Developing research capabilities in FE lecturers through practitioner led action research

This is an ESCalate development project led by Ian Minty of the UHI Millennium Institute and completed in 2007. The main aim of this project was to help develop research skills in Further Education lecturers who are involved in both Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) delivery by establishing a mainly online discussion group to support practitioners. Many staff within the colleges that form UHI now teach at both FE and HE level and are increasingly expected to engage with research. However, currently there are limited links between the more traditional research establishments and staff in the colleges. Traditionally, however, college staff have not engaged in research and have therefore not necessarily developed the required skills. This project's aim was to support the development of basic research skills for such staff through the planning and execution of a small-scale project that related to one aspect of the individual's teaching practice. Action research was chosen as a methodology since it is by definition small scale and rooted in practice. It includes a final report and separate appendice

Post-school Transitions of People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing:Appendices

The ongoing UK and European economic crisis is leading to a rapid growth in youth unemployment in Scotland. Young disabled people, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, are more likely than others to experience difficulties in obtaining employment. Recognising the difficulties experienced by young disabled people in accessing post-school education, training and employment, the Scottish Government has attempted to put in place specific and generic support. This study aimed to investigate the post-16 transition process and outcomes of young people with hearing impairments and assess the nature of the support available to them and the barriers which they encounter.We have highlighted the wide range of post-school transition experiences and outcomes of young people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We have identified patterns of post-school transitions, and the ways these are strongly associated with socio-economic status and educational outcomes at school. Differences were found between those young people with higher levels of qualification who progress into higher education, those with somewhat lower levels of qualification who move into mainstream further education and training, and those with few or no qualifications who move into personal development programmes in college, or who become disengaged from education, training and employment

Universities and article copyright

In all the debates about copyright and intellectual property in recent years, the battle lines have tended to be drawn between librarians and publishers. This neglected what in some ways is the most important player of all, the employer. There seems little doubt that the university owns the copyright in articles, and universities are beginning seriously to turn their attention to this. Whether the article is in printed and/or electronic form probably makes no difference in law to ownership, but custom and practice are important here. A study has just been completed by the Centre for Educational Systems at Strathclyde University at the request of the Funding Councils to review current practice and benchmark the present position against future action. Higher education has turned itself into big business and as a result is beginning to contemplate more fully how to manage its assets. The total turnover in the sector now exceeds £10 billion pounds per annum. An 'average' university will have a turnover in the region of £120-150 million, less than half of which comes directly from the state. More than half of funds now come from a combination of overseas student fees, competitively tendered research grants, endowment income and intellectual property rights. This last can increasingly represent several millions of pounds and the figure is growing. Quite apart from some of the ownership questions raised below, staff structures are increasingly organized to allow some staff additional research time for the benefit of all. Universities have no other purpose than the creation, dissemination, understanding and development of knowledge, and it is inevitable that intellectual property asset management is an area of growing concern