Sector reports review: February to August 2019

This paper provides a summary of selected reports and papers (‘grey literature’) published by key HE sector organisations in England (and the UK), and ‘think tanks’ between February and August 2019.  These include: Advance HE; The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS); Careers Research and Advising Centre Ltd (CRAC); Department for Education (DfE); Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU); Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI); Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA); The Insight Network/Dig-In; Jisc; Milkround; National Education Opportunities Network (NEON); National Union of Students (NUS); Office for the Independent Adjudicator (OIA); Office for Students (OfS); Onward; Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA); Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) The Sutton Trust; The Student Engagement Partnership (TSEP); Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS); Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA); UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA); UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (UKSCQA); Universities and Colleges Union (UCU); Universities UK (UUK); Universities UK International (UUKi); and UPP Foundation. The themes covered in the paper include: The Augar Review; the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework; value-for-money and student expectations; teaching quality and assessment; student complaints; the digital experience; learning spaces; learning gain; university admissions; contextualised admissions; clearing; unconditional offers; degree apprenticeships; mature learners and healthcare courses; transition to university; accelerated degrees; equality and diversity; mental health and wellbeing; hate crime, sexual violence and online harassment; the Prevent duty; graduate attainment; destinations of disabled graduates; graduate earnings and value; Longitudinal Educational Outcomes; employability and careers; internationalisation; the civic university; HE management and leadership; transformational change; Athena SWAN; BAME leadership in HE; and BAME library staff

BAME underrepresentation in UK universities: a view from the humanities

Significant divisions have emerged out of the political turmoil of the past three years or so.  Yet, out of this unrest has come an increased attention to the virulent racism and racial injustices that still exist in UK society and overseas.  In the UK, a number of reports have facilitated more nuanced and evidence-based discussions on BAME underrepresentation, the achievement gap, and the racism experienced by BAME students and staff in universities.  This article will summarise the findings of these reports and reflect on their impact for the humanities

Refreshing peer observation through Walkabout Weeks: observers as voyagers, not vampires

When one observes, two learn. This viewpoint piece argues that peer observation can serve an important role in facilitating profound conversations about teaching, expanding tutors’ ‘significant networks’. HE tutors are traditionally wary of inviting spectators into their classrooms, observers relying on invitations in the same way that vampires require invites before they are can enter a room. It is argued that observers are better conceptualised as voyagers, exploring new environments for personal development. It is within this context that Walkabout Weeks were born, a fortnight each year where science tutors open their classrooms to colleagues. This initiative has enhanced the visibility of casual peer observation, further normalising this practice, and has provided a rich source of diverse observation opportunities for inexperienced staff. By also welcoming non-academics into classrooms, administrative staff have gained deeper insights into the academic lives of the students that they support, a distinctive feature of the scheme

Book Review of Samuel Stones and Jonathan Glazzard (2019) Supporting Student Mental Health in Higher Education

Samuel Stones’ and Jonathan Glazzard’s, Supporting Student Mental Health In Higher Education is part of a new series, Positive Mental Health, that aims to provide a “modern and comprehensive set of evidence based strategies for promoting positive mental health”.  The authors write from perspectives informed by research focused on special educational needs, disability and LGBTQ+ inclusion, and the promotion of mental health in educational contexts based on their experience as educators in compulsory and post-compulsory settings. Consequently, they impart an appreciation of the crucial contributions that educational professionals can make to student mental health, given appropriate training and practical guidance informed by contemporary research.  At just 144 pages, the authors have focused on offering concise explanations, which enhances the book’s accessibility.  Mental health is a complex area and can be daunting to many practitioners, new or experienced.  That said, the book is commendable in its scope, covering: transitions, risk factors, common mental health needs and how to support specific groups of students

Book Review of Shirin Housee (2018) Speaking Out Against Racism in the University Space

In Speaking Out, Shirin Housee invites the reader to share in a personal and, at times, emotional and complex journey of some of the lived experiences of minoritised students in UK universities.  In this book, Housee offers many compelling reflections that echo a voice that is finding considerable traction (cf. Arbouin, 2018) in these uncertain and discordant times that deserves to be shared and heard.  Provocatively titled, the reader is provided with a sense of the unseen, silenced, unheard, or ignored accounts of students to offer a more nuanced and critical understanding of racism in universities, whilst offering reflective tools to address an internal innocence or naïveté and to counter institutional racism.   [Review continues

Book Review of Flower Darby, with James M. Lang (2019) Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes

This book endorses the idea of small changes to teaching practice in the context of distance learning.  However, even if you are not delivering distance learning, there are useful ideas and tips here for everyone.  This is a US-based publication, where there are now over 6 million students a year who are engaged in learning at a distance.  Although there has been little growth in the UK in terms of ‘pure’ distance learning students (HESA, 2019), there is a growing interest in flexible approaches to learning (Universities UK, 2018).  Therefore, this book is interesting because it supports the immediate need to develop teaching practice through small, manageable, research-informed changes, whilst also helping us to reach forward to explore the bigger potential questions around flexible delivery. [Review continues

Book Review of Thomas D. Parsons, Lin Lin and Deborah Cockerham (Eds.) (2019) Mind, Brain and Technology: Learning in the Age of Emerging Technologies

Digital Assistant: Hi, Jim. I have a book for you to review. I think you will find it interesting.  Jim: Sounds good, what’s it about? DA: Well that would be telling, why not read it, and I’ll monitor your brain activity and general attentiveness, and you can tell me about it.  Jim: It’s on neurology, I’m not really an expert on this but here goes. This book tries to point the way in which technology can enhance learning experiences when it incorporates discoveries in neuroscience and learning science. Looking at human learning through neurological lens. I like this Dewey quote, “if we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” DA: Stay focused now, don’t get distracted. [Review continues

Barriers to student engagement in clubs and societies: a social capital perspective

In 2018/19, John Moores Students’ Union embarked on a ‘ground clearing’ exercise to determine the barriers students face when engaging, or trying to engage, with a student-led sports club or society.  An online survey to students revealed several barriers: difficulty in ‘fitting in’, costs, time, geography, and communication.  This paper reflects on the outcomes of the survey and offers an interpretive lens based on the ideas of social capital, as espoused by Pierre Bourdieu and Robert D. Putnam.&nbsp

Book Review of Dave Lochtie, Emily McIntosh, Andrew Stork and Ben Walker (2018) Effective Personal Tutoring in Higher Education

While higher education is going through a period of turbulent change driven by the Teaching Excellence Framework and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF), the refinement of the widening participation agenda, not to mention the Augar funding review, how we support students continues to be a perennial topic of discussion and contention. Effective Personal Tutoring offers a timely reminder of the role personal tutoring (PT) can play in supporting students but also of the complexity of PT models and practice.   It is worth reminding ourselves that the regulatory framework for HE states that students should be “supported to access, succeed in, and progress from, HE” (Office for Students, 2018: 14). The metrics applied by institutions to deliver on the TEF agenda such as attendance, progression, satisfaction and retention all need monitoring and supporting and it can be argued that PT plays a key role in doing this. This is the context of this book.  Effective Personal Tutoring complements Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor, which was developed specifically for Critical Publishing’s Further Education series (Stork and Walker, 2015). It applies a similar structure and draws on parallel principles. One of the over-arching ideas is that to be an effective personal tutor requires applying the principles to be an effective academic lecturer. These principles include listening and relating to people, sound pedagogy and subject expertise. The focus here is on a holistic approach to supporting student success and takes a student-centred approach throughout. [Review continues

Supporting Liverpool’s Roma community: an illumination via Bourdieu’s theory of capital

We discuss our Fair Work research with the Roma of Liverpool, and showcase how Roma communities have developed coping strategies in increasingly precarious labour conditions. We utilise Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of capitals, in particular social capital, to show how Roma cope with the uncertainties of precarious employment. We share our work of the Liverpool Roma Employability Network (LREN) and, in so doing, we posit that social networks, borne of social capital, not merely contribute to enhancing opportunity for Roma employability but more so, align deeply with Roma’s habitus