Developing a theoretical framework for policy development, implementation and evaluation

Three institutes ITT, ITB and DIT explored the benefits of collaborating and seeking designation as a technological university for Dublin following the publication of the Hunt Report in 2011. A high-level steering group was formed that would guide the alliance partners towards the goal of Technological University for Dublin. Support teams and working groups were set up to draw on the expertise of staff from across the 3 institutes. One workshop was set up to discuss the development of a teaching, learning and assessment strategy for a technological university. Further research carried out into the creation of a teaching, learning and assessment strategy shifted to policy formation and implementation that precede this type of strategy and discovered issues in relation to policy gaps and evaluation methods. This paper reflects on how the focus shifted to policy formation and evaluation. This work provided the motivation for a study to examine how higher education policy is formed and implemented and staff attitudes, experiences and perspectives on this. The aim of this work is to develop a theoretical framework that would inform policy formation and optimize impact on higher education practice. This paper will outline the methods used to capture the experiences of staff across these three institutes in policy development, implementation and evaluation. Grounded theory qualitative methods will be used to discover the core areas of concern of the staff across the three institutes and to develop a theoretical framework that can be used to inform policy formation particularly for a new technological university.