De facto protection for academic freedom in the U.K.: empirical evidence in a comparative context

This analysis, which uses similar surveys to gather comparable data from over 2000 UCU members and 5000 staff in universities of the European states, demonstrates that the low level of de jure protection for academic freedom in the UK is mirrored by an equally poor (if not worse) level of de facto protection. The reality is that, in the overwhelming majority of instances, UCU members report statistically significantly higher levels of systematic abuse of their academic freedom, across a wide array of measures, than their European counterparts. For example, 23% of UCU respondents (and 14.1% of EU respondents) reported being bullied on account of their academic views, 26.6% of UCU respondents reported being subjected to psychological pressure (EU = 15.7%), while 35.5% of the UCU cohort admitted to self-censorship, for fear of negative repercussions, such as loss of privileges, demotion, physical harm (EU= 19.1%). Some of this abuse may be attributable to a lack of knowledge of academic freedom rights among staff – only 41.7% of the UCU cohort claimed to have an adequate working knowledge of academic freedom (EU= 49.2), while less than half that proportion (20.6%) knew about the 1988 Education Reform Act, which supposedly protects academic freedom in the UK. Not surprisingly, 81.6% of UCU respondents said they would welcome additional information on the concept of academic freedom and its rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, UCU members are much more likely to strongly agree than their European counterparts that the major elements of academic freedom (freedom for teaching and research, autonomy, shared governance and employment protection) have declined. Work elsewhere suggests two possible options to ameliorate this situation. First, awareness raising about academic freedom among UCU members, along with the provision of explanatory information and training materials. Second, an appeal to UNESCO that the UK government does not meet its obligations under the 1997 Recommendation (of which it is a signatory state). The stark differences between the UK and the EU, in terms of de jure protection and de facto realities, both demonstrate the necessity for such an approach and provide a highly credible basis for such an appeal. This strategy was successfully adopted by the Dansk Magisterforening, the Danish academic professional association, and led to an independent expert evaluation of the legal protection for academic freedom, and change in the law

De facto protection for academic freedom in the U.K.: empirical evidence in a comparative context

This analysis, which uses similar surveys to gather comparable data from over 2000 UCU members and 5000 staff in universities of the European states, demonstrates that the low level of de jure protection for academic freedom in the UK is mirrored by an equally poor (if not worse) level of de facto protection. The reality is that, in the overwhelming majority of instances, UCU members report statistically significantly higher levels of systematic abuse of their academic freedom, across a wide array of measures, than their European counterparts. For example, 23% of UCU respondents (and 14.1% of EU respondents) reported being bullied on account of their academic views, 26.6% of UCU respondents reported being subjected to psychological pressure (EU = 15.7%), while 35.5% of the UCU cohort admitted to self-censorship, for fear of negative repercussions, such as loss of privileges, demotion, physical harm (EU= 19.1%). Some of this abuse may be attributable to a lack of knowledge of academic freedom rights among staff – only 41.7% of the UCU cohort claimed to have an adequate working knowledge of academic freedom (EU= 49.2), while less than half that proportion (20.6%) knew about the 1988 Education Reform Act, which supposedly protects academic freedom in the UK. Not surprisingly, 81.6% of UCU respondents said they would welcome additional information on the concept of academic freedom and its rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, UCU members are much more likely to strongly agree than their European counterparts that the major elements of academic freedom (freedom for teaching and research, autonomy, shared governance and employment protection) have declined. Work elsewhere suggests two possible options to ameliorate this situation. First, awareness raising about academic freedom among UCU members, along with the provision of explanatory information and training materials. Second, an appeal to UNESCO that the UK government does not meet its obligations under the 1997 Recommendation (of which it is a signatory state). The stark differences between the UK and the EU, in terms of de jure protection and de facto realities, both demonstrate the necessity for such an approach and provide a highly credible basis for such an appeal. This strategy was successfully adopted by the Dansk Magisterforening, the Danish academic professional association, and led to an independent expert evaluation of the legal protection for academic freedom, and change in the law

Academic freedom in the U.K.: legal and normative protection in a comparative context [Report for the University and College Union]

This report examines the legal (de jure) and normative (de facto) protection for academic freedom in the UK, when compared with the other 27 EU nations. The legal protection is assessed first, by examining the EU nations’ constitutions and legislative instruments; second, by means of an assessment of individual nations’ degree of compliance with UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel; and third by means of a very detailed analysis of 37 differing elements of university compliance with an array of measures, such as international instruments, but also including (for example) the ability of academic staff to appoint or dismiss the Rector, Deans and Heads of Departments. In sharp contrast with the other 27 EU nations, the constitutional protection for academic freedom (either directly, or indirectly via freedom of speech) in the UK is negligible, as is the legislative protection for the substantive (teaching and learning) and supportive (tenure and governance) elements of academic freedom. Additionally, the UK is similarly deficit in protecting academic freedom in line with international agreements of which it is a signatory, more especially UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel. Utilising the most comprehensive assessment of the constitutional and legal protection of academic freedom, the UK attains a score of 35%, which is less than the EU average (53%), and the second lowest among the 28 EU states. The analysis of normative de facto protection uses comparable data from over 2000 UCU members and 5000 staff in universities of the European states, gathered by means of similar surveys. It demonstrates that the low level of de jure protection for academic freedom in the UK is mirrored by an equally poor (if not worse) level of de facto protection. The reality is that, in the overwhelming majority of instances, UCU members report statistically significantly higher levels of systematic abuse of their academic freedom, across a wide array of measures, than their European counterparts. For example, 23.1% of UCU respondents (and 14.1% of EU respondents) reported being bullied on account of their academic views, 26.6% of UCU respondents reported being subjected to psychological pressure (EU = 15.7%), while 35.5% of the UCU cohort admitted to self-censorship, for fear of negative repercussions, such as loss of privileges, demotion, physical harm (EU = 19.1%). Some of this abuse may be attributable to a lack of knowledge of academic freedom rights among staff – only 41.7% of the UCU cohort claimed to have an adequate working knowledge of academic freedom (EU = 49.2), while less than half that proportion (20.6%) knew about the 1988 Education Reform Act, which supposedly protects academic freedom in the UK. Not surprisingly, 81.6% of UCU respondents said they would welcome additional information on the concept of academic freedom and its rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, UCU members are much more likely to strongly agree than their European counterparts that the major elements of academic freedom (freedom for teaching and research, autonomy, shared governance and employment protection) have declined. In sum the very low level of legal protection in the UK is mirrored by a low level of awareness of the rights of academic freedom, and a high level of abu

End of year outcome survey (2021/2022): report to LiNCHigher

This report presents the findings from an end of year (2021/2022) outcome survey carried out between May and July 2022 as part of the evaluation of LiNCHigher outreach activities. The survey’s purpose is to measure the impact of the outreach activities students have participated in throughout the academic year. The evaluation was conducted by the LiNCHigher evaluation team in the Lincoln Academy of Learning and Teaching (LALT) at the University of Lincoln. Overall, 1,305 valid responses were received from ten target schools and one college. Uni Connect target learners comprised 38.7% of the responses, non-Uni Connect 55.4% and the remaining 5.9% postcodes were either missing or incomplete

Student Researchers Pilot: A peer evaluation approach to assessing impact: A report to LiNCHigher

This academic year (2021-22), the LiNCHigher evaluation team, based in the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI) at the University of Lincoln, were tasked with piloting the setting up and running of student researcher groups in schools and colleges. The aim of the pilot was to encourage student voice, enhance student engagement and improve the quality and impact of LiNCHigher’s Uni Connect outreach delivery through peer feedback. In recent years the importance of student voice has grown considerably following the 1989 legally binding Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which states that the views of the child should be assured and given due consideration in all settings, including education. To this aim, Lundy (2007) 1 proposed a four-pronged model of child participation comprising of space, voice, audience, and influence to ensure the student voice is heard and duly considered. These interlinking prongs aim to not only capture the student’s voice but enable their views to be expressed, listened to, and acted upon as appropriate. This model formed the main aim of the student researcher pilot

Guidance to setting up and running Student Researcher Groups in colleges: a peer evaluation approach

This guide is for Uni Connect partnerships, schools, and colleges that wish to set up and replicate Student Researcher groups in their own areas to enhance student engagement, encourage student voices and improve the quality and impact of their outreach delivery

Student Researchers: A co-construction approach to evaluating Uni Connect outreach activities in schools and colleges aimed at raising post-16 / 18 higher education participation

Last academic year (2021-2022) the LiNCHigher Uni Connect evaluation team, piloted the setting up and running of student researcher groups. The aim was to encourage student voice and enhance student engagement to improve the quality and impact of outreach delivery through direct peer feedback

End of Phase 2 Uni Connect impact evaluation report to LiNCHigher

This report presents the findings for Phase 2 of the local evaluation of the Lincolnshire Uni Connect raising Higher Education aspirations project. Funded by the Office for Students, this national initiative is managed locally by the LiNCHigher partnership. Phase 2 ran from August 2019 to July 2021. Delivery of the programme, and therefore the evaluation, encountered much disruption due to the global Covid-19 pandemic which began in the UK in March 2020. The evaluation assessed the impact of the Uni Connect programme on school and college students in Lincolnshire. The evaluation team, based in the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI) at the University of Lincoln, produced an interim report at the end of the first year of Phase 2 that presented key findings and made recommendations for the second year of the Uni Connect programme (Rose and Mallinson, 2020a). The full report is available on the LHERI website whilst a condensed version was published in the online journal, New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences (Rose and Mallinson, 2021). A literature review outlining the programme’s theoretical underpinnings has also been published (Rose and Mallinson, 2020b)

Community impact evaluation: Traveller children and University of Lincoln School of Film and Media student mentors

This report presents the evaluation findings from a collaborative venture undertaken by the University of Lincoln (UoL), the Lincolnshire Traveller Initiative (LTI) and LiNCHigher, the local Uni Connect partnership. The project formed part of the course for the third year Media Production and Sound and Music Production degree, for the compulsory module on community engagement. The project took place weekly for approximately two hours in Semester 2 (February – May 2022). At the end of the module the UoL student mentors were required to produce two reports on the programme, one as a group and one individually, to successfully complete the module. Each student mentor group was tasked with producing a media product that was dependent on the skills and interests of the children they were working with and agreed jointly by the group at the start of the programme. The evaluation was conducted by the LiNCHigher evaluation team based in the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI) at the UoL. This academic year (2021-22), for the first time, two groups of UoL student mentors worked with two groups of Traveller children between the ages of 11-16 from two different sites in the county. The project took place on Tuesdays; one group ran in the mornings (Group A) the other in the afternoons (Group B) when the LTI learning bus was scheduled to visit the sites. The project included at least one visit by each group to the UoL’s recording studios. This meant the children’s usual learning, including their functional skills, was put on hold for the duration of the project. A LTI member of staff was present at all sessions. Both groups chose to produce a music video and Group A also produced a radio programm

Explaining the Gaps: Utilising Uni Connect national learner survey data to inform the local delivery of higher education transformative outreach activities in Lincolnshire

Funded by the Office for Students (OfS), the Uni Connect programme is delivered nationally through 29 local learning partnerships. The programme delivers targeted higher education transformative outreach activities to young people in Years 9 to 13 in areas where the higher education participation of young people is much lower than expected based on GCSE-level attainment. These areas often coincide with where universities focus their widening participation efforts to help them meet their Access and Participation Plan targets (OfS, 2020). In Lincolnshire the programme is delivered and managed by LiNCHigher and evaluated locally. Explaining the Gaps is a project nested within the local evaluation that utilises data from the national learner impact survey to identify gaps at school level to enable the effective delivery of targeted transformative outreach in schools. This large longitudinal dataset, now it its fourth year, consists locally of around 28,000 responses and explores learners’ knowledge of, confidence to participate in, and the perceived benefits of, higher education as well as learner plans for further study and the strengths or weaknesses of their study skills. The wider local evaluation takes a mixed methods approach which comprises learner activity surveys, with all LiNCHigher schools, and focus groups, reflective diaries and School Lead interviews with six case study schools. Whilst there are numerous, mostly qualitative, studies in this area of enquiry the majority focus on the situation facing students post-transition to higher education, (see for example Young et al., 2019) with few concentrating on the pre-transition period and how well secondary schools prepare their students for post-16 pathways. Where studies do exist, they focus mainly on STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and come predominantly from an international perspective. For example, in their systematic review of evidence on the effectiveness of interventions and strategies for widening participation in higher education, Younger et al., (2019) found just 16 studies, out of more than 3,500, that were relevant to the UK context. Likewise, the recent systematic review of studies between 2005 and 2015 by Heaslip et al. (2020) found just 26 UK-focused studies out of 847, the majority of which (16) were qualitative. Both reviews highlight the lack of good quality, robust evidence available in the UK in this field of inquiry. This study aims to fill the gaps in two ways. First, it explores the subject from the perspective of secondary school learners. Secondly, it draws predominantly on quantitative data through the national learner survey. The resulting survey data has been used to identify the higher aspiration and skills gaps of specific student groups (i.e. by gender or Special Educational Needs etc) within individual schools and to enhance the wider local evaluation, specifically by tracking Year 11 and 12 learners for whom the study now has at least three years of data. This offers a unique opportunity to follow a small cohort of students in selected case study schools across the county on a longitudinal basis. This paper will explore how students respond to higher education outreach activities and assess whether or not they lead to a positive impact in learners’ attitude towards higher education study. Learners identified through the survey data will be specifically included in focus groups to enable a greater depth of understanding of the impact of outreach activities over a period of time. The project, which is underpinned by Bourdieu’s (1977 and 1986) concepts of habitus and cultural and social capital, has been tracking the impact of outreach activities at a school level using a deductive theory of change (Laing and Todd, 2015) framework. The main components of the deductive model are the literature review that informs the gathering of quantitative data which is then followed up with qualitative measures, such as interviews and focus groups; hence the mixed methods approach taken to the wider local evaluation. As well as presenting findings from the Explaining the Gaps local learner survey data, which this year included questions on the impact of Covid-19 on learners higher education aspirations, the paper also will explore how the data has been used in conjunction with the wider local evaluation to target transformative outreach delivery and discuss the implications of the findings for higher education Access and Participation Plans