Surviving and sustaining teaching excellence: A narrative of ‘entrapment’

This paper discusses the key concepts of ‘surviving’ and ‘sustaining’ in the context of teaching excellence in contemporary universities, and reports the findings emerging from a work-in-progress study of Award Winning Teachers. It provides evidence that teachers recognized for their passion, commitment and expertise in teaching, work well beyond their paid hours to achieve excellence. Most become ‘entrapped’ in a culture of over-work that can have a negative impact on their lives and well-being. Factors that influence ‘teaching sustainability’ are presented, to support university teachers, administrators and managers in thinking about ways to improve the teaching and learning environment for teachers as well as for students

Teaching excellence : an illusive goal in higher education teaching and learning

In the last decades of the 20th Century, and through the first decade of the 21st Century, both the natural world and human society have experienced dramatic change. Contemporary society world-wide has high expectations of the contribution that universities can make in helping people learn to live with change, to lead change, to manage change, and to support improvement in all spheres of life. The global community seeks ‘excellence’ across all higher education roles: community engagement and leadership, research and innovation, and teaching and learning. However, universities are not always regarded as effective in fulfilling the needs of students, business or communities well. This portfolio takes excellence in teaching and learning as its central theme. It presents a framework of seven lenses, through which the concept of excellence is analyzed and evaluated; and provides a series of eight papers, reporting on six research projects that investigate different aspects of teaching excellence. The portfolio includes selected examples from a body of work that was undertaken across a ten-year period, within a single university. All the projects were conducted as authentic workplace activities, guided by two primary intentions. Firstly to develop better understandings of the local context, so as to support enhanced decision-making about improving teaching and learning; and secondly, to make positive and practical changes that actively improve the quality of experience and outcomes for all stakeholders. A variety of research techniques have been used across different studies, however, the overall approach is qualitative, with a focus on rich data collection, analysis and interpretation that respects diverse voices and perspectives. The research approach aims to achieve mutual benefits for participants, researchers, the institution and the wider teaching and learning community. As is appropriate to workplace research, collaboration with administrators and executive leaders, teaching colleagues, research partners and students is a key feature of every study, with the doctoral candidate taking different roles and responsibilities within project teams. In simplistic terms ‘teaching excellence’ typically implies agreement from a range of stakeholders that the university has relevant, strong programs; good resources and facilities; positive learning and employment environments; competent, highly effective teachers and learners; and perhaps most significantly that it achieves positive desirable outcomes. However, excellence is a problematic and contested concept. Stakeholders have quite different priorities, values and expectations. The needs and preferences of students, employers, the disciplines and professions, academics, and communities, can often act in direct opposition. This can create significant difficulties in defining purpose and goals, and agreeing appropriate investment and resource levels, teaching approaches, and student outcomes. Our knowledge and understanding of effective strategies for teaching, learning and assessment has expanded greatly in recent times; however, universities face many challenges in creating, sustaining and demonstrating teaching excellence. The projects in this portfolio do not offer neat and easy solutions, however they provide extremely valuable evidence: firstly as new knowledge to support local improvement; and secondly to contribute rich, deep insight to affirm, extend and challenge scholarship of teaching and learning in the wider academic community

Surviving and sustaining teaching excellence: A narrative of ‘entrapment’

This paper discusses the key concepts of ‘surviving’ and ‘sustaining’ in the context of teaching excellence in contemporary universities, and reports the findings emerging from a work-in-progress study of Award Winning Teachers. It provides evidence that teachers recognized for their passion, commitment and expertise in teaching, work well beyond their paid hours to achieve excellence. Most become ‘entrapped’ in a culture of over-work that can have a negative impact on their lives and well-being. Factors that influence ‘teaching sustainability’ are presented, to support university teachers, administrators and managers in thinking about ways to improve the teaching and learning environment for teachers as well as for students

Diversity: A longitudinal study of how student diversity relates to resilience and successful progression in a new generation university

This project used the voices of diverse cohorts of students to describe their learning journeys as they progressed through the later years of their degree and into the workforce. The project combined quantitative data from a large student sample with qualitative data from a series of case study narratives to document the students’ perceptions about their learning experiences, the factors underpinning progression in their studies and their transition into the workplace. The project has attempted to answer the question: does diversity matter? Do students of different diversities progress differently, and are there differences in the factors enhancing progression and developing resilience that can be linked directly to diversity? In this project, successful students are those who have completed first year and have progressed to their second or final year of their undergraduate degree. The rationale for the study arose from: • the need for institutional policies and practices to better reflect the increased student diversity they serve • our lack of knowledge about how the behaviours and strategies that diverse students use translate into resilience and progression to graduation and into the workforce • the importance of understanding the diverse ways those successful students navigate through their learning journey, often in the face of multiple responsibilities and commitments..

The Lobby in transition: what the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal revealed about the changing relationship between politicians and the Westminster Lobby?

The 2009 MPs' expenses scandal was one of the most significant political stories of modern times. It raised questions, not just about the ethics and behaviour of MPs but also about the relationship between politicians at Westminster and the political correspondents who follow them on a daily basis, known as ‘the lobby’. For the significance of this scandal, in media terms, was that the story was not broken by members of the lobby but came from outside the traditional Westminster news gathering process. This paper examines why this was the case and it compares the lobby today with that which was described and analysed by Jeremy Tunstall and Colin Seymour-Ure in their respective studies more than 40 years ago. The article concludes that the lobby missed the story partly because of the nature of the lobby itself and partly as a result of a number of specific changes which have taken place in the media and the political systems over the past 40 years

Changes in the global hospitalisation burden of respiratory syncytial virus in young children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was reported to have impacted RSV epidemiology and could have important implications for RSV prevention and control strategies. We aimed to understand the RSV-associated acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) hospitalisation burden in children younger than five years during the COVID-19 pandemic period and the possible changes in RSV epidemiology from a global perspective.Methods We conducted a systematic literature search for studies published between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2022, from MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Global Health (Ovid), Web of Science, WHO COVID-19 database, CINAHL, LILACS, OpenGrey, CNKI, WanFang and ChongqingVIP. We included unpublished RSV epidemiology data shared by international collaborators. Eligible studies reported data for RSV-associated ALRI hospital admission rates or at least one of the following severity measures: the proportion of RSV cases that needed supplemental oxygen, mechanical ventilation or intensive care unit admission, and in-hospital case fatality ratio. A generalised linear mixed-effects model was used for data synthesis to understand the changes in the incidence, age distribution and severity of RSV-associated ALRI hospitalisations in children under five years during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the year 2019. Findings We included 61 studies, 14 studies from published literature and 47 unpublished datasets. Most studies (51/61) were from the high-income region, followed by the upper-middle-income region (9/61); only one study was from the lower-middle-income region, and no studies were from the low-income region. Compared to 2019, all income regions saw substantial decreases in RSV-associated ALRI hospitalisation rate across all age groups in 2020; the number of RSV-associated ALRI hospitalisations in children aged 0–&lt;60 months decreased by approximately 80% (325,000 to 66,000), 14% (581,000 to 501,000) and 42% (1,378,000 to 795,000) for high-income, upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries, respectively. RSV hospitalisation rate started to rise in 2021, and by March 2022, the annualised rate returned to a level comparable to 2019 (6·0/1000, 95% uncertainty interval [UI] 5·4–6·8 by March 2022 vs 5·0/1000, 3·6–6·8 in 2019) in high-income countries while remaining lower in middle-income countries. Across all time periods and income regions, RSV-associated ALRI hospitalisation rates peaked in infants aged 0–&lt;3 months and declined with increasing age. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, there was a significantly increased proportion of RSV-associated ALRI hospitalisations in those aged 12–&lt;24 months in high-income and upper-middle-income regions (ORs ranged from 1·30 [1·07–1·59] to 2·05 [1·66–2·54]). No consistent changes in disease severity were observed. Interpretation Our study documented a significant reduction in RSV-associated ALRI hospitalisation burden in children under five years during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A rebound to pre-pandemic levels in RSV-associated ALRI hospitalisation rate was observed in the high-income region by March 2022 but not in the middle-income region, suggesting a more persistent negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-care systems and health-care access in middle-income regions. RSV surveillance needs to be established (or re-established) to monitor the changes in RSV epidemiology, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries.Funding EU Innovative Medicines Initiative Preparing for RSV Immunisation and Surveillance in Europe (PROMISE); Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation; World Health Organization. <br/

WHO preferred product characteristics for monoclonal antibodies for passive immunization against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease in infants - Key considerations for global use.

World Health Organization (WHO) preferred product characteristics describe preferences for product attributes that would help optimize value and use to address global public health needs, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries. Having previously published preferred product characteristics for both maternal and paediatric respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines, WHO recently published preferred product characteristics for monoclonal antibodies to prevent severe RSV disease in infants. This article summarizes the key attributes from the preferred product characteristics and discusses key considerations for future access and use of preventive RSV monoclonal antibodies