By . MOOCs are an interesting and useful development, but they have settled into a niche for continuing education and corporate training rather than disrupting the current system. More...By . Even though institutions are currently in the process of collecting and returning data for the 2019 survey of online learning in Canadian post-secondary institutions, we (the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association) are still working through some of the 2018 data. More...By . The short (13 pages) paper by Lomas and Ashburn is required reading for AVP’s Teaching and Learning and for Directors of Online Learning programs. Although clearly focused on the USA, it is also directly relevant here in Canada. More...
The HEPI / Advance HE 2019 Student Academic Survey Survey shows nearly all students think it is sometimes right for universities to contact parents or guardians about mental ill-health, especially in ‘extreme circumstances’. Only 18% reject the idea. More...
At the start of the Augar Review, the panel set out their eight guiding principles. Number four is:
“The cost of post-18 education should be shared between taxpayers, employers and learners.”
I agree, but, it seems, the panel itself didn’t. Reading the Review – which is in many ways a fine and thoughtful document – among its fifty mostly welcome recommendations, I cannot find a single one about how employers should share the cost. More...
It took its time but finally the Augar Review has landed. And for the Further Education (FE) sector there is much to celebrate. The review is clear. Enough is enough. No more Cinderella sector. If the UK wants to resolve the skills element of its productivity conundrum then the FE sector needs to be rapidly recapitalised, its workforce upskilled, its status upgraded and the regulatory system rebooted in order to deal with, what Augar describes, as the ‘missing middle’ of level 4 and 5 technical qualifications. More...
The backdrop was the recent publication of the Augar review and the enormous current political uncertainty. One theme that shone through was the need for universities, as autonomous institutions, to set their own weather as much as they can. More...
I went recently to see the play Admissions, by Joshua Harmon at the Trafalgar Studio in London. Colleagues in the sector had told me how relevant and thought provoking it was, especially in the current times where access and participation is said to be a high priority. The play was about a liberal Head of Admissions at private school fighting to diversify the student population at her school, however, her values were conflicted when her son was deferred for the university of his choice, whist his mixed-race best friend who ‘ticks more than one box’ was accepted. More...
I have never cheered out loud when reading a review of higher education funding before. But I did last week, when I came to a diagram on page 44 of the Augar Review of Post-18 Education and Funding. It shows how five different people might drop in and out of education as an adult, using a proposed lifelong learning loan allowance. More...
It would be a great pity if the bulk of the Augar review were to be rejected as a result of criticism of its headline recommendations on student fees, or completely lost in the general hubbub generated by the Conservative leadership race. While the concern expressed in the report about the paucity of learners qualified in higher technical qualifications is not new, the fact that the report has so much to say on this subject is to be welcomed. More...
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