The M3 Network welcomes Chris Sawyer, Innovation Lead for Health & Care at Innovate UK, to speak at Bournemouth University on the 30th of May, 2018, 12:00-14:00. This event is an opportunity to gain not only information about Innovate UK and funding opportunities but to discuss the challenges facing health and care technology innovation.
Following the presentation there will be lunch and a facilitated workshop designed to bring forward ideas from academic and industry collaboration.
Academics from the M3 network and those from industry working with health and care technology are encouraged to attend. To book onto this session please e-mail RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk with your name and organisation.
/ Full archive
NIHR Grant Applications Seminar & Support Event – 26 June 2018

Are you planning to submit a grant application to NIHR?
We are holding a one-day event in Bournemouth that is aimed at helping you to improve your chances of success.
The morning seminar session is open to anyone to come and hear Simon Goodwin, RfPB Programme Manager for the South West, and RDS advisers give presentations on what makes a good grant proposal. Topics covered will include:
- what does the NIHR (and in particular RfPB) look for?
- the application as a marketing document: selling the topic, selling the method, and selling the team
- the team
- clarity of description and explanation
- feasibility issues
- identifying and avoiding potential pitfalls.
The afternoon support session of one-to-one appointments is for those who would like to discuss their own proposal with an RDS adviser.
This event is FREE and refreshments and lunch will be provided. Places are limited and will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. In order to secure your place please register using our online form by 1pm, 18 June 2018. Find out more.
And don’t forget, your local branch of the NIHR Research Design Service is based within the BU Clinical Research Unit (BUCRU) on the 5th floor of Royal London House. Feel free to pop in and see us, call us on 61939 or send us an email.
Modelling the ageing kidney.
We all get old. Whilst this can be graceful, it’s often associated with an increased incidence of physiological complications. Loss of kidney function in ageing may be mitigated against if we could identify changes at the earliest opportunity. However, studying this process in humans at a molecular and cellular level is extremely difficult, so model organisms are required.
British Heart Foundation funded research conducted at BU and led by Dr Paul Hartley has recently contributed to this field by looking at how fruit fly nephrocytes grow old. These cells, despite millions of years of evolution, share the same ‘filtration genes’ as human kidney cells called podocytes.
The research indicates that fruit fly nephrocytes grow old in a manner similar to podocytes and other kidney cells. This now sets the stage for future work aiming to identify biomarkers of failing kidneys.
The image shows different filtration proteins (denoted by different colours) on young (1 week) and old (6 week) nephrocytes. As the cells age, these filtration proteins are no longer maintained (arrow and asterisk) and the cells lose function. Scale bar = 25 microns.
Doctoral College: Researcher Development Programme
The Doctoral College would like to present the May monthly update.
This monthly update is for PGRs and their supervisors to outline upcoming research skills and development opportunities including events, workshops and networking opportunities supported by the Doctoral College. In this update we would like to promote the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT®) event, the Researcher Development Programme for May (which includes expert sessions) and the PGR and Supervisor BBQ.
The deadline for 3MT applications is fast approaching and will close at midnight on Sunday 20th May 2018. Submit completed application forms to PGRskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk by the deadline to be considered for the Bournemouth University Competition taking place on Thursday 7 June 2018. Look out for free tickets to attend the event, support your colleagues and cheer on your Doctoral School. Find out more on the Researcher Development Hub.
We are also very happy to announce that the 1st Doctoral College PGR and Supervisor beach BBQ will take place on 27th June 2018. To purchase your BBQ ticket for £5 please come to the Doctoral College (Talbot Campus, DG02).
These exciting development opportunities are taking place now so check out our application processes and booking information to advance your current skills, knowledge and networks.
Don’t forget to check out the Doctoral College Facebook page.
Enhance your Impact in Preparation for the REF
The Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO) through the Research & Knowledge Exchange Development Framework (RKEDF) has a number of workshops in the coming months to assist you in developing and enhancing the impact that you can make with your research, with particular reference to the REF.
- Wednesday 2nd May 2018 – Developing impact case studies for your REF panel: the good, bad, and ugly Panel D (UoAs 25 – 34 only) – 2.5 hour session (1.30pm – 4pm) Talbot
- Wednesday 16th May 2018 – Introducing and evidencing research impact: the basics – 2 hour session (2pm – 4pm) Talbot
- Friday 18th May 2018 – Preparing impact case studies for the REF: Developing a REF case – 3 hour session (1pm – 4pm) Talbot (this workshop will be repeated on 24/07/18)
Please follow the links above to find out more and to book. You will then receive a meeting request giving the room location. Many of these events have input from external presenters; please ensure that you are in the room and ready to commence at the given start time.
If you would like to discuss impact outside these workshops, please contact the RKEO Knowledge and Impact Team.
Research Professional – all you need to know
Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.
Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.
Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.
User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.
Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.
In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional
Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:
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Self registration and logging in
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Building searches
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Setting personalised alerts
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Saving and bookmarking items
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Subscribing to news alerts
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Configuring your personal profile
Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:
These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.
Have you noticed a new box appear on the BU Research Blog homepage?
By clicking on this box, on the left of the Research Blog home page just under the text ‘Funding Opportunities‘, you access a Research Professional real-time search of the calls announced by the Major UK Funders. Use this feature to stay up to date with funding calls. Please note that you will have to be on campus or connecting to your desktop via our VPN to fully access this service.
CEMP research at UCL seminars

CEMP researchers Mark Readman and Julian McDougall have both presented their work at recent UCL Institute of Education seminars, hosted by the UCL Knowledge Lab.
In A Magical Noun: thinking critically about creativity, Mark Readman explored the ways in which the concept of creativity is socially constructed, mobilised and mythologised.
In Digital Media, Education and Culture: Theorising Third Space Literacies, Julian McDougall and UCL’s John Potter explored the use of some key terms employed in their recent work, including Dynamic Literacies as a way of framing all ‘literacy’ and Third Spaces as a way of conceiving its locations and possibilities for shared meanings.
Video recordings of the full seminars are available via the links above.
The UCL seminar series is hosted by CEMP PHD graduate Michelle Cannon.
Responsible Project Management in Bangladesh
A multi-disciplinary team led by academics from the Business School have been awarded part of BU’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to conduct research on Responsible Project Management (RPM) in the context of the ‘Rohingya crisis’ in Bangladesh.
“New knowledge about project management will be developed by studying and sharing understandings in the context of a human and environmental crisis, with particular emphasis on the competencies required to successfully engage diverse stakeholders” explains Dr Karen Thompson, from the Department of Leadership, Strategy and Organisations (LSO).

Dr Nigel Williams, Senior Lecturer in the LSO Department, elaborates, “Project management is often presented as an instrumental sequence of activities with defined outcomes. However, the reality of project practice involves uncertainty, ambiguity and complex human interactions with unpredictable outcomes. These challenges vary by context and particularly in developing countries which may be recovering from natural or man-made disaster, the rational/instrumental perspective of project management may be of little value.”

Bangladesh faces a large scale human disaster and is a country already highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of natural disasters due to its geographical location, flat and low-lying landscape and population density. Refugees arriving from neighbouring Myanmar are living in “an extremely precarious situation” (MSF 2018), and creating serious economic, social and environmental challenges. The economic impact of Rohingya refugees on the Bangladesh economy was already the subject of investigation by Dr Mehdi Chowdhury, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Business School, who is a former resident of Bangladesh and joins the team.
Tilak Ginige, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law, Faculty of Science and Technology, completes the team and has previously worked in the field of asylum immigration law.

The project will be funded for two years and will bring together the two disciplines of project management and responsible management. Empirical research in Bangladesh will be complimented by a collective social learning process with stakeholders to jointly frame and define problems, determine boundaries and intra team interactions. Outcomes are expected to improve the management of projects in Bangladesh and to develop new understandings, practices and sustainable relationships. New knowledge will have the potential to improve the management of projects and stakeholder engagement in other developing countries and projects where sustainable development is a priority.
For further information please contact Dr Mehdi Chowdhury mchowdhury@bournemouth.ac.uk
MSF 2018. Rohingya Refugee Crisis. Available online at: https://www.msf.org.uk/issues/rohingya-refugee-crisis?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrd6skYCP2gIVyZkbCh2BKAwZEAAYASAAEgLEOPD [Accessed 29 April 2018]
Photographs courtesy of Mohammad Romel
“Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint” (Banksy)
On the 10th April 2018, Dr Ben Hicks (Psychology Lecturer and ADRC) presented on the graffiti work that was undertaken at the Brooke Mead assisted living facility in Brighton. The event was used to mark the opening of Brooke Mead, a facility with 45 self-contained flats for people with dementia and their care partners, and was attended by the Brighton Mayor and local councillors.
Over the past month, as part of a British Psychological Society funded project, Ben has worked with Dr Shanti Shanker (Psychology Lecturer), Angela El-Zeind (Graffiti Artist) and James Skinner (documentary film maker) to deliver a series of graffiti workshops to residents of Brooke Mead who are living with dementia. The workshops focussed on exploring participants’ sense of ‘self’ and identity since the on-set of dementia and their transition into a new environment. As part of this, they were encouraged to ‘get creative’ by crafting their own stencils, developing their own ‘tag’ (a symbol that is personal to them) and expressing their message on a canvass board using spray cans. A short film documenting the workshops was created as part of the project and was premiered at the opening alongside the residents’ art work.
The art work was warmly received by those attending the event, and informal discussions highlighted the potential that graffiti has for providing a creative platform whereby people with dementia can challenge negative public perceptions of their capabilities. As Brooke Mead continues to fill its rooms with local Brighton residents, they are keen for further graffiti workshops to take place. Boosted by these positive findings, the researchers will use this preliminary data alongside the short film to seek funding for a more substantial project that will examine how graffiti arts can be used as a medium to support identity and social inclusion in people with dementia.
For more details on Brooke Mead please visit: https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/press-release/brooke-mead-extra-care-housing-scheme-opens

Ben with a local artist in residence
New edited Handbook published by Dr Samuel Nyman, The Palgrave Handbook of Ageing and Physical Activity Promotion
NIHR Career Development Fellow, Dr Samuel Nyman (Dept. Psychology and Ageing & Dementia Research Centre), is the lead editor of a newly published Handbook.
It is published as an eBook and hardback (https://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319712901), and a copy will be available in the BU library in the near future.
A summary of the book is below:
The Palgrave Handbook of Ageing and Physical Activity Promotion
- Presents an ambitious, highly original and very timely addition to the social gerontology canon
- Offers a broad expertise across social science and health science, with a strong mix of senior scholars and early career academics
- Discusses critically the global issue of an ageing population
The ageing of our population is a key societal issue across the globe. Although people are living longer, they need to be living longer in good health to continue to enjoy quality of life and independence and to prevent rises in health and social care costs. This timely and groundbreaking volume will provide an up-to-date overview of the factors that promote physical activity in later life. Despite advances in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics, sports and exercise science, sociology, health psychology, and public health, knowledge is largely contained within disciplines as reflected in the current provision of academic texts on this subject. To truly address the present and substantial societal challenges of population ageing, a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach is required. This handbook will inform researchers, students, and practitioners on the current evidence base for what physical activities need to be promoted among older people and how they can be implemented to maximise engagement. This handbook will be an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and students across the social sciences.
Would you attend a workshop on Writing and Presenting for Non-academic Audiences?
Calling BU’s Early Career Researchers and Post Doc Research Assistants!
RKEO are gauging interest for a proposed externally-facilitated workshop. Please let us know if you would attend a workshop that will:
- Consider the various audiences for your research
- How best to write to engage them
- Increase your the impact for your research outside the academic environment.
Please let us know by Friday, 11th May, via this email. If we have positive replies, we would look to run this one-day event in mid to late June (TBC).
ADRC on the Malnutrition Task Force Board
Professor Jane Murphy from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre (ADRC) has been invited to join the Malnutrition Task Force (MTF) board (http://www.malnutritiontaskforce.org.uk/) as an associate board member to increase the breadth of knowledge and experience of the team. It offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to and shape the work of the MTF work programme and priorities to effectively tackle avoidable malnutrition across our society. Jane is currently undertaking funded work as Clinical Lead for the ‘Nutrition in Older People Programme’ with the Wessex Academic Health Science Network.
The MTF is an independent group of experts across health, social care, local government and industry united to address avoidable and preventable malnutrition in older people. Age UK provide the Chair and Secretariat. Jane attended the first meeting on 20th April 2018 to start the ball rolling!


Political and Policy – News & Publications
Health
Macmillian has published the specialist cancer adult nursing and support workforce census 2017.
The Education Policy Institute has published research on vulnerable children and social care in England.
On Tuesday there is a Westminster Hall debate on safeguarding children and young people in sport, and a Health and Social Care Select Committee examining childhood obesity.
Meindert Boysen has been appointed as Director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation.
On Friday Jeremy Hunt launched a review into the impact of technological advances on the NHS workforce.
On Wednesday there will be an adjournment debate on Mental Health Services
Other topics
Clive Efford has joined the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee as a member. On Wednesday this committee will meet to consider Fake News.
David Clark, Kenny Dey and Nick Terrell have been appointed as members of the Oil & Gas UK Trade Association.
On Tuesday the Education Select Committee will examine Alternative Provision.
On Tuesday the Home Affairs Committee will meet to discuss Policing for the future.
On Wednesday there will be a Westminster Hall debate on reducing plastic waste in the maritime environment.
APPGs
There is a new register of All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG). Check the list to see which fit with your research interests (scroll down past the country groups to the subject groups).
This week the following APPGs will meet: Social Work (on Tuesday), Industrial Heritage (Tuesday), Archaeology (Tuesday), Carers (Wednesday).
Catch up on last week’s policy news here, or email policy@bournemouth.ac.uk to subscribe.
Humanising Care, Health and Wellbeing Conference: 21st & 22nd June
This is our fourth conference and due to huge success in the past years we would like to invite you to take part in this year’s conference which will take on the 21st & 22nd June 2018 at the Executive Business Centre in Lansdowne.
We have developed a philosophically driven approach to caring, health and wellbeing based on Humanising practices. It is based on existential understandings from lifeworld approaches and focuses on what make us feel human. Humanising practices (please click to read more) are those that incorporate fully human knowing and support a sense of connection and wellbeing.
This approach is supported by working practices which encourage connection to personal experience and research approaches which privilege subjective experience and knowing; such as phenomenology, narrative, auto-ethnography, embodied knowing and arts–based approaches.
For more information and tickets please visit:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/humanising-care-health-wellbeing-tickets-45585595744#tickets
Tickets include refreshments and lunch.

HE policy update for the w/e 27th April 2018
HE review deadline approaches – the latest on fees and funding
Thank you to the staff and students who responded to the HE review survey that we ran before and after Easter, we are preparing our response and will use the data from the survey to inform it.
We asked respondents for their top 3 concerns and the top concerns were:
- Funding – 55% of respondents) selected “how students fund their living expenses” and 21% selected “how students contribute to their tuition fees”
- Outcomes: 41% said “whether the system delivers the skills, knowledge and attributes that the country needs” and 26% said “how employable a degree will make me”
- Access and participation: 31% said “ how to widen participation and ensure good outcomes for all students” and 22% said “how the systems works for part-time and/or mature students”
The large proportion of respondents highlighting living costs reflects concerns raised by the NUS, UUK and others about living costs – several respondents raised concerns elsewhere in our survey not just about disadvantaged students in this context but also students whose parents, although assessed to make a contribution to living expenses, in fact do not or cannot do so, and comments were also made that a full loan is sometimes inadequate.
In the meantime:
Parliamentary Question – Maintenance Loan Increase
Q – David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to increase the maintenance loan for students to help prevent them going in to overdrafts.
A – Sam Gyimah:
- The government has announced an increase of 3.2% to the maximum loans for living costs for full-time students starting their courses in the 2018/19 academic year – the highest levels on record. In addition, new students attending honours degree courses (and other level six courses) from academic year 2018/19 on a part-time basis will, for the first time, qualify for loans for living costs.
- The Review of Post-18 Education and Funding will consider how we can provide a joined up system that is accessible to all students. It will consider how learners receive maintenance support, both from government and from universities and colleges. The review will receive input from an expert independent panel who will publish their report at an interim stage, before the government concludes the overall review in early 2019.
Parliamentary Question: Disabled Students’ Allowances
Q – Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the £200 self-contribution that disabled students in higher education must make to access funding for computer equipment, if the Government will make an assessment of the potential merits of the British Assistive Technology Association’s suggestion that the contribution is reviewed and students are able to have that charge added to their student loan.
A – Sam Gyimah:
- Eligible higher education students are able to access maintenance loans, which are paid as a contribution towards a student’s living costs at university. All students require access to a computer so this is now a mainstream cost to participate in higher education, and we believe it is reasonable for any student to fund the purchase of a standard computer for email and word processing purposes from their maintenance support. The cost of a standard computer has been calculated at around £200. Any disabled student recommended a higher-powered computer to run assistive software is funded for any costs in excess of £200. Students are not expected to fund any assistive software or the training to use it. We do not consider it is necessary to provide an additional £200 in the form of a loan, given that this is a cost all students are expected to fund as part of their maintenance.
Graduate Employability
The Graduate Labour Market Statistics (2017) were released this week. Wonkhe provide a short summary of the statistics:
- Graduates continue to earn more than non-graduates (£10,000 more a year, on average), and postgraduates earn more than graduates (around £6000 more). Wages, employment and skilled employment are all rising slowly but surely – and in each case, there is a benefit correlated with higher education. DfE, the minister and Universities UK have all been quick to welcome what reads as a validation of higher study.
- Looking more broadly at a time series shows us that the long slow climb back to 2008 salary expectations is nearly over. And there are a fascinating series of demographic and study characteristic splits – offering us the counter-intuitive finding that graduates with a first class degree, aged between 16 and 64, earn less than their compatriots with a 2:1 or 2:2.
Delve in here for an interactive chart to take a closer look at the detail.
The statistics were covered by the Financial Times in: ‘Graduate premium’ holds steady despite rising student numbers. UUK also describe the statistics in their blog: Employment data reveals added ‘value’ for graduates stating it dispels the myth that there is an oversupply of graduates with worthless degrees. They go on to say:
- Yesterday’s data reveals that both graduates and postgraduates of working age have consistently higher employment rates than those without degrees – 16.4 and 16.6% higher respectively – and both working age and younger graduates and postgraduates are three times more likely than non-graduates to be employed in a highly-skilled job.
Meanwhile Celia Hunt (HE Funding Council Wales) blogs on the limitations of LEO data and why applicants shouldn’t let it be the only influence on their choice of institution. And Paul Greatrix of Nottingham University describes the university which guarantees additional tuition or an entry-level professional position to their unemployed leavers.
OFS blogs
The OfS are blogging about a range of issues – one this week on “Five myths about the NSS”
- “The National Student Survey is 13 this year. Like any teenager it has been through many changes (especially recently), has attracted its share of myths and, perhaps, is rather misunderstood! Some of these myths can be entertaining; others are simply unhelpful and seriously misleading. From a list that could go on, we have come up with a top five to look at.”
There is a different view from Camille Kandiko Howson on Research Professional here.
Widening Participation and Achievement
This week NUS released Class dismissed? The NUS Poverty Commission Report. Shakira Martin (NUS President) blogs for Wonkhe to describe how class and poverty are linked in HE. She aims to smash the barriers both to getting in and getting on. She notes that:
[The poorest students]…pay more directly – like higher interest because they’re more reliant on debt. And they pay indirectly – like higher transport costs because they have to travel longer distances. The impact is to restrict choice, restrict access and increase drop out.
Shakira highlights that even if sufficient money is available to students if the costs continue to rise HE will not remain affordable. Talking on the HE Review she states:
- “even if NUS can secure all the changes we need at a national level, the FE and HE sectors have got to make changes too. We want providers to ensure the cost of participation is fair, by developing strategies to reduce the costs of studying as far as possible, ensure transparency over the costs that remain, and ensure affordable accommodation for low-income students as part of access and participation plans. We need students to be able to access additional support if they need it too. We also want institutions to develop student employment strategies that help students access high quality work while they study and working-class students access to paid internships so they have the same opportunities as their richer peers. And we want better IAG that starts with the perspective of the student”.
In response to the NUS report UUK called for the reinstatement of maintenance grants and more flexible study options. Layla Moran (Lib Dem Education spokesperson) stated:
- As this important report makes clear, the factors driving this inequality are varied and complex, but the government must not shy away from trying to tackle them, including by immediately reinstating maintenance grants and exploring options like individual learning accounts to provide more funding support for people during education and training.
- In a fair and liberal society access to high quality education and training must never be limited by an individual’s background or circumstances, and it should be an absolute priority for the government to address the fundamental unfairness highlighted in this report.
Parliamentary Question: Part time and Flexible Learning
Q – Tulip Siddiq: what steps Government is taking to (a) support people who want to study part-time and (b) encourage flexible learning.
A – Sam Gyimah:
- Studying part-time can bring enormous benefits to the individual, and also to the economy and employers. To enable part-time students meet the full cost of their tuition the government introduced up-front fee loans for the first time in 2012/13. We are further enhancing the student finance package for part-time students by introducing maintenance loans, equivalent to full-time, in 2018/19. We also intend to extend the part-time maintenance loan to eligible students studying distance learning courses in 2019/20, subject to the development of a robust control regime to manage the particular risks and challenges associated with this mode of study.
- Since 2015/16 graduates starting a second honours degree course part-time in engineering, technology or computer science have qualified for fee loans for their course. The government extended this from 2017/18 to graduates starting a second honours degree course part-time in any science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject.
- The government legislated in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 for the Office for Students (OfS) to have regard to part-time study and the OfS has a duty to promote choice and opportunities in the provision of higher education.
- Accelerated degrees allow students to enter the workplace more quickly than a traditional course would permit. We legislated in the Higher Education and Research Act to allow a specific fee cap to be set for accelerated degrees, removing a key barrier to their wider availability. We recently completed a public consultation about the provision of accelerated degree courses, and will respond later this year.
- Transfer between courses and providers can also support flexible learning. The OfS will have a duty to monitor and report on arrangements for student transfer, and a power to facilitate, encourage, or promote awareness of such arrangements.
Parliamentary Question – Access to HE
Q – David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department’s policy is on encouraging working class students to attend university?
A – Sam Gyimah:
- Widening participation to higher education is a priority for this government. It is vital that everyone with the capability to succeed in higher education has the opportunity to benefit from a university education, regardless of background.
- University application rates for 18-year-olds to full-time study remain at record levels, including those from disadvantaged areas. Our first guidance to the Office for Students, asked them to encourage providers to make further progress in ensuring that students from areas of low higher education participation, low household income and/or low socio-economic status, can access, participate and succeed in higher education.
- A new transparency condition will require higher education providers to publish application, offer, acceptance, non-continuation and attainment rates by socio-economic background, gender and ethnicity, which will provide greater transparency and help drive fairness on admissions and outcomes
Racial influence in applications
UCAS are undertaking a full investigation following a journalist’s claims that Black applicants to HE are more likely to have their applications investigated for false or missing information than white applicants. UCAS issued a statement here.
Industrial Strategy: Artificial Intelligence
The Government launched the Artificial Intelligence Industrial Strategy sector deal on Thursday. The deal sets out actions to promote the adoption and use of AI in the UK (recognising the recommendations of the independent review: Growing the AI industry in the UK).
The Government list the following actions they’ll take to support AI:
Support AI innovation to raise productivity:
- Invest up to £20 million in the application of AI in the services sector through the Next Generation Services Industrial Strategy Challenge. This will include a network of Innovation Research Centres and collaborative R&D to develop new applications of AI and data-driven technologies in sectors such as law and insurance5.
- Invest £93 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund into the robotics and AI in extreme environments programme, towards the research and development of robotics and AI technologies for use in industries such as offshore and nuclear energy, space and deep mining, with the aim of supporting safer working practices for people in extreme environments that could prevent potential harm and increase productivity.
- The government will work with academia, the broader research community, industry and end users to integrate AI into future Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund challenges.
Stimulate uptake of AI, including within the public sector:
- Create a £20 million GovTech Fund, supported by a GovTech Catalyst, which will support tech businesses to provide the government with innovative solutions for more efficient public services and stimulate the UK’s growing GovTech sector.
- Raise overall UK R&D intensity by raising total R&D spending across public and private sectors to 2.4% by 2027, and 3% over the longer term.
- Increase in the rate of the R&D Expenditure Credit from 11% to 12% from January 2018.
- Accompanying the deal the Government have reconfirmed their commitment to fund 8,000 computer science secondary school teachers and 1,000 new AL related PhDs by 2025.
A Wonkhe blog discusses the role of universities in the ethical challenges around data and artificial intelligence.
Life Sciences Industrial Strategy report
And while we’re on the Industrial Strategy, the Lords Science and Technology Committee issued a report on Thursday saying the government must do more to implement the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy:
- “The Committee recommends there should be a single body with complete oversight the implementation of the strategy called the Life Sciences Governing Body. The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary and the Health and Social Care Secretary must ensure this Body has the cross-Government backing it needs to do its work.
- The Government has failed to engage the NHS effectively even though the NHS is critical to the delivery of the strategy. As a result, the NHS’s commitment to the strategy has so far been incoherent, uncoordinated and ineffective. It does not currently have the capacity to rise to the challenge of its implementation and current NHS structures stifle innovation.
- The Committee urges the NHS to give greater priority to the uptake and spread of innovation and to rewarding clinicians and managers who make such adoption successful. The Government should explore how it can offer financial incentives to those NHS trusts that adopt and spread proven innovations”..
Duty of care to students
During Tuesday’s Value for Money in HE select committee hearing and at the previous Office for Students Conference Sam Gyimah suggested that HE institutions’ should act as if they are in “loco parentis” to students. During the committee he explained his personal view was that universities had a duty of care to protect students’ wellbeing.
Nick Hillman of HEPI has written about this, suggesting that although the idea goes down badly with universities, there are some things work considering in Are universities in loco parentis? The good old days or the bad old days?
HE debate
Shadow secretary of state for education Angela Rayner presented a Humble Address to annul the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (Consequential, Transitional, Transitory and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2018 (S.I., 2018, No. 245) which granted the Office for Students (OfS) regulatory powers of higher education.
She stressed that the Government had ignored criticism during the development of the Office for Students (OfS), through the passage of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 and the controversial appointment and resignation of Toby Young. During that “shambolic and politicised appointment process” the commissioner for public appointments had “found that the governance code was not followed—itself a breach of the ministerial code,” Rayner stated and asked if the minister would reject this finding or correct the record. The Government had used the appointment process to “pursue a deeply ideological agenda” which was apparent in the Act itself giving the OfS a duty to promote competition in a free market, she continued.
Michael Tomlinson (Con, Mid Dorset and North Poole) quoted Universities UK in saying that “annulment of the statutory instrument is…not in the interest of either universities or students”. Rayner responded that the intention was not actually to annul the Act, the vote was “not about annulling; this is about the Government making sure that legislation is fit for purpose. If the motion is passed tonight, the Government can go away and ensure that the Office for Students is fit for purpose.”
She highlighted “serious failings in the legislation” in the OfS “acting as provider and regulator and a conflict of interest in the regulations”, which led to a long series of questions covering: if small providers would be outside of the regulation of the Office for students; if the OfS had the necessary powers it needed to protect students if a provider failed; why the Government were removing the power of the director of fair access to approve or reject access and participation plans and issues around fines for autonomous student unions in no-platforming.
Chair of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon, stated his support for the OfS as the new regulator and stressed his confidence in its Chair Sir Michael Barber, however, he raised concern “about the lack of further education representatives on the board.” He pressed for the Government to “make it a priority to recruit a serious representative from further education, from the Association of Colleges or elsewhere, into the vacant position on the board” and to appoint a “panel of apprentices alongside the OfS student panel to inform the work and ensure that the views of apprentices are properly listened to.”
SNP spokesperson for education, Carol Monaghan, raised concern around representation of devolved nations at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), whilst they were currently served by Professor Sir Ian Diamond from the University of Aberdeen, continued representation was not guaranteed in the Act which could have a “negative impact on Scotland’s higher education sector.”
Alex Sobel (Lab/Co-op, Leeds North West) supported the motion and said that the OfS was not fit for purpose. He strongly criticised the Government in creating an institution that prevented vice-chancellors from speaking out and damaged academic freedom.
There was “precious little evidence” of the OfS acting as a “great champion of consumers” said Labour’s Wes Streeting (Ilford North), going on to say that the OfS was the “logical conclusion of a vision of a higher education system” where “the market rules supreme and which seeks to reduce higher education to a commodity for students to purchase as consumers and trade in for future success in the workplace.”
The wider experience and outcomes for students, including well-being and mental health, should be prioritised by the OfS, said Helen Whately (Con, Faversham and Mid Kent).
The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, Sam Gyimah, said annulling the legislation before the House was “unviable” due to the large structural changes in the sector since the last “legislative framework for higher education” during which “the sector was smaller and competition was limited.”
The minister made clear that the changes brought in through the statutory instrument under debate were necessary as the previous regulatory system, based on attaching conditions to grant funding, was “simply no longer a viable mechanism to deliver regulatory oversight and to protect students’ interests in the long term.” He outlined how the OfS encompassed “a new, outcome-driven approach to regulation that seeks to open up university opportunities to all, to enhance the student experience, to improve the accountability and transparency of providers, to promote the quality and flexibility of higher education choices, and, crucially, to protect students’ interests.”
Responding to Paul Blomfield (Lab, Sheffield Central) the minister agreed that there was an issue around student wellbeing that needed to be either tackled by the OfS or other means. He said there was “no going back” to the old system as HEFCE and the Office for Fair Access had ceased to exist on 1 April 2018 and could not be “resurrected without primary legislation.” He concluded that the OfS in delivering “the regulatory functions of HEFCE in relation to teaching in higher education” and the statutory remit of the Director of Fair Access brought “together the powers, duties, expertise and resources under the collective responsibility of the OfS and allows for a smooth and orderly transition.”
The House divided: Ayes: 211 Noes: 291. Question accordingly negatived.
Consultations
Click here to view the updated consultation tracker. Email us on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk if you’d like to contribute to any of the current consultations.
New consultations and inquiries this week:
- Special educational needs and disabilities inquiry
Other news
Policy impact and research: – Wonkhe have an article about research and policy. On this topic, we’re on the look out for BU projects which have been successful in engaging policy makers for an interview series – please contact us if you think this might be you: policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
Sense of belonging: The Office for Students published A ‘Flying Start’ to university study this week focusing on building students’ sense of belonging. It describes an induction overhaul (5 full days of intense participative subject specific sessions) stating it exposes the hidden rules of the game and replaces exclusionary practices with inclusive participation. The article lists the research behind the change. The Flying Start project won the course and curriculum design award at the 2018 Guardian HE awards.
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JANE FORSTER | SARAH CARTER
Policy Advisor Policy & Public Affairs Officer
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British Academy – Intention to bid forms due 2nd May 2018

The call for the next round of BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants is open. The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 6th June 2018. Due to the expected high demand, we ask that if you are interested in applying to this call then please send your intention to bid form to your Funding Development Officer by 2nd May, after this date no new applications will be accepted.
The British Academy have provided updated guidance on the small grants – BA scheme notes for applicants and BA FAQs . They have asked that all applicants read the documentation carefully before starting their application.
Timeline
The call closes at 5pm on Wednesday 6th June 2018.
11th April 2018 | Call Opens – start reading guidance |
2nd May 2018 | Intention to bid forms to be submitted to your faculty funding development officer. |
31st May 2018 | Nominated referee supporting statement to be completed via FlexiGrant |
30th May 2018 | Your final application must be submitted on FlexiGrant by this date at the latest. |
31st May -6th June 2018 | Institutional checks to take place by RKEO |
First meeting Dorset Global Health Network great success!


The second short presentation was by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen for BU’s Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perintal Health (CMMPH). His presentation with the title ‘The challenge of perinatal mental health in Nepal’ covered issues around maternal mental health, auxiliary nurse-midwives and stigma and culture in southern Nepal. The project brought together academics, midwives, nurses, and other health workers in Nepal and the UK to help in the training of auxiliary nurse midwives in Nawalparasi on key aspects of mental health and mental health promotion. The project led by Bournemouth University was funded under the Health Partnership Scheme (HPS) which is managed by a London-based organisation called THET (Tropical Health & Education Trust).


The event was organised by the Dorset Primary Care Workforce Centre in collaboration with Bournemouth University and the Wessex Global Health Network.
Locative Narrative: Location Aware Interactive Storytelling Research in Creative Technology
We would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Centre for Games and Music Technology Research.
Title: Locative Narrative: Location Aware Interactive Storytelling Research in Creative Technology

Speaker: Dr Charlie Hargood
Senior Lecturer In Games Technology, SciTech
Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM
Date: Wednesday 2 May 2018
Room: TAG 02 (Tolpuddle Annex)
Abstract:
Locative Narrative is a growing research area concerned with digital interactive stories which respond to the reader’s location. In this talk we reflect on recent research in this space, its outcomes, and how it has led to the current programme of research on narrative systems within the creative technology department.
We hope to see you there.