Student perceptions of barriers to networking with employers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of the concept of the ‘implied graduate’ to explain the difficulties, which students report when engaging with local employers. Design/methodology/approach - The ‘implied graduate’ is an analytical concept that aims to bring together assumptions about what a graduate should be like. In this paper the concept has been used to analyse interview data collected from students after they took part in an employability project at a small Higher Education (HE) campus in a Further Education (FE) college. Findings - The students in this study reported significant issues with continuing to engage and maintain contact with the employers they met during the project. For many, this was the first time they had met graduate level employers and so felt inexperienced in how to approach networking with them. It seems that some of the offers for future contact made by the employers were aimed at an ‘implied graduate’ and, as such, the students struggled to fulfil those expectations. Originality/value - This paper sheds light on the difficulties that HE in FE students face in engaging with graduate employers. These issues are likely to contribute to the well-established, but unexplained, differences in employment outcomes for students from diverse backgrounds. Keywords: Non-traditional Students, Employability, Graduates, Networking, HE in FE, Article Classification: Research pape

Applying intercultural awareness to curriculum development in Art, Design and Architecture

Through selecting and synthesising the existing literature surrounding international students, the recurrent foci have been explored and a new simple model of the international student sojourn has been generated. This model is driven by a holistic concern for the support and development of staff and students, and has been used to open a dialogue between staff and students in order to raise intercultural awareness within the disciplines of art, design and architecture. It is suggested that the collaborative fostering of intercultural awareness is the necessary first step towards developing an internationalised curriculum (Nilsson, 2003; Harrison & Peacock, 2010). This poster session will demonstrate how the model has been used to structure a workshop in the school of art, design and architecture, in which staff and students have engaged in dialogue and formulated a good practice agenda for internationalising the curriculum. The disciplines of Art, Design and Architecture present their own specific challenges for internationalisation due to the culture-bound nature of aesthetics. It is important to find out how current international students and staff cope with these challenges, and to share good practice across their disciplines. It has been discovered that in the UK certain traditions prevail, such as the emphasis on the individual creative process as well as drawing by hand before using technology, which are at odds with process of design training in other parts of the world. It is hoped that by creating increased intercultural awareness, we will be able to design curricula that will enable us to capitalise on the diverse range of experiences that international students bring to the UK. The model and workshop structure can be adapted for use by participants within their own disciplines, and the poster session will encourage delegates to explore this

Micarta Propellers III : General Description of the Design

The design of propellers made of Micarta is discussed. The advantages of the material are noted, especially as compared with wood. The design changes necessitated by the use of Micarta are discussed with reference to the hub boss, the narrowing of the blade tips, the thinning of the blades, the angles of the leading and trailing edges, and the adjustment of the pitch. Results of flight tests show that the Micarta propeller gave a top speed of 2 miles per hour more than the wooden propeller while turning about 120 r.p.m slower, with about the same rate of climb. At top speed, the Micarta propeller shows an improvement of about 7 percent in fuel economy, although the plane is flying 2 miles per hour faster

Micarta propellers IV : technical methods of design

A description is given of the methods used in design of Micarta propellers. The most direct method for working out the design of a Micarta propeller is to start with the diameter and blade angles of a wooden propeller suited for a particular installation and then to apply one of the plan forms suitable for Micarta propellers. This allows one to obtain the corresponding blade widths and to then use these angles and blade widths for an aerodynamic analysis

Micarta propellers I : materials

Here, values for tension, compression edgewise of laminations, and transverse flatwise of laminations are given for Micarta made with various kinds of sheet material. The corresponding values for white oak are given for comparison. It was found by destructive and service tests that Micarta made with a good grade of cotton duck will give satisfactory service with most designs. In propellers having detachable blades, it is desirable that the root of the blade be of a small cross section to decrease the weight of the metal hub. Here the use of the special fabric or wood veneer offers advantages due to greater tensile strength. These materials, especially the wood veneer, produce stiffer blades than duck. This is also a value in controllable and reversible pitch designs where it is desirable that the plan form of the blades be symmetrical

Physics case of the very high energy electron--proton collider, VHEeP

The possibility of a very high energy electron-proton (VHEeP) collider with a centre-of-mass energy of 9 TeV has been presented at previous workshops. These proceedings briefly summarise the VHEeP concept, which was recently published, and developments since then, as well as future directions. At the VHEeP collider, with a centre-of-mass energy 30 times greater than HERA, parton momentum fractions, $x$, down to about $10^{-8}$ are accessible for photon virtualities, $Q^2$, of 1 GeV$^2$. This extension in the kinematic range to low $x$ complements proposals for other electron-proton or electron-ion colliders.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, for proceedings of DIS 2017 worksho

Quackademia? Mass-media delegitimation of homeopathy education

In response to concerns about the standards of training for non-medically qualified homeopathic practitioners, between 1999 and 2009 a number of UK universities taught Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees in homeopathy. All the courses were subsequently closed following media coverage of a vigorous campaign from scientists against the degree courses. A boundary-work analysis of 65 articles published in the UK print media reveals the use of metaphors from a number of different fields as rhetorical strategies to malign homeopathy education. As well as the commonly used contrasts of profit versus academic integrity, rationality versus faith and logic versus magic, media reports associated homeopathy with new universities and Mickey Mouse degrees, both of which had been denigrated in the press previously. In the press coverage, much attention was also drawn to the fact that the method of repeatedly diluting homeopathic medicines defies both logic and common sense, and the plausibility argument became a decisive blow in the debate over the legitimacy of teaching homeopathy as a science degree. It seems that the boundary work sought to protect the authority of both science and medicine by expelling homeopathy from higher education. These findings contrast with previous studies that suggest that orthodox medicine has occasionally expanded to incorporate desirable aspects of complementary and alternative therapies. Scientists carry out boundary work not just to demarcate the boundaries of science and directly defend their own interests, but also to protect the authority of other allied professions