by Emily Collins
March 9, 2012
Student Engagement – whether it’s the title of a paper, policy or pro-vice chancellor – has been around as a policy priority in higher education for some time. There are theories about why it is important, what it means, who should take responsibility for it, how it should be funded and monitored and who knows what is best for it; but I have seen a disappointing lack of discussion around what should happen because of it. This is a post about how I think this agenda has gone wrong, and what me might do to get it back on track.
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by Mark Leach
May 23, 2011
At the heart of the Browne Report and the government’s higher education policy is a simple notion allegedly grounded in economics: that the introduction of market forces into the higher education sector will simultaneously drive up standards and drive down prices. The confidence displayed by ministers in predicting these effects would be more reassuring if it were not at odds with the evidence that precisely the opposite is happening. The list of universities committed to charging something near the £9000 upper limit of fees is steadily lengthening, contrary to what Vince Cable has repeatedly told them is in their rational economic interest. And with regard to standards, the American company that owns BPP University College – which David Willetts granted university status only last year – recently lost its appeal in the US Supreme Court after being found guilty of defrauding its shareholders and is under investigation by the US Higher Learning Commission for deceiving students about the career value of its degrees.
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The Worthwhile Challenge of Representation
by Martin Hughes February 8, 2011How do you represent the collective interests of the HE sector? Universities UK, the representative organisation for the UK’s universities, aims to be the voice for all institutions. They attempt to “promote a successful and diverse higher education sector” [Source]. This is a difficult task. A big reason is because of the word ‘diverse’. While [...]