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

Seabird and Plastic Ingestion Data Set

Plastic debris is a pervasive and critical environmental challenge that is being described as a world-wide crisis for marine life. Seabirds are sensitive to pollutants and are of critical conservation concern. Because seabirds are excellent bioindicators of marine ecosystem health, information about their plastic ingestion can serve as an indicator of plastic exposure across multiple marine trophic levels. Our study describes the prevalence of plastic ingestion for four seabird species: Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus marinus), Herring Gulls (L. argentatus), Common Terns (Sterna hirundo), and Roseate Terns (S. dougallii) nesting in the Gulf of Maine. Samples were collected opportunistically, including pellets, regurgitant, discarded fish, and deceased seabirds. Plastics were primarily found in pellet samples, and common types included fragments and sheets. Herring Gulls displayed significantly higher plastic exposure than the other three species across all metrics analyzed (p-valu

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

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

TYPICAL PEERS’ PERCEIVED SELF-EFFICACY TOWARDS INCLUDING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

One in 59 children is identified as having an Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that students with disabilities be educated in the general education setting with typical peers to the maximum extent possible. This practice of inclusion has led to increased social-isolation and peer rejection among students with ASD. Research suggests inclusion alone without implementing peer intervention training is ineffective in fostering positive interactions between students with ASD and their typical peers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature by evaluating a peer educational intervention designed to promote positive peer relations among students with ASD, as well as, examine the effects of a peer educational intervention on typical peers’ perceived level of self-efficacy in interacting with students with ASD

Children’s books are adding to science’s gender problem

Ask young children what they want to be when they grow up and the chances are that scientific jobs such as astronaut and doctor will appear high on the list. But ask them to draw a scientist and they are more than twice as likely to draw a man than a woman. Children can form these kinds of biases from many sources. But perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised to see such an absence of women scientists in children’s drawings when the illustrations we show them are often just as bad. Our study of imagery in children’s science books reveals that women are significantly underrepresented. In the physical sciences in particular, the pictures frequently fail to communicate women’s technical skills or knowledge. The imagery in these books gives the impression that science is a subject for men, and that careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are unrewarding for women. Developmental theories explain that children learn gender expectations to help them to respond appropriately within their social environment. This influences their understanding of who they are and encourages them to behave in a way that is conventional for their gender. Pictures of men and women in children’s science books contribute to these expectations by teaching them “rules” about the occupations suited to each gender. This encourages them to conform to prevailing gender career stereotypes. To counter this, female role models need to be visible in books to help develop girls’ interest in science as they get older, and overcome negative perceptions of female scientists

Molecular Evidence for Dietary Adaptation in Humans

Starch digestion begins in the mouth where it is hydrolysed into smaller polysaccharides by the enzyme salivary amylase. Three salivary amylase genes (AMY1A,B & C) and a psuedogene (AMYP1) have been described and are located in tandem on the short arm of chromosome 1. Polymorphic variation has been demonstrated in Caucasian populations in the form of the number of repeats of the AMY1 genes, as follows: (1A-1B-P1)n-1C. This variation results in differing levels salivary amylase enzyme production and, as a result, differences in the efficiency of starch digestion. It is suggested that an increase in salivary gene copy number may be an adaptation to high starch diets as a result of the adoption of agriculture. A reliable high-throughput PCR based method has been designed that utilises ABI GeneScan technology, to quantify AMY1 gene copy number and to type 6 microsatellite markers closely linked to the AMY gene cluster. Data have been collected for 14 human populations, with different histories of cereal agriculture and levels of starch in the diet. Data have also been collected on AMY1 gene copy number in 5 common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). The AMY1 allele frequency difference (measured using FST) between the two most extreme populations, the Mongolians and Saami, was not an outlier on a distribution of 11,024 SNPs from the human genome. As the AMY1 locus does not appear to differ from the rest of the genome in terms of allele frequency difference between populations, genetic drift could not be ruled out as an explanation for the observed AMY1 allele frequency differences. The chimpanzee data suggest that the most frequent allele (AMY1*H1) in humans may not be the ancestral allele, as all chimpanzee chromosomes tested carried the AMY1*H0 allele. Furthermore, a powerful method for the analysis of intra-allelic variability at the AMY locus suggests that weak positive selection has occurred on the AMY*H1 allele. As a result, genetic drift could not be ruled out as an explanation for the observed AMY1 allele frequency difference among populations. Alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase (AGT) is an intermediary metabolic enzyme that is targeted to different organelles in different species. Previous studies have shown that there is a clear relationship between the organellar distribution of AGT and diet. Non-human primates show the herbivorous peroxisomal distribution of AGT. In humans a point mutation and insertion deletion polymorphism have been associated with peroxisome-to-mitochondria AGT mis-targeting. Data have been collected using a PCR/RFLP based method, in 11 human populations. In a comparison with FST values from 11,024 SNP loci, 94.5% of SNPs had a lower FST than a comparison of AGT allele frequencies for Saami and Chinese. This unusually high allele frequency difference between Chinese and Saami is consistent with the signature of positive selection driven by the unusually high meat content in the Saami diet

Internationalizing the Art School: What part does the studio have to play?

Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) education has a number of distinctive features, including the use of the studio as a locus for an interactive approach to teaching and learning. This article explores the concept of ‘internationalization’ and uses it as a basis to explore the pedagogies found in ADA from an intercultural perspective. The study involved staff and international students participating in focus groups and workshop events to share their experiences of teaching and learning in ADA. We found that ADA pedagogies provide a number of specific opportunities and challenges for internationalization. Positive aspects include the social nature of the studio facilitating the development of independent learning and critical skills. However, issues raised were the lack of value placed on the development of IT/technical skills and language proficiency. We suggest that there is much that ADA pedagogies have to offer the debate on internationalization