Higher Education Policy and Practice Network

Did you miss the Higher Education Research Seminars in November and December last year? Please find the PPT presentations with streaming audio below.

Student Mobility as a Response to Labour Market Congestion

Rachel Brooks, Professor of Education, Brunel University

(HEPP seminar held om 7th December 2010)

A common theme within the literature on higher education is the congested nature of the graduate labour market. Researchers have highlighted the lengths to which many students now go, in response to this congestion, to ‘distinguish themselves’ from other graduates: paying increased attention to university status; engaging in a range of extra-curricular activities; and pursuing postgraduate qualifications.

Given that there is now some evidence that the number of UK students enrolling on a degree programme overseas is increasing, this seminar explored the extent to which an overseas education can be seen as part of a broader strategy on the part of British stu-dents to seek distinction within the labour market, and whether such an education does indeed offer tangible employment benefits.

Brook’s presentation (slides + audio)

Enjoy!

Please join us at 4.45pm on 23^rd November to hear Dr. Tim Linsey from the Academic Development Centre at Kingston present the findings of the JISC funded ‘Mobilising Remote Student Engagement’ project (2008—2010).

Tuesday 23^rd November 2010, 4.45pm—6.15pm

Room 1006, John Galsworthy Building, Penrhyn Road Campus

Please RSVP to a.hjerde@kingston.ac.uk

The MoRSE project built on the expertise developed by Kingston University in the pedagogy and practice of mobile technologies in the curriculum, and allied this to the expertise of De Montfort University in Web 2.0 tools and approaches, to develop a situated understanding of the impact of the tools on student practice, beyond the institution, and the concomitant impact on institutional processes.

This study has been undertaken in the context of two distinct disciplines (Geography at KU and Pharmaceutical & Cosmetic Science at DMU) and two ‘beyond institution’ environments (fieldtrips in Geography and placements in Pharmaceutical & Cosmetic Science).

Student fieldtrips in the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment were run to many national and international destinations, where institutional, personal and mobile technologies were used to support teaching and learning activities. These technologies were also investigated in terms of student placements.  The placement curriculum was also redesigned to incorporate reflective learning activities, a University Certificate in Professional Development was validated at DMU and a placement year run and evaluated.

The mix of private and public tasks, institutional and third party environments and technologies has been complex across both placements and fieldtrips.  Preparatory activities have been important and many lessons have been learnt with regard to effective use of technologies to support remote learners.

The Kingston team:

ADC: Dr Tim Linsey

School of Geography, Geology and the Environment: Dr Ken Field, Dr James O’Brian, Dr Stuart Downward

School of Health and Social Care Sciences: Dr Ann Ooms

The first HEPP research seminar of this academic year will be held on  23^rd November 2010. See updated seminar programme below; further details will follow shortly. We also have joined forces with the International Office at Kingston to organise a breakfast seminar on International Staff in April 2011.

Please note: We’ve had to cancel the open HEPP seminar that was scheduled for February 2011.

Updated seminar schedule for 2010/11:

23/11 2010, 4.45pm-6.15pm, PRJG 1006: Tim Linsey (ADC, Kingston University) will give a seminar on personal mobile technologies in teaching and learning based on the JISC funded MoRSE project which aims to “maximise the impact of fieldwork and placements on student learning and personal development through the integration of personal technologies and social tools.”

07/12/ 2010, 4.45pm–6.15pm, JG 2002: Professor Rachel Brooks (Brunel University). Theme: International student mobility.

12/04/ 2010, 4.45pm–6.15pm: Town House 102: Professor Gareth Parry (University of Sheffield)

27/04 2010, 9.30am–10.30am: Steve Woodfield (VC’s office, Kingston University). Theme: International staff. Please note: This is a BREAKFAST SEMINAR organised in collaboration with the International Office at KU. Breakfast will be served from 9am. Room: to be confirmed.

The 4^th UK and Ireland Higher Education Institutional Research conference 2011 will be held at Kingston University 16-17 June 2011. The conference is organised by the ADC at KU and HEPP. Please visit the conference website at: http://www.heir2011.org.uk/. Call for papers will open in October 2010, more information will follow.

Hope you all enjoyed your summer holidays!

Please find below the details for this academic year’s HEPP research seminars. We plan to organise a seminar in October, but the details are yet to be confirmed; further information will follow ASAP.

The other seminars for the academic year 2010/11 are planned as follows – please mark the dates in your calendar. Any changes to this plan will be announced on our website (https://go.kingston.ac.uk/policy-and-practice/events/higher-education-seminar-series/) and via e-mail. Speakers and seminar titles will be announced closer to the dates.

[October 2010]

Tuesday 7^th December 2010, 16:45 – 18:15, JG 2002, Penrhyn Road campus

Thursday 10^th February 2011, 16:45 – 18:15, Town House 102, Penrhyn Road campus

Tuesday 12^th April 2011, 16:45 – 18:15, Town House 102, Penrhyn Road campus

THE 4TH UK & IRELAND INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE AT KINGSTON 2011

The 4th Annual UK and Ireland Institutional Research Conference is to be held at Kingston on 16^th and 17^th June 2011. The conference is organised by the Academic Development Centre (ADC) and the HEPP network. Call for papers opens in October 2010; please visit our conference website for more information: www.heir2011.org.uk.

JISC: INVITATIONS TO TENDER + FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES 2010/11

JISC has recently updated the future calls section of its website and now shows planned Grant calls and Invitations To Tenders from August 2010 to July 2011.

Details of the calls can be found via the following link http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/futurecalls.aspx

Did you miss the Higher Education Research Seminar on 4^th May 2010? Please find the PPT presentation with streaming audio below.

RealPlayer and (a minimum of) basic 768k connection required. FREE Basic RealPlayer SP is available to download at:

http://uk.real.com/realplayer/

Imagining the University of the Future

Louise Morley, Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER), University of Sussex

Higher education today is characterised by the hyper-modernisation of global,entrepreneurial, corporate universities and speeded up, nomadic public intellectuals. This is often underpinned by the archaism of globalised vectors of gender inequalities and elitist participation patterns.

Change has been rapid and extreme. Public and private boundaries are less distinct and the value of higher education is in flux, with the policy logic of the knowledge economy challenged by the global economic recession. Counter hegemonic advocates did not necessarily predict the scale of neo-liberal/ neo-conservative driven change. Traditionalists did not foresee the industrialisation and massification of higher education.

The academic imaginary has often been harnessed to compliance, critique, and more recently, to survival. There have been limited opportunities to engage in futurology. Desire, as well as loss and threats, needs to be considered. Questions about the morphology of the university of the future seem to be eclipsed by pressing concerns in the present. What should the university of the future look like?

Morley’s presentation (PPT with audio)

HEA: Open Educational Resources (OER) Phase 2 – Call for Projects

The Higher Education Academy and JISC invite the submission of funding proposals for projects in the following areas linked to Open Educational Resources:

OER release meeting sector needs

Cascade support in the release of OER

Collections of OER based around a thematic area

Closing date: 24 June 2010

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding/detail/2010/oer_phase2_2010

JISC: e-Content and Digitisation Programme

The JISC invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to be funded through its e-Content and Digitisation Programme to address the impact and embedding of digitised resources.  The purpose of this call is twofold:

1) Firstly, to facilitate institutions in carrying out an analysis of the impact of their digitised resources/collections that have been live for at least one calendar year

2)To develop strategies and practical solutions to ensure the increased use and impact of the resources in teaching, learning and research within higher education

Maximum funding for any one project is £40,000.

The deadline for receipt of proposals in response to this call is 12 noon on Friday 9 July 2010.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2010/04/710digiimpact.aspx

The Nuffield Foundation: Deadline for  applications to be processed at the November 2010 meeting is 9 July 2010!

http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/go/grants/opendoor/page_115.html

Please join us at 5.15 pm on 2nd June 2010 to welcome Professor Sir David Watson of the Institute of Education, University of London, in his seminar titled “The Power of Jurisdiction: university civic and community engagement in cross-national comparative perspective”:

There is a growing interest in the civic and community role of universities, all around the world. This is reflected in national policy, in institutional missions, and in the expressed interests of students and staff as well as external stakeholders.
The Talloires network, on which this study is based, is probably the single most active interna-tional coalition in the field. By commissioning contemporaneous, detailed self-assessments from 20 carefully chosen universities around the world at the end of 2008 and following these up with field-work in each institution in the summer of 2009, a powerful global data set has been established which should provide a scholarly reference point for several years.
A particular focus of the study is on how “Southern” perspectives of the role of universities in civic and community engagement can challenge a dominant political and scholarly discourse from the global “North.”

David Watson will lead a presentation of a project undertaken in collaboration with Robert Hollister (Tufts University), Susan Stroud and Elizabeth Babcock (both of Innovations in Civic Participation [ICP] Washington). The resulting book – “The Engaged University” – will be published in the Routledge series of International Studies in Higher Education in 2011.

Time and venue: The seminar is free and takes place in room 3003 of the John Galsworthy Building at Kingston University’s Penrhyn Road campus at 5.15 pm on Wednesday 2nd June 2010. Light refreshments will be served.

For queries or to RSVP for this event, please email Anette Hjerde at a.hjerde@kingston.ac.uk

The Institute of Education, University of London is organising its first ‘Becoming a Published Academic Writer’ summer school this summer!

The school is open to all academic or post doctorate researchers working in higher education irrespective of discipline. Attendance for the 3 days is essential as the sessions are not ‘stand alone’.

All participants will return to their institution/university with a draft journal article, a chapter for a book or a book proposal.  Such work and disciplines learned at the School will assist with the forthcoming REF.

PROGRAMME

Day 1, Tuesday 6 July  |  Focus on journals
09.30    Registration and coffee
10.00    Welcome from Professor Geoff Whitty and introduction
10.15    Plenary: Writing for journals – Graham Hobbs, editorial director of Taylor and Francis journals
11.15    Break
11.30    Expert panel of journal editors: advice on submissions, Q and A.
David Crook; David Gillborn; Shirley Dex
12.30    Lunch
13.15    Tutor Groups – Get to know your group: identify group goals, teambuilding,
guidance on feedback, sharing of writing projects.
15.15    Break
15.30    Individual writing time plus Q and A corner.
16.30    Closing plenary session, reflecting on the day, setting up focus for day two.

Day 2, Wednesday 7 July  |  Focus on writing
10.00    Plenary session : The writing process:  Lucy Green
11.15    Break
11.30    Writing workshop: developing writing style, editing own work etc.
Deborah Spring; Caroline Lodge
12.30    Lunch
13.15    Tutor Groups – Individual writing time plus Q and A corner, followed by peer review groups.
15.1    5Break
15.30    Plenary workshop: writing about academic topics for press releases/websites:  David Budge
16.30    Closing plenary session, reflecting on the day, setting up focus for day three.

Day 3, Thursday 8 July  |  Focus on book publishing
10.00    Plenary session: Developing a book proposal:  Deborah Spring
11.15    Break
11.30    Publishers Panel Discussion: Philip Mudd, (Publisher, Taylor and Francis) Marianne Lagrange (Publisher,     Sage); Alison Shaw (Director, Policy Press) Jim Collins (Head of Academic Publishing, IOE)
12.30    Lunch
13.15    Tutor Groups – Individual writing time plus Q and A corner, followed by peer review groups.
15.15    Break
15.30    Panel of academic writers: discussion plus Q and A
Carol Vincent; Deborah Youdell; Dylan Wiliam; Heidi Mirza; Michael Reiss;
16.30    Final feedback session and close.

Venue:
Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way London
WC2A 0AL

Date and Time:
6, 7 and 8 July 2010, 9.30 to 4.30 daily
Cost:
£595 or £495 if you book by May 31st

The course pack will include a USB drive of panel session materials, and a copy of the book Passion and Politics: Academics on becoming a published writer (IOE Publications, 2008).

For further details and bookings email:staffdev@ioe.ac.uk

Please join us on 4th May to welcome Professor Louise Morley, Director of the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) at the University of Sussex, in her seminar titled:

Imagining the University of the Future

Higher education today is characterised by the hyper-modernisation of global, entrepreneurial, corporate universities and speeded up, nomadic public intellectuals. This is often underpinned by the archaism of globalised vectors of gender inequalities and elitist participation patterns.

Change has been rapid and extreme. Public and private boundaries are less distinct and the value of higher education is in flux, with the policy logic of the knowledge economy challenged by the global economic recession. Counter hegemonic advocates did not necessarily predict the scale of neo-liberal/ neo-conservative driven change. Tradition-alists did not foresee the industrialisation and massification of higher education.

The academic imaginary has often been harnessed to compliance, critique, and more recently, to survival. There have been limited opportunities to engage in futurology. Desire, as well as loss and threats, needs to be considered. Questions about the mor-phology of the university of the future seem to be eclipsed by pressing concerns in the present. What should the university of the future look like?

∞

Venue: The seminar is free and takes place in room 102 of the Town House at Kingston University’s Penrhyn Road campus, Kingston upon Thames. Light refreshments will be served.

For queries or to RSVP for this event, please email Anette Hjerde at a.hjerde@kingston.ac.uk

∞

Louise Morley AcSS is a Professor of Education and Director of the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) (sussex.ac.uk/cheer) at the University of Sus-sex, UK. She has an international profile in the field of sociology of higher education studies. She has recently completed an ESRC/DFID funded research project on Widen-ing Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania.

Recent publications include: Morley, L., and Lussier, K., (2009). “Intersecting Poverty and Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania.” International Studies in Sociology of Education 19(2): 71-85, and Morley, L., and Lugg, R., (2009). “Mapping Meritocracy: Intersecting Gender, Poverty and Higher Educational Opportunity Structures.” Higher Education Policy 22(1): 37-60.

∞

This seminar is part of the Higher Education Research Seminar Series at Kingston University

Did you miss the Higher Education Research Seminars in December 2009 and January 2010? Please find the PPT presentations with streaming audio below.

RealPlayer and (a minimum of) basic 768k connection required. FREE Basic RealPlayer SP is available to download at:

http://uk.real.com/realplayer/

19 January 2010

Andrew Williams, Director of ILT Support and Development, Kingston College

Going Further with Higher Education: Developing higher-level learning and teaching at Kingston College

The seminar explored the principles and objectives contained in Kingston College’s new Higher Education learning and teaching strategy. It reviewed the drivers for change within the HE in FE landscape, the aspirations the College has for both its HE learners and teachers, and the stages it went through in the collaborative development of the strategy itself.

In particular, Andrews discussed the outcomes of a number of recent e-learning projects, run in partnership with Kingston University, which shed light on causes and consequences of educational change within the College’s HE environment.

Williams presentation (PPT with audio)

1 December 2009

Penny Jane Burke, Roehampton University

Widening Participation: Identity, Difference and In/Equality

This seminar examined the complex politics of identity at play in higher educational fields and the ways these shape struggles over access and participation in relation to difference and processes of mis/recognition. Based on data from recent research the Penny Jane Burke interrogated the underpinning values, perspectives and meanings that shape current policy discourses and practices of widening participation (WP) in higher education. She also discussed how these competing discourses construct student identities in relation to social inequalities of age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender and race.

Burke presentation (PPT with audio)