Ian McNay

Professor Ian McNay has been employed in four European countries, as administrator/manager, policy analyst/adviser, consultant and academic. One post was within an international organisation. He has run programmes and projects in more than 20 countries with participants from over 50 nations.

Within the UK he has worked in five institutions blending academic work, mainly in postgraduate professional development, with leadership and management functions. He has held visiting posts in the UK as well as Switzerland and Spain.

Research/scholarly interests

• Policy analysis within lifelong learning, with a recent emphasis on higher education
• Strategic leadership and management of higher education institutions
• Organisation studies.

Selected publications

Recent books

McNay, I. (2003) Developing Higher Education Managers Strategically. Sheffield: HESDA and Universities Scotland.

McNay, I. (ed.) (2005) Beyond Mass Higher Education: Building on experience. Maidenhead: SRHE/OpenUP.

McNay, I., and Bone, J. (2006) Higher Education and Human Good. Bristol: Tockington Press.

McNay, I., and Jameson, J. (2007) Ultimate FE Leadership and Management Handbook. London: Continuum.

Recent articles and chapters

McNay, I. (2002) Governance and decision making in smaller colleges. Higher Education Quarterly, 56(3).

McNay, I. (2002) The E Factors and Organisational Culture. In: Williams, G. (ed.) The Enterprising University: reform, excellence and equity. Buckingham: SRHE/OpenUP.

McNay, I. (2003) Assessing the assessment: an analysis of the UK Research Assessment Exercise, 2001, and its outcomes with special reference to research in education. Science and Public Policy, 30(1).

McNay, I. (2005) Higher education communities: divided they fail? Perspectives 9(2).

McNay, I. (2005) The University Learning Community: Challenge and Change. In: Coates, N. (ed.) Education in a Changing Environment. University of Salford.

McNay, I. (2005) Assessing Research in the UK: Policy, Product, Process and Problems. In: Hada, Y. (ed.) Carving Out a New Horizon for University Assessment. Tokyo: Toshindo [in Japanese].

McNay, I. (2007) Values, principles and integrity: academic and professional standards in UK higher education. Higher Education Management and Policy, 19(3).

McNay, I. (2007) Research Assessment, Researcher Autonomy. In: Tight, M. et al (eds.) International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, 4: Autonomy in Social Science Research: the view from the United Kingdom and Australian Universities. Oxford: Elsevier.

McNay, I. (2008) The crisis in higher education: the views of academic professionals on policy, leadership, values and operational practices. Higher Education Review, 40(2).

McNay, I. (2009) Research Quality Assessment: Objectives, Approaches, Responses and Consequences. In: Brew, A., and Lucas, L. (eds.) Academic Research and Researchers. Maidenhead: SRHE/OpenUP.

McNay, I. (2011) Research Quality Assessment. In: Moses, I. (ed.) International Encyclopaedia of Higher Education. Oxford: Elsevier.

McNay, I. (2011) Research Assessment: Work in Progress, or la lutta continua. In: Saunders, M., et al (eds.) Reconceptualising Evaluation In Higher Education. Maidenhead: SRHE/OpenUP.

Professor Ian McNay has edited Research into Higher Education Abstracts for more than 15 years.