Applications are now open for 2020-21 Postgraduate Research Department Reps.
PGRs, you can read more about being a Rep and how to apply on the Doctoral College Brightspace community student voice page.
Closing date, Wednesday 14 October.
Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Applications are now open for 2020-21 Postgraduate Research Department Reps.
PGRs, you can read more about being a Rep and how to apply on the Doctoral College Brightspace community student voice page.
Closing date, Wednesday 14 October.
First year postgraduate researchers…
PGRs and academics from BU have designed a series of bespoke, virtual workshops to provide you support as you start your PGR journey. The series of workshops are being trialled as part of a BU PhD research project. There are still spaces available in the following groups:
Dr Steve Trenoweth will be offering support sessions for a group of PGRs, providing you with an extra layer of social support from an experienced academic outside of your supervisory team as you begin your research.
Jason, a mindfulness trainer and PGR here at BU, has designed an introductory, guided course especially for PGRs, teaching you skills to help reduce stress and increase focus and concentration.
Dr Orlanda Harvey, a recent BU graduate, is running a practical and hands-on course in project planning to help you to plan and mentally prepare for the challenges of PGR study.
Please register via the following link if you would like to take part in any of the workshops and study:
https://bournemouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/pgr-registration
Mindfulness and project planning resources will also be available for you to access via the Brightspace PGR Peer Support unit once the workshops have started.
If you have any questions please contact Chloe Casey (ccasey@bournemouth.ac.uk).
I am delighted to share with you all that webinars as part of the 2020-21 Researcher Development Programme for Postgraduate Researchers are now available to book.
You can read an overview of changes on the latest RDP announcement.
If you are a PGR or Supervisor and unable to access the Researcher Development Programme on Brightspace, please let us know and we will get you added.
The PGR Peer Support area has just been launched and is now accessible for PGRs from your Brightspace homepage. The area will provide a forum to connect with others, ask questions and share advice about the PGR journey.
Within the PGR Peer Support area, under the heading of Peer-led Content, there is a series of interviews with current PGRs and graduates from BU. These video blogs will shed some light on the research milestones and common challenges.
In addition to this, there are Discussion Boards where you can ask questions or respond to others, post information about key events or calls for research participants too. There is also a Frequently Asked Questions tab, this will be populated with common questions from the discussion boards. This will create a repository of key questions with useful links to quickly solve small queries.
Please explore the area and engage with other PGRs. If you have any questions or suggestions for additional content you would find useful, please email Chloe Casey at ccasey@bournemouth.ac.uk.
A quick reminder that the application and election process for new PGR Department Reps will start later this month. If you are a PGR and would like to find out more about being a PGR Rep why not speak to your current department rep.
Details on the application and election process will be circulated later this month, in the meantime you may wish to have a read through the information flyer.
To help make information more accessible on the blogs, we have two new categories across all Faculty blogs to highlight information related to the Doctoral College and Postgraduate Researchers.
Over the last few months Library and Learning Support has been developing its guidance for integrated theses. This is a new format for BU which allows a candidate to incorporate material into their PhD already published or which they intend to publish elsewhere.
Orlanda Harvey was the guinea pig for our new guidlines when she submitted her thesis in July. Her title was “Male anabolic androgenic steroid-users: A mixed-methods study” and included articles which had been published as well as some intended for publication in the future.
I caught up with Orlanda recently to see how she had found the process, why she had taken the route of doing her thesis in this way and what advice she had for us in planning support for students doing integrated theses in the future.
You can watch our conversation and see our guidance for submitting an integrated thesis to the library in our Postgraduate Researcher Library Guide.
Latest addition to the PGR Virtual Poster Showcase:
Charlotte Clayton, PhD student in the Faculty of Health & Social Science with this poster entitled:
‘Role of Midwifery continuity of CARE in reducing health inequalities.’
Click the poster below to enlarge.
The impact of living in a deprived area on a low-income, has far reaching consequences on maternal and infant health. Studies show that in England, women living in the most deprived areas have some of the poorest birth outcomes, and are 50% more likely to die due to pregnancy related complications than women in the least deprived neighbourhoods. Between 2010-2020, life expectancy fell for women living in deprived areas in England compared to women living in the least deprived areas, who have experienced increases in their life expectancies. Women from low-income backgrounds are also more likely to report negative maternity care experiences.
The Social Determinants of Health (SDH) are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age. They are themselves influenced by wider societal forces shaping our daily lives, such as the distribution of wealth, power, and resources. The SDH are mostly responsible for health inequity – the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between different people, populations, and countries. Compared with traditional healthcare which impacts upon approximately 20% of health outcomes, the SDH are estimated to impact upon approximately 40%. Evidence shows that taking action on the SDH affecting women from the most deprived areas alongside the provision of continuity of midwifery care; where there is consistency in the midwife providing hands-on care for a woman and her baby throughout the antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods, improves birth outcomes and reduces health inequalities. How midwives working in caseloading teams providing continuity of care to women with complex social needs in areas of high deprivation, address the SDH as part of their expanding public health role is currently not clear. There is also a lack of contemporary qualitative evidence about the SDH impacting upon childbearing women’s lives in England, from the perspectives of women themselves, which this research seeks to address.
This research will take place in the NHS, in a low-income setting in the South of England, and will follow a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach. Through the use of semi-structured interviews with childbearing women, and midwives working in caseloading teams, the study will generate a grounded theory to help explain how and indeed whether midwives engage with and take action on the SDH as part of their public health role. The study also seeks to better understand the SDH impacting upon women’s lives from their perspectives and what mechanisms exist within the case setting to facilitate or obstruct midwives engagement with the SDH. Examining these domains will contribute to the evidence base about the impact of continuity of midwifery care for women and babies at increased risk of health inequalities.
Charlotte Clayton is a Clinical Doctoral student in the FHSS and a midwife at University Hospital Southampton. She is due to start data collection once the NHS are able to re-commence their non-Covid 19 research activity. She is supervised by Professor Ann Hemingway, Dr Mel Hughes and Dr Stella Rawnson. Please feel free to get in touch with Charlotte for more information at: claytonc@bournemouth.ac.uk or @femmidwife on Twitter.
If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact our dedicated admissions team.
The government are apparently planning a radical overhaul of admissions (maybe), they have found some funding for research support, EU students will face higher fees in 2021/22, Education Questions in the Commons kept the Ministers on their toes, there’s the latest on student complaints, a brief mention of the B word and the sun has been shining.
In coverage of the so called bailout deal announced earlier in the lockdown – which consisted of bringing the second instalment of student loan payments to universities forward by a few months and vaguely threatening proposals for a fund for restructuring universities that fail – it was made clear that no more would be forthcoming. But the government have reached down behind the sofa cushions and found a bit of extra money to support research, although like the additional student numbers (more on that later), it is limited and strings are attached. It was announced late on Friday night so made for a busy Saturday for pundits. You can read David Kernohan’s piece for Wonkhe here, Research Professional here, and THE cover it here.
There will be grant extensions to cover researchers’ salaries and other running costs for UKRI and some other grants, which will be very welcome, as there has been great concern about covering extensions to projects with no extra money. More details are still to be announced.
The main announcement, however, was of a new package of support for research-active universities. It looks odd on the face of it, to those outside the sector and unfamiliar with the weird cross subsidies that exist in the HE market:
So if you have a lot of international students who aren’t coming this year, you can get a loan or a grant (maybe) to cover your income loss, capped by how much funding you normally get from sources other than the government, i.e. businesses and charities as well as the university itself. Complicated? Yes. Targeted at a very particular small number of universities, yes, indeed. This sentence demonstrates the strangeness “Support is also capped at the level of an institution’s non-publicly funded research to ensure that funds are being directed towards universities conducting research.” What it is really saying is that there will be support for universities who fund their own research from the fees paid by international students, or from businesses or charities who won’t have any money this year. That’s not quite the same thing as “universities who do research”.
Some universities will have limits on their borrowing.
And for the institutions (that the information calls “teaching intensive”) who don’t qualify – we’re back to the vaguely threatening restricting fund:
Saturday’s Guardian had a headline about a leaked draft report on admissions changes. As the OfS have recently confirmed that they will be restarting their normal activity, presumably with the “paused” admissions review near the top of their list, it is not surprising that options are being considered.
The Guardian said: The models include:
Potential A level exam delay: Consistent with the story above in last Monday’s Oral Education Questions it was confirmed that the DfE is discussing moving A level exams to July 2021 to accommodate some of the C-19 disruption. The BBC and the Times covered the story. The Times noted:
The article goes on to note the Government have confirmed full funding for the virtual Oak National Academy suggesting that it is preparing for some disruption in the full return of pupils to ‘normal’ schooling. It also highlights that some of the support funding usually available has been cut (e.g. the year 7 catch up in English and Maths for weaker pupils). Alongside the announcements last week of the £1 billion funding programme to help schools support initiatives to bring children back on track after the home schooling disruption to their normal studies. There are likely to be implications for some disadvantaged children in the cuts alongside sharing the newly funded initiatives amongst a wider pool of pupils. It is raising further concerns for an access disadvantaged generation.
Admissions Report
Recently EDSK (a think tank) published Admitting Mistakes: creating a new model for university admissions calling for a fair, transparent and equitable admissions process. It takes issue with the current system:
It also takes issue with the current practices tackling the use of predicted grades for university applications; the growth of ‘unconditional offers’ from universities; and the barriers facing disadvantaged students.
It concludes:
Finally it recommends that in return for the financial support that they are receiving from government to mitigate the impact of COVID-19…universities should be required to accept a new model for the whole admissions cycle. It seems the authors are under the impression that the C-19 financial support is a sufficiently worthwhile and substantial enticement.
While the aggressive language in the press release may rile some in the sector many of its recommendations such as a national contextual offer are already being discussed. The difficulty with such blanket policies is that some students still fall through the cracks as drawing thresholds always results in winners and losers. For example, the report’s recommendation 5 doesn’t include student carers within their definition of greatest disadvantage, and there is little mention of ethnicity throughout the report.
Nevertheless they proposed a nuanced version of post qualification admissions. No predicted grades will be submitted to institutions (although presumably level 3 teachers will still have to produce them) and prospective students instead chose 10 degrees ranked in preference order. On results day students achieving the required (fixed) grade level are automatically placed based on preference order. Where courses are oversubscribed all applicants who are eligible are entered into a lottery. Where courses are undersubscribed still only those who reach the level will be admitted. It sounds simple but when you sit quietly with the concept for a moment you begin to realise it the cracks, for example removing the choice for a student to change their mind – or trade up if they perform better than their teacher predicted (which itself has long been a disadvantage conundrum). There’s also the gaming of the system – if you want that place on that popular oversubscribed course and you’re certain of the grades there will be ways to maximise your likelihood of achieving it based on your preferences…and who will advise prospective students on the game – parents, social networks, teachers and careers staff (again resources which some disadvantaged students lack). The report isn’t to be dismissed and provides a welcome interjection on the admissions system which is due for overhaul in some shape or form, however, it doesn’t offer all the answers it claims to. Perhaps because there isn’t a system which is flawless and which can guarantee equity, particularly for those prospective students with the least support and resources.
Wonkhe have a good blog on the report considering it fairly and offering critique where they see holes. The comments at the end are worth a read too, while most establish serious points Sarah smiled at this one: Think tanks are supposed to think from outside the box.
UCAS have highlighted that
Other key facts:
UCAS are using the welcome news on diversity to urge more prospective students to apply for autumn 2020 entry. They state Around 40% of adult nursing and social work courses are still accepting applications…with some universities having up to 50 places available. The vacancy level seems slightly surprising on several counts. First the Government are offering bursaries for specified courses, second they are employment gap areas (and the Government has an additional 5,000 places not yet allocated to institutions), third the positive and high profile PR generated for key services such as nursing through the pandemic was predicted to increase demand for nursing, finally demand from mature students (who make up a bigger proportion of the cohort) could be expected to increase if lockdown has prompted a career re-evaluation. UCAS do note that mature student apply later in the summer months than school leavers and that at January nursing applications were up by 6%.
Postgraduate BAME data: The UK Council for Graduate Education have published a policy briefing summarising the access and participation of Black, Asian and minority ethnicities in UK postgraduate research. Key points:
Disadvantage:
Wonkhe have two blogs on access and disadvantage:
There is also the promised report from the Social Mobility Commission: Apprenticeships and social mobility: fulfilling potential. It raises concerns over the structural barriers within apprenticeships and concludes that they are not fulfilling their social climbing potential.
Key points:
the introduction of the (2017) apprenticeship levy led to a “collapse in overall apprenticeship starts that hit disadvantaged learners hardest”
The report calls on the Government to address concerns and channel resources directly where it can have the greatest social benefit.
There was also a slight FE emphasis in one of Donelan’s PQ answers (reminding us the FE remains an underfunded sector and the Government has plans, even if they aren’t sharing them yet):
Q – Mohammad Yasin: In addition to maintaining current commitments to widen participation and extend bursaries for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, will the Minister make sure that the necessary extra funding is provided so that universities such as the University of Bedfordshire can play a key role in retraining and reskilling young and mature students to meet the serious employment challenges ahead?
A – Michelle Donelan:
Very unsurprisingly, Michelle Donelan issued a written ministerial statement confirming that EU, EEA and Swiss national students will no longer be eligible for home fee status or Student Finance England financial support from 2021/22. The rules also apply to FE and apprenticeships. EU students starting in 2020/21 will continue to be classed as home students. Irish nationals will be preserved as home student status under the Common Travel Area arrangement.
The announcement may encourage some EU students to take up UK study in September (despite online blended provision being the main method on offer). Likewise the sector anticipates a drop in EU student numbers from 2021/22.
Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK, responded to the announcement:
Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, puts it plainly:
Research Professional have a write up on the fee changes.
Michelle Donelan also answered oral questions specifically on international students describing her
She also reminded Parliament about the International Education Champion appointment.
Since the parliamentary question session Donelan (and her devolved counterparts) have composed a 6 page letter to international students. It sings the praises of a British education, urges them to apply for the 2020/21 recruitment round (for which visas will be ready in time) and reminds them of their eligibility for the 2-year graduate visa. Excerpts:
The second batch of data from the 2017/18 Graduate Outcomes survey has been released, there is even more to come on 9 July. The tables are interactive allowing you to look at employment rates for different qualification levels (e.g. undergraduates, foundation degrees, doctoral research, taught masters and all the others) at HE or FE, full or part time.
There are also salary bands that are adjustable to look at the characteristics of the students within them. For example the below looks at pay levels by subject studied in HE institutions. It shows a clear salary gain in the high skilled roles but little difference in pay between low and medium skilled jobs.
The pay bands can be examined by age, ethnicity, gender, and disability. Below demonstrates the impact of gender for undergraduates, the postgraduate picture shows more clustering at the higher pay bands. No matter which level of qualification is selected males always number more than females earning the highest pay band.
There is a chart illustrating the proportions of students who are satisfied with their current activity, its fit with their future plans, and whether they are using what they learnt. It varies greatly when you adjust for low medium or high skilled roles, with the low skilled employees feeling least satisfied. And this page breaks down the three elements of satisfaction (meaningful, fit future, useful) even further looking at it by degree subject area, degree classification, salary and by provider.
And at the bottom of the page you can view BU’s student opinion on meaningful, fit for future plans, and useful (it is too large to display here). BU had a response rate of 51%, with higher numbers of postgraduate research students responding.
All the tables are interactive and able to be cut by different parameters – go ahead and have a play!
Wonkhe have a good blog digging into and interpreting meaning from the latest data.
In Parliamentary Questions, Graduate outcomes also received a mention with the stock answer referring to T levels and promoting technical routes. Also:
Q – Neil O’Brien: The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that for 30% of students, the economic return on their degree was negative both for them and for taxpayers. Surely with such clear economic evidence that so many young people would be better off if they took a different route, it is time to rebalance from just higher education to a stronger technical education system?
A – Michelle Donelan:
HEPI have published PhD Life: The UK student experience. It highlights that for UK students:
The data informing the report is based on two surveys taking place between June and November 2019 by the Wellcome trust and Nature.
The report includes testimonials capturing PhD students’ perspectives on their situation:
Nick Hillman, HEPI Director, commented:
In the Foreword to the new report, Dr Katie Wheat, Head of Engagement and Policy at Vitae, said:
The deadline for universities to apply for additional places expired on Friday.
Emma Hardy questions the reasoning behind the threshold levels set for continuation and graduate outcome rates which determine whether a provider can bid for some of the 5,000 non-healthcare course additional places for the 2020/21 recruitment round. She also asks why these indicators were chosen rather than using the TEF, whether an equalities impact assessment was undertaken, and if the DfE considered a HEIs social intake and the communities served when setting the rates (because they appear to discriminate against certain types of provider).
The additional 5,000 biddable places within the student numbers cap restrictions allow the Government to exert a small measure of control over which courses they wish to see more (or less) of within the UK. In this vein Research Professional had an interesting narrative on Monday covering Australia who intend to more than double tuition fees for some arts subjects, raise fees for business and law, and lowered fees for some in-demand courses which contribute to national gap and growth needs. The reforms will be implemented in 2021 – if they pass the parliamentary hurdles.
The increase/decreases:
The price rises are per unit of study so it encourages students who might study history to also consider teaching too, or to add in a language.
The changes are designed to incentive students to follow the career growth areas that Australia needs. They aiming to get 39,000 students on skills shortage courses by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030 to produce the ‘job ready graduates’ that Australia needs.
The Australian Government also intends to increase support for rural and indigenous students through the reforms. They will direct fund universities to run bespoke programmes with local significance to attract indigenous students from the lowest participation rate areas and guarantee a place at public universities. Other reforms include a $48.8m research grants programme for regional universities to collaborate with industry, and $21m to set up more regional university study centres to provide tutoring and IT support for students in remote areas.
Research Professional highlight that the UK Government could utilise the LEO data to set price variation in the levels of student loan that would be offered to priority and non-priority courses. Also that if more students took courses with higher salaries the repayment levels of loans would be higher – ultimately saving the public purse. Although one does wonder whether so many of these high paid roles are standing vacant or whether such a policy increasing the volume of graduates following some programmes would simply displace the current holders of such posts. Nethertheless, it is food for thought for the Government who love a decent worked example from elsewhere. Particularly with the response to the Augar report (which advocated cutting humanities tuition fee/loans down to £7,500) not due until the spending review.
Ant Bagshaw (ex-Wonkhe, now working in Australia) has a blog on the proposals and what this might mean for UK HE. As ever there are some interesting comments to the blog. And the Guardian have an opinion piece taking issue with the Australian proposal for job ready graduates.
Returning to the UK student numbers cap there is an interesting piece from a specialist institution explaining how the student number controls will reduce access for those from certain disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Government has also released the latest information on how the student number cap will be run. Wonkhe summarise it:
The Office of the Independent Adjudicator has published a second briefing note on their approach to complaints arising from C-19. These excerpts make their approach to complaints clear:
The lack of judgement over quality of academic delivery slams the door on the Universities Minister’s claims to contact the ombudsmen if students aren’t able to resolve concerns directly with their provider.
There is also clear emphasis on individual student differences:
And a pro-active approach is urged:
Mass Action
Meanwhile the NHS is encouraging students to join their mass action complaint chain to win the chance to REDO, REIMBURSE, WRITE-OFF (compensation funding for reimbursements, a debt write-off, or the chance to redo the year at no extra cost). Research Professional report that
Claire Sosienski Smith, VP HE at NUS, stated:
On the Government’s insistence that students individually take up their complaint with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator Zamzam Ibrahim, NUS President, said:
HEPI have a guest blog – Learning from lockdown: harnessing tech to improve the student experience. It begins:
Next it considers the levels at which universities engage most fully with online learning. It concludes with a plug for Jisc and states:
It has been a season of high-profile step downs. The latest is Sir Michael Barber who will not seek a second term as Chair of the OfS, meaning he will step down in March 2021. Like most of those relinquishing roles he still has a parliamentary to do list before he can return to his garden and long walks – he has agreed to lead a review into digital learning. The review will consider how universities and other higher education providers can continue to enhance online teaching and learning for the new academic year, and explore longer term opportunities for digital teaching and learning.
The Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, commented on Sir Michael’s decision to step down:
Let’s hope Sir Michael’s review receives ministerial attention quicker than that of the TEF or the Augar reports.
We haven’t mentioned the ‘B’ word more than in passing recently. However, we’re halfway through the transition period and the Government is adamant it will end without extension on 31 December. Little progress has been made in talks and businesses are fearful of no deal particularly following the economic downturn associated with the pandemic. Dods have a Brexit briefing examining the key areas of contention in the talks, the possibility of an extension, and the implementation hurdles that need to be overcome before the end of the year.
The House of Commons Library have issued a briefing paper on the impact of easing lockdown restrictions within the FE & HE sectors (in England). The paper covers the expected issues including re-opening campuses, prospective student numbers (2020/21), and temporary student number controls.
APPG Universities: Ex-universities minister Chris Skidmore has been appointed co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary interest group for Universities. Daniel Zeichner continues to also co-chair the APPG. Chris states: I look forward to continuing to make the case for why our world leading UK universities can drive innovation, lift social mobility and regenerate local economies- and why they deserve support. Chris has also committed to a monthly spot writing for Research Professional too. Between Chris and Jo Johnson it seems Michelle Donelan’s time in the spotlight will be harried by two ex-Ministers who are willing to speak out. This is likely good news for the sector (for now) as Donelan has been keen to stick closely to the party line to date.
Contract Cheating; If you’ve been following this topic in the policy update for a while you’ll be aware that Lord Storey continues his campaign to stamp out essay mills and academic cheat services. He often asks nuanced parliamentary questions on the topic and this week he got an encouraging answer. Here it is in full:
Q – Lord Storey: Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on academic performance in those countries who have banned contract cheating services; and what plans they have, if any, to adopt similar policies. [HL5328]
A – Baroness Berridge:
Other Questions
Oral questions in the House of Commons on Further and Higher Education covered a range of topics this week (no new news). Some are covered in other sections. The student number cap, international students, support for students and the economy all featured.
Research Professional cover all the major HE oral questions and add a little entertainment value in their descriptions.
Click here to view the updated inquiries and consultation tracker. Email us on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk if you’d like to contribute to any of the current consultations.
There aren’t any new HE consultations or inquiries this week. However, if you are interested in the bigger picture you may like to be aware that:
To subscribe to the weekly policy update simply email policy@bournemouth.ac.uk.
JANE FORSTER | SARAH CARTER
Policy Advisor Policy & Public Affairs Officer
Follow: @PolicyBU on Twitter | policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
This week in our PGR Virtual Poster Showcase:
Ismail Can Kurtuk, PhD student in the Faculty of Management with this poster entitled:
‘The butterfly effect of decisions: Enhancement of teaching-decision making in project management within UK higher education.’
Click the poster below to enlarge.
This research is investigating how to improve the teaching in UK Higher Education of decision-making related to project management. Decision-making is a core element of effective project management, but practitioners have reported that without extensive experience of real-life project management, the decision making of newly qualified professionals is inadequate. As a result, projects are delayed, resources are used ineffectively, risks are increased and opportunities are overlooked. Using an inductive approach based upon interviews and focus groups, this research study will investigate the experience of project managers to develop a better understanding of what how decision-making can be taught more effectively, and from this new perspective, a decision-making teaching framework will be developed and validated for application across UK Higher Education.
If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact our dedicated admissions team.
The Doctoral College Newsletter provides termly information and updates to all those involved with postgraduate research at BU. The latest edition is now available to download here. Click on the web-links provided to learn more about the news, events and opportunities that may interest you.
If you would like to make a contribution to future newsletters, please contact the Doctoral College.
Center stage this week in the PGR Virtual Poster Showcase:
Varshini Nandakumar, PhD student in the Faculty of Science & Technology with this poster entitled:
‘Design of a functional electrical stimulation device adaptive to walking.’
Click the poster below to enlarge.
Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is a neuro-rehabilitation technique commonly used to aid walking in individuals suffering from Drop Foot (DF), a condition that limits ankle dorsiflexion leading to drag the foot while walking. FES devices make use of small electrical pulses to generate functional muscle contraction, enabling dorsiflexion to overcome DF. Existing FES devices are aiding mobility significantly, but one limitation in them is the inefficacy to allow the user to walk confidently in different walking scenarios. As reported by users, this is caused due to the inability to lift their foot sufficiently to ambulate on different walking scenarios. Hence this project proposes to overcome this limitation using machine learning algorithms to develop a predictive model to identify steps, ramps, and kerbs. The output of this model will then be used to control the stimulation levels to provide sufficient stimulation to enable the user to overcome the obstacle.
If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact our dedicated admissions team.
Earlier this year the International Journal for Creative Media Research (IJCMR) published a journal article by Annie East, Deputy Head of Media Production Department at BU, on ways students make meaning of the risk assessment process on their undergraduate filmmaking degree. Based on Annie’s doctoral pilot study findings, this article, whilst written in a pre-covid19 environment, has 5 areas for consideration of health and safety going forward in a Covid-19 student fieldwork context. Below Annie considers how we conceive health, safety and risk before outlining 5 points.
What is safe? The social construction of safety
Safety is a subjective, constructed and socially derived notion. The Health And Safety Executive literature does not define what safety is, leaving companies and organisations to interpret or translate how that applies to their practices. Similarly risks are ‘selected’ and ‘risk is only what people choose to say it is.’ As for health, we follow current advice in how to understand what is ‘good health’.
To give more clarity we could consider the terms ‘health’ and ‘safety’ from within the industrial context in which they are being used. Since my research is about filmmaking (in an HE context), when we refer to safety at work we can consider a film set in a studio; a lighting electrician may fall off a ladder that isn’t secure and this is a result of non-safety, or ‘unsafe-ness’. When we talk about health we can view the same studio where a set designer is carrying heavy props and as a result of that act, potentially, over time, this will create health problems, linked to heavy lifting, for that person. Safety is therefore constructed by us with an immediacy, whether perceived as safe or unsafe, and health is constructed as more removed from the act, alluding to future constructs of ailment/s within the body (or mind).
So with a socially constructed definition of health and safety the linked article can be read, taking into account the added consideration of working practice and Covid19 outlined in 5 points below.
1. VR Elicitation
In the article I propose a new research method; VR elicitation. A two-tier practice of placing a 360-degree camera into fieldwork (in this case a student film shoot) and then viewing it back as a way of deepening reflective and reflexive practice for both educator and student through an immersive environment. In response to innovation around education during Covid-19, VR elicitation could be utilised to enhance, learning for students who may not be able to engage as fully with fieldwork. This would be through remote learning ‘in the round’ with peers and educators taking advantage of the immersive environment. Working with apps that can download onto smartphones and be slotted into a £30 VR visor.
Image 1: Student film shoot
Image 2: Re-immersion back into film shoot; VR elicitation
2. The paradox within HE
The article highlights the paradoxical nature of working in a tripartite environment; education that teaches industry practice whilst complying with HE rules. With the extra layer of Covid-19 risk management incorporated into our health and safety practices, it is worth fully understanding the paradox presented within the article.
3. Risk as imagined, risk as performed
Following David Borys, I conceived the risk assessment in two steps; risk as imagined (the writing of a risk assessment) and risk as performed (the performance of the risk assessment in action). The literature acknowledges a lack of emphasis on risk as performed in scholarly research discoveries or, if it does, it discovers performance as being different to that as imagined.
4. Working beyond bureaucracy in risk management
The article posits holistic ways to approach risk management that involves engaging HE students more thoroughly. Moving us away from purely bureaucratic tick box exercises of writing a risk assessment towards a shared ownership of risk management strategy or otherwise referred to as ‘institutional magic’ by Patrick Brown. This holism is essential now that we are dealing with an invisible risk.
5. VR elicitation study findings
The pilot study teases out some of the ways students inherently keep themselves safe and are examples of where the imagined is very different to the performance. This reminds us of the importance of developing shared ownership of managing risk rather than staying purely with top-down implementation that is tied to institutional and legal power structures.
Moving forward it will be interesting to see if the increased scrutiny on Covid-19 health & safety risk management within HE results in safer student practice on a film location (or other generic fieldwork) or whether increased scrutiny on Covid-19 results in a lowering of the other health & safety practice principles.
Full linked article here.
Contact: Annie East, Deputy Head Media Production Department, Faculty of Media and Communication. aeast@bournemouth.ac.uk
Doctorate via Centre of Excellence for Media Practice (CEMP).
Postgraduate researchers have access to a suite of online modules as part of the Research Skills Toolkit developed by Epigeum.
I am please to announce we have now added an updated version of the Literature Review Programme, now named Undertaking a Literature Review and the BRAND NEW Principles of Research Methods, starring Dr Sally Reynolds and Professor Edwin van Teijlingen both of whom also deliver workshops as part of the Doctoral College Researcher Development Programme.
Postgraduate researchers can access these modules via the Researcher Development Programme unit on Brightspace following the instructions for creating an account on Epigeum. On here you will also have access to extensive modules covering:
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch – Natalie Stewart (Research Skills & Development Officer).
Still plenty to share in this PGR Virtual Poster Showcase:
Chris Williams, PhD student in the Faculty of Management with this poster entitled:
‘Accreditation of higher education in the UK: The rise of PSRBs & potential influence.’
Click the poster below to enlarge.
This poster will provide a graphical illustration and analysis of data collected as part of my PhD. The data collected identifies when Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRB’s) that accredit UK undergraduate degrees began their accreditation programmes. PSRB’s were identified from data held by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and contacted individually to establish when they began accrediting, leading to the collation of a unique set of figures. HESA’s data is used as part of the Key Information Set (KIS) that HE institutions display on their web pages and other printed material. The information is also held by the Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of HE in the UK. Further, the poster identifies key events impacting the UK HE sector and provides a brief analysis of any correlation with the commencement of the accreditation schemes that responded.
If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact our dedicated admissions team.
Guide to Online Supervision
As part of the UK Council for Graduate Education’s continued support for research supervisors during the covid-19 pandemic, they have published a Guide to Online Supervision.
The guide shares the benefits of online supervising, outlines the issues and challenges for supervisors and postgraduate researchers, and suggests strategies and practices for supervisors to consider when working with postgraduate researchers engaged in research at a distance.
Webinar: Effective Practices in Supervising Doctoral Candidates at a Distance
In case you missed the hugely popular UKCGE webinar [56:10 mins] sharing good practices in remote supervision the recording can be found on their YouTube channel.
We hope these resources prove helpful to you.
Next up in the PGR Virtual Poster Showcase:
Hina Tariq, PhD student in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences with this poster entitled:
‘Validation of contracture assessment screening tool.’
Click the poster below to enlarge.
Contractures are a debilitating consequence of prolonged immobility potentially leading to physical impairments, limited functional mobility, decreased independence with everyday activities, and reduced social participation. There is no standard assessment tool available to assess the risk of contracture development or progression. The Contracture Assessment Screening Tool (CAST) was developed by Dorset Health Care University NHS Foundation Trust to address this gap. This project aims to establish the 1) CAST validity and 2) CAST effectiveness in reducing contracture development and progression. Timely identification of those at risk of contracture development or progression may help facilitate contracture prevention and the associated negative sequelae. To evaluate CAST, a mixed methods approach is being utilised including realist review and evaluation. Merging different methodologies and a realist approach will provide a unique perspective on CAST validation and use. This project is ongoing and the poster will present the overall methodology and significance of the project.
If this research has inspired you and you’d like to explore applying for a research degree please visit the postgraduate research web pages or contact our dedicated admissions team.