BU Research Blog

Monday

Higher Education Academy

The HEA has withdrawn its current plans to significantly increase its subscription fees after they were rejected by vice-chancellors. HEA halts plan to hike university subscription fees (THE).

Tuesday

Employment

According to the latest Graduate Market Trends report, employment rate for master’s students has significantly risen for the first time since the recession. Graduate jobs outlook improves for those with a master’s (THE).

Wednesday

Inequality

Former York Chancellor has said that leading universities should lower entry requirements for students from poor backgrounds. Greg Dyke – ‘total cop-out’ to blame access inequality on schools (THE).

Thursday

Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn is still keen that his goal to scrap tuition fees will become Labour Party policy, but acknowledges that it will take “serious debate within the party to achieve” and that he is “not a dictator” in an interview with the THE. Jeremy Corbyn still wants to scrap fees but is no ‘dictator’ (THE).

New Guidance

Following on from the Prime Minister’s announcement of a new requirement for universities to routinely publish data on the backgrounds of their applicants, new guidance has been issued to the Director of Fair Access (DFA) outlining the priorities for widening access and success for disadvantaged students. You can view details of the guidance here.

Degree Apprenticeships

Sajid Javid, the Business Secretary, has called on all universities to provide degree apprenticeships to raise the quality of what is available Russell Group should introduce degree apprenticeships, says business secretary (Research Professional).

Vice-Chancellor Salary

The University and College Union used Freedom of Information requests to reveal vice-chancellor’s pay packages and expenses. University bosses’ pay ‘inflation-busting’ (BBC News).

Friday

Ucas

Ucas has said that it is in talks to open up access to more of its data, after the admissions service was branded a “barrier” to gathering better information on disadvantaged students by the president of Universities UK. Ucas a ‘barrier’ to better data on access, says UUK president (THE).  

Student Loans

As part of the new strategy designed to help recoup more of the £457 million portion of the UK student loan book that is held by non-paying or “unverified” borrowers who live overseas, the UK and Australian governments are set to share data on expatriate graduates to improve student debt collection. UK and Australia set to collaborate on student loan repayment (THE).

Gender Pay Gap

Companies with over 250 employees will be forced to reveal their pay gap under new plans. Firms forced to reveal gender pay gap (BBC News).

The centre for sport and event research is running two studies looking at performance of dart throwing or working memory in competitive  environments. From the 15th to the 19th of February the research team is running an exclusive research week where these studies will run all day every day! So why not sign yourself up and have a go! The only inclusion criteria is that you are actively competing in sport.

If you are interested please contact Emma Mosley: emma.mosley@bournemouth.ac.uk. 

Back in September 2015, Dr Helen Bolderston and I from the Department of Psychology, were awarded a Fusion Investment Fund award to examine social cognition and visual attention in people with autistic spectrum disorders and borderline personality disorder.

The study is now well under way and we are seeking participants between the ages of 18- 50 years with an autistic spectrum disorder to take part. Students and staff with such a diagnosis would be most welcome to be involved. It should go without saying that participation is confidential and responses are anonymous. The sessions take around 1.5 hours to complete and we can reimburse your local travel expenses if required. We are also always on the look out for “neurotypical” control participants too, particularly  men!

The study uses eye tracking technology to record where participants look on a computer screen whilst they watch a series of social scenarios. Afterwards, we ask participants questions about what happened in the scenes. There a several additional tasks which form part of the study which include questionnaires about social and communication skills and some verbal and non-verbal reasoning tasks.

Anyone interested in taking part should contact me, Dr Nicola Gregory, at ngregory@bournemouth.ac.uk

Writing for the Alternative Democracy Research website Jan Blommaert offers a very interesting and controversial perspective on bid writing. His claim is that it is large a waste of time and public money. His case relates to his participation in a Horizon 2020 bid consortium, the production of the bid he estimates having taken hundreds of man hours, but the stream could only fund two projects. The fact that 147 were submitted meant that independent of quality 145 of which could be deemed excellent but could not be funded.

One might consider this argument as sour grapes on the part of a member of a team whose project was deemed excellent but could not be funded. But there is a serious point here. If the hours taken up by bid writing were re-channelled, would more valuable research be done. In other words if the 100+ hours of manpower devoted to writing bids were monetized would this be seen as an ineffective way to expend resources and instead the funds were used to support actual data gathering. It is an interesting thought. Much research entered into the REF in the UK is deemed excellent, what percentage of that is funded research is unknown. If research does not have to be funded to be excellent, and if bid writing detracts from research in order to meet arbitrary targets is this a misallocation of valuable resources. This argument may be particular prescient for social science where funding is less available yet no less important.

The thought here is whether academics explore ways to minimize costs of research that still answer important research questions rather than constantly seeking funding. It is a thought.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, Margaret Hogg, Professor of Consumer Behaviour and Marketing at Lancaster University, will not be able to present her research as planned on Wednesday, 10th February, at 3pm on the Talbot Campus. We hope to rearrange at a later date.

RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2016: Nexus Thinking
London, 30th August – 2nd September 2016

CFP: Geographies of Religion and Spirituality: Beyond the ‘officially’ sacred

Session Convenor(s):
Jaeyeon Choe (Bournemouth University, UK)
Michael Di Giovine (West Chester University, US)
Michael Hitchcock (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
Michael O’ Regan (Bournemouth University, UK)

Religious spaces facilitate not only historical and traditional rituals and practices, but also social activities such as festivals, games, feasts, travel, sports as well as weddings and funerals (Chick, 1991). In greater and complex societies, religion has become secularized as religious options, personal choice and quests outweigh religious obligation (Graburn, 1983; Possamai, 2000; Turner & Turner, 1978). There has, for example, been increased participation in spiritual activities among tourists at pilgrimage sites (Timothy & Olsen, 2006). Whilst many of people at the sites are motivated by devotion, a large number of sites are shared by tourists and touristic processes. Indeed, many pilgrimage sites have often themselves become secularized (Di Giovine & Picard, 2015). Thus, the distinction between pilgrims and secular tourists has been diminishing, and “not only pilgrims not be easily separated out from secular tourists in this (post-) modern and ‘post-traditional’ age wherein sacrality is often divorced from pure religion” (D’Agostino & Vespasiano, 2000, p. 5). Pilgrims often “share many of the physical infrastructures and service providers as secular travelers…pilgrimage trails and destinations have been given new life through modern, secular tourism” (Di Giovine, 2011, p. 249). As such, pilgrims and tourists exist on a continuum of sacredness and secularity (Smith, 1992), and the distinction between tourism/pilgrimage, tourist/pilgrim, and secular/sacred is rather complex.

While there have been ongoing discussions about categorizing ‘pilgrims’ and/or ‘tourists,’ it is still challenging despite frequent attempts (Afferni, Ferrario & Mangano, 2011; Collins-Kreiner & Gatrell, 2006; Di Giovine, 2011; Poira, Butler & Airey, 2003; Sharpley, 2009). This panel session aims to recognize how religious spaces are central to the lives of pilgrims, and how these religious spaces have meanings to tourists. This panel also seeks to explore discourses on how the two groups experience, interpret, co-exist and perform religious space. Beyond the ‘officially sacred,’ this panel will explore the meanings of religious space to pilgrims and tourists so as to provide a blueprint for how work in the geography of religion and the field of religious tourism may move forward (Brace et al, 2006). We are inviting contributors with papers in the following areas (but not limited to):

– Pilgrim culture
– Pilgrimage and ritual
– Intersection of pilgrimage and heritage
– Pilgrimage and nationalism
– Popular vs. authorized pilgrimage movements
– Religious (space) tourism management
– Pilgrimage trails and destinations
– Trends/Motivations of spiritual tourists
– Conflicts between pilgrims and tourists at pilgrimage sites
– Religious/spiritual tourism and sustainability
– Religious tourism and regional development
– Future directions

Di Giovine, M., & Picard, D. (2015). The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Sacred Journeys Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.

Please submit abstracts to Jaeyeon Choe (jchoe@bournemouth.ac.uk) by 15th February 2016. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and include your contact details.

Please see the following link for more details on the CFP, conference and registration details:

http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm