Powder and the mirror: policy, fiction and storytelling

by David Kernohan December 12, 2012

A policy-maker is a writer of fiction. And as writers of fiction we use the same narrative techniques and tropes as novelists, poets and film makers. Because what else can we do? The fiction industry – the multi-billion dollar superstructure that exists to entertain and divert us – sets the bar so high.

The mess, the chaos and the arbitrariness of reality will never measure up to the best that the industry can offer. Therefore – we edit; we prune and we cultivate. We collect the shards of experience that suit our purpose, we downplay those that do not.

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Defending British Universities

by Martin Hall December 7, 2012

Universities are ‘places where students can develop their capacities to the full, where research and scholarship are pursued at the highest level’. With critical issues at a time when our university system is undergoing some of the most traumatic changes in recent history, the CDBU has been launched to defend the academy and this is why I’ve joined.

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Counter-Revolution at the Gates

by Polly Teak-Nicks November 15, 2012

The Great and The Good of British academic and intellectual life are cheesed off. No, in fact, they are as mad as hell – or at least jolly cross – and they’re not going to take it anymore. Esteemed figures have come together to found a new organisation for people with more letters after their names than were originally contained within them; and Alan Bennett. The Council for the Defence of British Universities (CDBU) has been created to defend the “world-class system” in which universities are “among Britain’s most successful institutions”. Poly Teak-Nicks reports from this week’s launch and inaugural meeting.

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The Social Mobility Trap and why politicians fall into it

by Andy Westwood October 26, 2012

Alan Milburn’s recent report into social mobility and higher education says little that is really controversial or particularly surprising. He has outlined the data that shows up the unequal admissions across universities and surveyed the policies that have aimed to address it – from the National Scholarship Programme to Aimhigher. But his central question too easily repeats the widespread assertion that social mobility in the UK has at best stalled or at worst is in decline. And that this has largely happened since the 1990s. But he is at least partly wrong.

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Social Mobility, the very idea

by Martin McQuillan October 19, 2012

‘Social mobility’ is now the central trope in the public discussion of university tuition fees and the guiding principle of HE policy. Given that social mobility is only a possible side effect of a university education not its primary purpose; we are entitled to ask how we arrived at this confusing situation in which the tail seems to be wagging the dog. In the week that Alan Milburn published his review of social mobility and higher education, we take one step back and look at the concept of ‘social mobility’ itself and its complicated relationship with universities.

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Survey motivation

by Debbie McVitty October 10, 2012

This week I have decided to have a pop at the practice of asking students about their motivations for study in student experience surveys. It is not a particularly topical issue – but then, if we waited for some aspects of higher education policy to appear in the news cycle before talking about them we would be waiting a long time. This post is a reflection on the question of student motivation, how and why we measure it and what that says about us.

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Three clouds on the horizon?

by Andy Westwood October 5, 2012

You could be forgiven for thinking that all is well – we’ve gone through the pain of reform and everything is now in place for the long term – the system, give or take a few thousand students (on a like for like comparison with 2011 this looks like we are over 50,000 down but after factoring in deferrals this might be more like 30,000), is in place, the sky hasn’t fallen in, resources maintained for universities and so on. But while there is some confidence that the new funding system might bed down over time there are looming questions over whether it will. There are three storm clouds on the horizon that together may question the sustainability of the new settlement.

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Clearing 2012: How wrong was I, and why?

by Andrew Fisher October 1, 2012

Back in July, I wrote a post confidently predicting that this year’s Clearing would be less interesting than was widely expected, Somebody, somewhere will have a bad experience in Clearing because somebody, somewhere always does, but there is no reason to expect a pattern or trend. Those who do badly this year may do well next time. Life staggers on much as before. In this post, I look back at Clearing and ask who won, who lost and why? And why I got it wrong in July. Sort of.

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Unlocking the Key Information Set

by Alex Buckley September 27, 2012

Today the new Unistats site goes live and Key Information Sets are soon to finally emerge; blinking into the sunlight, as endlessly cycling widgets designed to add a certain effervescence to course websites. Most of the attention has been focused on their role in the march of the market and the rise of the consumer. However, I want to make a separate point about the relationship between the KIS and quality which I do not believe has been explored in as much depth as it could have been.

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Public opinion could yet be our undoing

by Jenny Shaw September 21, 2012

It has been an interesting week. We have grappled with the apparent outcome of the government’s student number policy, we have struggled to understand whether disaggregating international students from net migration figures will really make a difference. As an academic exercise these are fascinating, layered as they are with perverse incentives and a range of consequences both intended and unintended. Wider public perceptions about higher education and related issues matter because politicians care about what voters think. In HE, there is a growing imbalance between the priorities of the sector and societal attitudes that must be better understood by universities and policy makers alike.

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“Let’s MOOC the midnight bell”

by David Kernohan September 18, 2012

Quietly, imperceptibly, educational technology has become big money. A perception, fed by rising tuition fees and concerns about student satisfaction, that HE is not fit for purpose has transformed into a business opportunity so massive that even Rupert Murdoch is getting on board. When, in February of this year, Global Industry Analysts Inc suggested that e-learning would be a $107bn global market in 2015 (a little under half of the current UK national deficit), they were examining a sector that seems far from the “cottage industry” derided by Sir John Daniel (Commonwealth of Learning) in 2010.

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Five questions about students as partners

by Rachel Wenstone September 13, 2012

The idea of students as active participants in learning has led to numerous projects designed to support students to contribute to shaping their course delivery and content, anything from independent study modules to students working with course leaders to shape their curriculum. All these things are good, interesting, valuable projects, but are they partnership? Are we in danger of adopting the language of partnership, or applying the ideas of partnership to specific one-off schemes and projects, while missing its transformational implication?

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