01 juin 2013
Questioning Leadership in Higher Education
Questioning Leadership in Higher Education - Thursday 6th June 2013, 14.00 – 16.30, Room 1.21, Graduate School of Education, 35 Berkeley Square, University of Bristol. Booking: To book a place or for further information, please contact: Richard Budd Richard.Budd@bristol.ac.uk. Places are limited so booking is essential. This event is sponsored by the Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) VC Initiative, University of Bristol and involves collaboration with The Community for Research in Higher Education (CHER), Hong Kong (led by Professor Bruce Macfarlane) and The SRHE SouthWest Higher Education Network (SWHE), UK (led by Dr Lisa Lucas). What is Academic Leadership? Reflections on identity, influence and change in UK higher education
Abstract: Recent trends in higher education, such as increasing participation rates, internationalisation, funding, policy and market competition, have challenged traditional assumptions on the nature and purpose of HE and its place in society. Throughout this period, it has been argued, there has been a general shift away from ‘collegial’ towards more ‘corporate’, ‘entrepreneurial’ or ‘managerial’ approaches to leadership and management informed by private sector practices. Whilst a ‘business like’ approach to running universities may be understandable given the size and budgets of these organisations and the competitive environment in which they operate, the utilitarian ethos that underpins such an approach may be experienced as conflicting with the normative values traditionally associated with academic work. To this extent emerging forms of leadership and management practice may be experienced as conflicting with ideals of collegiality, academic freedom, education and scholarship, ultimately distancing and disengaging the very people that universities seek to influence and involve in institutional governance, strategy and change. Read more...
Up against barriers: Examining disadvantage and accessibility in the international academy
Up against barriers: Examining disadvantage and accessibility in the international academy
Widening access to higher education involves much more than consideration of how to recruit more under-represented constituencies into the student body and work to ensure their success; it involves breaking down all kinds of barriers to equality of opportunity and provision – some of which remain unrecognised. Representing six different national contexts, this seminar highlights three cases that demonstrate the inequitable accessibility of the international academy stemming from barriers created or magnified by culturally- or geographically-influenced disadvantage. Read more...
Public Engagement – what’s in it for PGRs and HEIs?
The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and the SRHE, Postgraduate Issues Network are hosting a joint seminar to explore the impact of public engagement on Postgraduate Researchers and their institutions. 19th June 2013, 13:00 – 16:00 12.30: Lunch and Registration: SRHE, 73 Collier Street, London N1 9BE
Public Engagement – what’s in it for PGRs and HEIs?
Few would disagree with the widely held view in the Higher Education sector that engaging with the public is good for research as well as the ‘public’, but what is in it for Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs), their supervisors and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)?
Through presentations and group discussion, this seminar will explore and provide insights into public engagement - the challenges and opportunities – from both the postgraduate and the HEI perspective.
Key questions include:
* How does public engagement activity benefit PGRs?
* Should they get involved or does it interfere with their research?
* If HEIs and funders want to encourage more of this activity, what kind of support do they need to provide?
* What do supervisors and institutions get out of this, via their PGRs, and do we need more evidence to support the case for public engagement activity?
Speakers
Dr Andy Jackson, Head of Business Development, the UK Higher Education Academy
Paul Manners, Director of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement
Dr Kath Woods-Townsend, Research Fellow and LifeLab Programme Manager, Southampton Education School, University of Southampton
Julie Worrall, Postgraduate Researcher and Community University Engagement Manager, the University of East Anglia
To be confirmed - Jennifer Chubb, Postgraduate Researcher and Research Innovation Officer, University of York. Read more...
The 'Missing Women' in HE Leadership Conference
The 'Missing Women' in HE Leadership Conference: Lancaster UniversityThis one day conference, hosted by The Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, contributes to current debates within and beyond higher education about 'the missing women at the top'.
A wide range of senior academics and leaders will be speaking on topics including: the work Vice Chancellors are doing in their own institutions to address the issues; the pioneering work of the Equality Challenge Unit; the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education’s work on leadership development diversity; and recent research on leadership and gender.
There will be opportunities to discuss the themes that arise during the day, and an emphasis on how we can work together to bring about change. Read more...
HEA seminar on the links between research and teaching in HE
Professor Simon Haslett will present the next event in the HEA’s research and policy seminar series.
Professor Haslett, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Wales, will be Exploring Links between Research and Teaching in Higher Education at the seminar on Tuesday 11 June.
His seminar will discuss the relationships between scholarship, research and curriculum as well as look at the current challenges to forging and maintaining research-teaching links.
Professor Haslett was previously the Director of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the University of Wales, Newport and throughout his career he has taught on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. He has published more than 130 academic books and articles and has been involved in television documentaries including the BBC2 series Coast. The free event starts at 12:45 with a buffet lunch from 12:00. It is also available to watch online. Please click here to book a place on the seminar, either online or in person.
Future Directions conference promotes skills for employment in university courses
The latest Future Directions conference was an opportunity for academics, careers advisers and university managers to share their experiences about how to make the sort of skills required in employment a fundamental aspect of a student's course - without significantly increasing the workload for undergraduates and their lecturers.The Future Directions for Skills and Employability event on 15 May was jointly organised by HEFCW, QAA Wales and the HEA. The conference also addressed how people already in work could gain higher skills and qualificiations while working.
Martyn Flynn, a talent aquisition manager for the second largest graduate recruiter in the UK, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, said: "By helping universities put crucial transferrable skills at the heart of their students' courses, we are giving our future graduate trainees the edge that they need to compete in the tough recruitment market. Read more...
HEA Annual Conference
HEA Annual Conference, 3-4 July 2013, The University of Warwick - Powerful partnerships: defining the learning experience. Conference Park - Warwick Conferences, The University of Warwick, Gibbett Hill Road, Coventry. Bookings now open. Provisional programme now available.
Building on last year’s successful conference, which examined the transformational change in HE, this year the 9th Annual Conference of the Higher Education Academy, Powerful partnerships: defining the learning experience, will explore the increasing use of partnerships to address the challenges presented by change. In this uncertain environment, higher education is investing in partnerships, both within the UK and internationally, to develop new avenues and markets, drawing on the vibrancy and unique strengths of each partner.
These partnerships are multifaceted and we address this at the conference within three strands: students; employers; and organisations as partners. This conference will develop our understanding of how such partnerships affect the student experience and educational outcome, and also benefit society as a whole. While recognising the competitive environment, the conference will discuss and dismantle issues around partnerships to discover how to sustain success through partnerships.
OECD countries commit to action plan to tackle youth joblessness
OECD governments have committed to stepping up their efforts to tackle high youth unemployment and strengthen their education systems to better prepare young people for the world of work. Endorsing the OECD’s Action Plan for Youth at the Organisation’s annual Ministerial Meeting in Paris, ministers underlined the need to focus attention on the most disadvantaged youth, including the low-skilled and immigrants, who are at most risk of long-term unemployment and social exclusion.“Immediate action is needed to stop the crisis further damaging young people’s prospects,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría at the OECD Ministerial Meeting in Paris. “This commitment by OECD countries is encouraging. Governments must strengthen their efforts to promote the creation of jobs for youth, push ahead with their labour market reforms, and improve their education systems to give young people the opportunities they need to succeed.”
The number of young people out of work in the OECD area is nearly a third higher than in 2007 and set to rise still further in most of the countries with already very high unemployment in the months ahead. Youth unemployment rates exceeded 25% in nine OECD countries at the end of the first quarter of 2013, including Ireland, Italy, Portgual, Spain and Greece. Download the latest data. Read more...
La OCDE lanza el Índice para una Vida Mejor 3.0: la satisfacción ante la vida, la salud y la educación son las máximas prioridad
La OCDE ha lanzado hoy la versión 3.0 de su pionero Índice para una Vida Mejor (www.ocdeindicevidamejor.org), una herramienta interactiva en línea que permite a los usuarios medir y comparar sus vidas en todo el mundo. Esta versión actualizada contiene las últimas estadísticas, informaciones nacionales y conclusiones de los usuarios. Por primera vez, está disponible también en español.“Nuestro Índice para una Vida Mejor va más allá de las frías y duras cifras del PIB para intentar entender realmente qué quieren y esperan las personas para sus propias vidas y sus sociedades”, indica Angel Gurría, Secretario General de la OCDE. “Estoy encantado de que sigamos actualizándolo con nueva información y nuevas lenguas, para poder obtener una visión verdaderamente mundial del bienestar”. Read more...
Grade expectations
By Marilyn Achiron. They’re a source of both anxiety and pride, but school marks can also have long-term consequences for students. Most teachers reward student achievement, but also the skills, attitudes, habits and behaviours that are necessary for lifelong learning. However, as this month’s PISA in Focus points out, the tendency of teachers to award higher marks to girls and socio-economically advantaged students than to boys and disadvantaged students – even if they perform equally well in school and have similar positive attitudes towards learning – is cause for some concern.Marks help to promote student learning by informing students about their progress, alerting teachers about their students’ needs, and certifying the degree to which students have mastered the tasks and competencies valued by teachers and schools. Schools and teachers recognise this: more than 95% of students in the countries and economies that participated in PISA 2009 – except Korea – attend a school that measures student achievement through teacher-prepared tests, student portfolios or student projects. In most cases, students receive feedback on these assessments in the form of school marks. Read more...
