Tuesday 30 August 2011

Fwd: Free Workshop: Transforming Students through Peer Assessment and Authentic Practice




Free Workshop: Transforming Students through Peer Assessment and Authentic Practice

As part of the HEA Seminar Series on Assessment and Feedback, Northumbria University is holding a workshop entitled "Transforming Students through Peer Assessment and Authentic Practice" on Thursday 8 September from 10.30 – 12.30 at its city campus in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Information about the event:

This free workshop provides the opportunity for participants to consider how they can provide authentic assessment and involve students as peers and mentors in the assessment process within their own discipline areas. It draws on three different experiences of assessment practice:-

 

  1. Peer Review for Formative Feedback
  2. Peer Support – a Cross Programme Experience
  3. Authentic Assessment: From Learners to Practitioners.

 

For further information, visit http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2011/jointevents/Seminars/08_Sep_Northumbria_Assessment_Seminar

Presenters: Dr Rebecca Strachan, Dr Christopher Laing and Dr Alison Pickard

 

For bookings: Please email bookings to Janice McLeod, Email: Janice.mcleod@northumbria.ac.uk, Contact Tel: 0191 227 4750

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David Andrew,
Head of Academic Practice
 



The Learning Institute at Queen Mary, University of London

Mile End, London E1 4NS



02078822803

02081446753

 Book an appointment with me at http://doodle.com/DavidAndrew





Fwd: SRHE Student Experience Seminar: What is the student experience? 21/10/11 London



 

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SRHE Student Experience Network

 

Friday 21st October 2011

Registration 11.00am – 11.30am

Seminar 11.30am – 4.30pm

SRHE,  London.

 

 

What is the student experience?

 

 

In light of the changes to Higher Education in the UK and in Europe, this seminar focuses on definition(s) of the 'student experience', asking how they are used to frame, discuss and package HE. With input from the NUS and the European Students' Union, this seminar examines the concept in the discourse on HE and projects its relevance to the future.

 

 

The impact of national context on student experience.

A comparison of France, Sweden and the UK.

Nicolas Charles, University of Bordeaux

 

Nicolas Charles is a doctoral student in sociology at the Centre Emile Durkheim (University of Bordeaux, France). Focusing on justice in higher education, he compares student experience, HEIs and social representations of HE in France, Sweden and the UK.

 

Abstract

 

In the UK, the 'student experience' represents more than a sole research concept; it is a widespread notion among higher education institutions and students. The student experience has however taken a specific meaning in the UK context, far beyond its broad sense of a relation of a student to their studies. Based on a comparison of France, Sweden and the UK, this presentation will draw on a combined analysis of student practices and representations, institutional organisation at particular universities and national policy contexts. If the student experience remains heterogeneous in each country, my material suggests that strong national patterns in higher education which translate into very diverse student experiences. This discussion thus frames a more global picture of the many ways students can relate to their studies, and the specific issues they consequently face.

 

 

Student Charters: formalising consumption?

Joanna Williams, University of Kent

 

Joanna Williams lectures in higher education and academic practice at the University of Kent.  She is interested in the impact of government policies upon education in general and higher education in particular.  Joanna's PhD used techniques of critical discourse analysis to explore New Labour's policies for promoting social inclusion within post-compulsory education.  More recently Joanna has been writing about the transformation of students into consumers of HE and the effect this has upon what it means to be a student, attitudes to learning and relationships with lecturers.

 

Abstract

 

The 2011 White Paper 'Students at the Heart of the System' states the government's intention that 'each institution should have a student charter ... to set out the mutual expectations of universities and students' (p. 33).  There is an assumption behind the call for charters that students are to be considered as vulnerable consumers in need of formalised protection from institutions that may provide a poor service in return for the students' money.  Through an analysis of the Student Charter Group Final Report (January 2011), other recent higher education policy documents, contracts and charters already in use by institutions, as well as interviews with students, this paper questions whether the student experience is enriched by the use of such agreements.  Is it in the best interests of all students for their University experience to be increasingly contractualised, regulated and uniform?

 

 

What's wrong with 'the student experience'?

The politics of student voice and public information.

Duna Sabri, King's College London

 

Duna Sabri is Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Policy, King's College, London and an independent researcher.  Her research interests are in the sociology of higher education, pedagogy, institutional and (inter)national policy relating to HE, and the use of social theory in empirical research.

 

Since  completing her D Phil at the University of Oxford's Department of Educational Studies in 2007 on the assumptive worlds of academics and policymakers, she has undertaken a range of commissioned institutional research projects on topics such as students' departure and persistence in HE, assessment practices, and the social and political functions of students' evaluations of teaching, with a particular focus on the NSS.  Her publications have included the theoretical development of the concept of assumptive worlds, and analyses of the policy discourses that relate to academics and students.

 

Abstract

 

This paper gives an account of the 'production, accumulation, circulation and functioning' (Foucault 1994:31) of a discourse that surrounds 'the student experience'.  Following Fairclough (2003) I explore how 'the student experience' has come to prominence in key policy texts.  I attempt to explain how it acquired such salience in the sector as a whole, and what work it does in sustaining and developing the market-oriented disciplining of higher education.  In the UK, but less so elsewhere in Europe, 'the student experience' has become a mantra, apparently used to give students 'a voice' and at the same time constraining that voice by isolating it from other voices around it, and from the complex environment that enables us meaningfully to interpret those voices. 

 

The role of Student Evaluations of Teaching (SET) in structuring 'the student experience' is explored. Moving away from questions of statistical reliability and validity, I take SET results as social objects in their own right.  Using the framework of analysis proposed by de Santos (2009) of statistics as fact-totems, I explore the production and consumption of the results of the UK National Student Survey (NSS): the convergence of the public gaze upon them, their articulation with identity narratives, and capacity to provoke drama, anxieties of anticipation and emotion.  The paper draws on a pilot study that demonstrates how the consumption of NSS results through league tables has had the effect of defining 'problems', redistributing resources and transforming higher education work in ways that ultimately impoverish the higher education experiences of students.

 

 

Panel members

 

Allan Päll

Chairperson of the European Students' Union

 

Allan Päll is a political science student from Estonia and the Chairperson of the European Students' Union (ESU) since July 2011, having previously been Vice-Chairperson. He has previously in 2007-09 led social policy and student financing policy and research in the Federation of Estonian Student Unions (EÜL) and has also been closely involved in the EUROSTUDENT project in Estonia. Before being elected Chairperson, he has been coordinating the work of ESU on EU policies and Quality Assurance and has been leading ESU's project "Quest for Quality for Students" which looks into information provision and aims to build a quality concept from the students' perspective.

 

Graeme Wise

Assistant Director (Policy), National Students' Union

 

Graeme is responsible for supporting the elected officers in political policy development. He is the author of many of NUS priority campaign publications including 'Broke and Broken' and the 'NUS Blueprint for HE Funding'. He also leads on NUS Widening Participation work and is supporting the National President in the development of work around student charters with Universities UK.

 

 

Event booking details

To reserve a place at this seminar please register at http://www.eventdotorg.co.uk/events.asp or telephone +44 (0) 207 4472525.   SRHE events are open to all and free to SRHE members as part of their membership package. The delegate fee for non-members is £25 [full time students £20]. Non members wishing to join the Society may do so at the time of registration and the delegate fee will be waived. Please note that places must be booked in advance and that a £25 for non attendance will  be charged if a place has been reserved but no notice of cancellation/non attendance has been given in advance.

 

Interested in joining the Network-but not able to attend this event? To receive details of future events in this series and to join the mailing list, please email nmanches@srhe.ac.uk

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Francois Smit

Society for Research into Higher Education

44 Bedford Row

London WC1R 4LL

tel: +44 20 7447 2525

fax: +44 20 7447 2526

 



David Andrew,
Head of Academic Practice
 



The Learning Institute at Queen Mary, University of London

Mile End, London E1 4NS



02078822803

02081446753

 Book an appointment with me at http://doodle.com/DavidAndrew





Wednesday 17 August 2011

Fwd: Correction: OECD-IMHE General Conference 2012 - Call for Contributions




EDUIMHE_2010_uk

IMHE General Conference 2012

Call for Contributions

 

The OECD Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) has launched a call for contributions for its General Conference: Maintaining and Sustaining Mass Higher Education, 17-19 September 2012.

 

This internationally renowned event will take place in the prestigious setting of the OECD headquarters in Paris. It constitutes a unique opportunity for policy makers, institutional managers, civil society representatives and academic researchers to be part of a showcase for a high level audience (CEOs, ministers, rectors, etc.).

 

The Conference will focus on the challenges of attaining and sustaining mass higher education, in an increasingly competitive and international context.

 

To contribute to the call go to www.oecd.org/edu/imhe/generalconference.

 

Deadline for proposals: 1 December 2011.

 

Please:

·        forward this announcement to your colleagues

·        post it on your website

·        advertise it in your newsletter

OECD_globe_10cm

For further questions, please contact: imhe@oecd.org

 

 

 


Fwd: SRHE/UALL The Ethics of Widening Participation seminar series





UALL Widening Participation and Social Inclusion Network

Convenor: Annette Hayton, Head of Widening Participation, Goldsmiths, University of London

SRHE: Access and Widening Participation Network

Convenor: Penny-Jane Burke, Roehampton University

 

Venue: SRHE, 44 Bedford Way London WC1R 4LL

Date: Thursday 14th July 2011

From 1pm- 4pm (lunch available from 12:30pm)

 

The Ethics of Widening Participation seminar series

 

Ethical dilemmas in widening participation: issues of pedagogy and identity

Dr Jacqueline Stevenson, Leeds Metropolitan

 

For more than a decade various governmental policy initiatives have been implemented in the UK to increase the number of students attending higher education. However, whilst these initiatives have been widely critiqued there has been almost no consideration as to the ethical implications of widening participation. This is a significant omission since both WP policy and practice give rise to serious ethical concerns, not least being whether we should continue to increase access to HE at all knowing that many widening participation students are more likely to drop out, get worse degrees, graduate with higher levels of debt and be less employable post-graduation than their peers. Drawing on issues of pedagogy, student support and both staff and student identities, this presentation will act as a 'think-piece' offering an opportunity to consider the implications of widening participation from both an 'ethics of justice' and 'ethics of care' perspective. 

 

Widening Participation and the Capability Approach

Dr Michael F. Watts, University of Cambridge

 

This paper uses the capability approach to address the ethics of the widening participation agenda.  The capability approach de-emphasises the significance of commodities (including educational commodities) in favour of the opportunities they enable in pursuit of the good life.  It demands a context-based understanding of how the socio-cultural circumstances of young people influence the real opportunities they have to recognise the value of and engage with higher education.  This more nuanced engagement with the concept of well-being recognises that the inevitability of human diversity generates different realisations of the good life.  It also enables engagement with the adaptation of preferences that continue to bedevil attempts to increase access to higher education.  The focus on freedom, illustrated here with reference to a number of empirical studies, frames a more just approach to widening participation that is concerned with what young people have rather than what they lack. 

 

 

Event booking details

To reserve a place at this seminar please email Nicola Manches at nmanches@srhe.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0) 207 4472525.   Please include the name of your institution and whether you are an SRHE or UALL member.

 

Cost:

SRHE members: free

UALL members: £25

All Non members: £40

 

Payment can be made by cheque (made payable SRHE and sent to SRHE, 44 Bedford Way London WC1R 4LL ) or phone through with credit card details.  Please note that places must be booked in advance and that a £25 for non attendance if a place has been reserved but no notice of cancellation/non attendance given by 7 July 2011.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Francois Smit

Society for Research into Higher Education

44 Bedford Row

London WC1R 4LL

tel: +44 20 7447 2525

fax: +44 20 7447 2526

 



David Andrew,
Head of Academic Practice
 



The Learning Institute at Queen Mary, University of London

Mile End, London E1 4NS



02078822803

02081446753

 Book an appointment with me at http://doodle.com/DavidAndrew