice approach to interdisciplinary working in UK HE institutes. The aim of this paper is to develop a best-practice model to facilitate interdisciplinarity within the UK HE sector, focusing on teaching and learning (T&L) and the student learning experience. Based on the results of an exploratory and empirical enquiry a HE Interdisciplinary Model of best-practice (HIM) is proposed. HIM is informed by the development of four themes and six ensuing enablers from a synthesis of perceived barriers, possible facilitators and potential solutions to interdisciplinarity within UK HE. However, further research is necessary to validate the proposed model.

Using the results obtained from a small-scale, exploratory study of the internal dynamics of the disciplinary process, two issues are addressed: whether the disciplinary experience results in the disciplined person's internalising and/or observing an organisational rule; and the extent to which this is affected by the way the disciplinary process is handled. It is tentatively concluded that discipline can achieve the outcome of rule internalisation and/or observation, but it does so for only about half of those formally disciplined; for the remaining half, there are ongoing tendencies towards rule breaking. Explanations for this state of affairs are located in two important features of the internal dynamics of disciplinary handling. The first is the implicit use of a `conditioning by punishment' paradigm, which is applied within a context where punishing stimuli are largely ineffective in shaping behaviour. The second, which flows from the first, consists of managerial styles that often create an impression in the eyes of the disciplined person that retributional motives are at work.

Considers the role of women within academia and outlines their experience of decision making within this context. Outlines the significant results of a study on female academics within one institute of higher education. In particular, women are found to experience an exclusion from informal networks and a consequent lack of access to real‐time information via the grapevine. They also perceive themselves to have less influence on organizational decision making than their male counterparts and suffer from a greater feeling of intimidation of authority, finding it difficult to make themselves heard in decision‐making meetings.

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