Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Congratulations to Professor Steve Tee, Executive Dean in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, who has been invited to give a keynote speech at 2nd International Conference on Prospects and Challenges of Higher Education: Vision 2030.
Prof. Tee will be speaking about the concept of FUSION, Bournemouth University’s unique blend of education, research and practice. This international conference will be held in Kathmandu (Nepal) on 16-18 April.
Application deadline Thursday 26th March 2020, 3pm UK time
The Newton International Fellowships enable researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of fostering long-term international collaborations. The Scheme aims to attract the most promising early career postdoctoral researchers from overseas in the fields of natural sciences, physical sciences, medical sciences, social sciences and the humanities.
The Newton International Fellowships Scheme is delivered by the British Academy, Royal Society or the Academy of Medical Sciences- please see below links for call guidance :
The British Academy is the UK’s national body for the humanities and social sciences – the study of peoples, cultures and societies, past, present and future.
We are the independent body in the UK representing the diversity of medical science. Our mission is to advance biomedical and health research and its translation into benefits for society.
The Society’s fundamental purpose, reflected in its founding Charters of the 1660s, is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.
Research must be within the remit of the funder. Please ensure you read the guidance for the specific funder subject coverage to determine which of the above funders you will submit your proposal.
If you wish to discuss further please don’t hesitate to contact me at apekalski@bournemouth.ac.uk or alternatively call me on x61204
Dr Miguel Moital, Principal Academic in the Department of Sport & Event Management was a guest lecturer at the Viana do Castelo Polytechnic Institute (IPVC), where he delivered two presentations. IPVC’s School of Technology & Management offers both an UG and a MSc program in tourism, delivered by three Faculty of Management PhD Alumni: Dr. Alexandra Correia, Dr. Carlos Fernandes, and Dr. Goretti Silva.
The first presentation, delivered to the in Masters students, focused on the interplay between theory and employability. Miguel drew on his experience with both the Portuguese and the British educational systems to emphasise the differences between them, highlighting the benefits of a theory-based education (as in the UK) as a means to develop valuable employability skills. These include the ability to be comprehensive in analysis, to be able to understand a variety of situations irrespective of context and the ability to step back from specific situations and understand the principles governing them (abstract observation).
The second session was delivered to the undergraduate students, and focused on the benefits of understanding generic processes in addition to specific content. Miguel drew on his experience of studying tourism 25 years ago, and the fact that much of the content he learnt is no longer current. What remains valid over time are intellectual skills you learnt in the form of business and work attitudes, as well as ways of thinking. The latter includes, for example, understanding how to develop strong (counter) arguments, how to evaluate (anything) and how to analyse a situation. He emphasised that a good degree will strike a balance between learning content and critical processes.
In both sessions, students were intrigued and open to the explanation of the UK HE education system and way of viewing the role of a university degree, helping to reinforce the message that BU-educated colleagues already pass on to their students.
Congratulations to Dr. Pratik Adhikary on the fifth (and final paper) from his PhD in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. This latest paper ‘Support networks in the Middle East & Malaysia: A qualitative study of Nepali returnee migrants’ experiences’ was recently published in the International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health [1].
This is one of the few studies focusing on the support networks of Nepali migrant worker in the Middle East and Malaysia. The previous four papers have focused more on living conditions and working conditions of migrant workers as well as occupational health and safety abroad [2-5].
References:
Another busy week in HE policy– with consultations and a very short timeline for the KEF. Everyone has hit the ground running in 2020!
The outcome of the KEF consultation in 2019 has come out. UKRI have published the “Decisions for the first iteration”. They have given a very short timeline for the publication of the first set of data and narratives from institutions – they will all be published this summer. Narratives have to be submitted by May. Data will be published for everyone, whether they submit narratives or not.
They have also indicated that it is likely that from 2020/21 institutions will have to submit narratives for the KEF to be eligible for Research England funding.
The metrics will be reported against “clusters”. They have changed their original cluster proposals somewhat, removing the Social Science and Business specialist cluster – final cluster membership will be published in February with the templates. These clusters have been designed to allow meaningful comparison. When BU responded to the consultation we suggested that it is unhelpful to introduce a third methodology for comparison – the TEF uses institutional benchmarks, something that has challenges itself, and the REF is of course organised by subject. We remain concerned that this will be confusing and not very meaningful for businesses and other organisations (the declared target for this information) who may not find the cluster comparison useful if they only have limited experience with a small number of universities.
You will recall that the metrics are grouped into seven “perspectives” – only two will require narratives. The consultation looked at additional metrics but has discounted any that are not already “gathered through existing statutory returns, or available from other UKRI or external sources”. This is because they want to make it a “low burden” exercise.
Public and Community Engagement narrative – a statement:
Local Growth and Regeneration narrative – a statement:
The third narrative will be an institutional context narrative – “setting out the geographic, economic and social context within which the higher education institution is operating…. The information contained within this statement will not be used to normalise any of the metrics or perspectives across clusters.”
David Kernohan has written for Wonkhe about it:
David summarises the pages of normalisation methodology in the document nicely: “Metrics are a three-year average, mostly …as ratios, which are converted at perspective level into deciles. This reduces a great deal of data and analysis into what amounts to a set of marks out of 10, which are compared to an average mark from comparable institutions (the infamous clusters)”.
And the visualisation approach: “Research England has a grand plan to use spider graphs to show institutional scores alongside cluster averages, with an option to drill down into more detailed data on each metric. I’m not as struck by this as they are – the exercise is designed to support comparisons and spider diagrams are an unwieldy way to do this. I also feel like the individual metrics are still fairly abstract, you have to go quite a long way back down the methodology to get something that the mind can easily take hold of.”
After the social media storm last week when Parliament didn’t approve the Erasmus amendment to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (it doesn’t mean we can’t be in it, it just means that government won’t be bound by the new Bill to make sure we are in it), there have been a few questions this week.
Douglas Chapman (SNP) said that the end of Erasmus scheme was an “utter disaster, culturally and socially” and asked the PM to comment on the end of the participation of the scheme. Boris’ response implied that the UK would continue to participate in the scheme.
And there were several questions on Erasmus (see this one and this one) – all with similar response – that the Government is including it within the Brexit negotiations and is working towards remaining within the scheme. The House of Commons Library have released this briefing paper on Erasmus to inform MPs ahead of Monday’s scheduled Education debate.
HESA have published higher education statistics for 2018/19. Interestingly, the OfS focussed on grade inflation in their response –and nothing else.
In 2018/19:
Over the five year period 2014/15 – 2018/19:
Student Minds has launched The Wellbeing Thesis, a website designed to support postgraduate research students to maintain their mental wellbeing.
Baroness Tyler of Enfield has presented a Bill in the House of Lords which would amend the Education Act 2002 and the Academies Act 2010 for schools to promote the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils. The Bill will proceed to a second reading at a future date.
And some Parliamentary questions:
Q – Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to (a) reduce the level of social stigma in relation to mental health and (b) promote awareness of mental health issues among young people.
A – Nick Gibb:
Monday was the closing date for Labour leadership candidates to secure the 22 nominations from MPs to run for party leader. Chris Lewis and Barry Gardiner did not secure the required amount. The following candidates will progress to the next round (number of nominations received noted in brackets):
Candidates for deputy leader:
We explained the leadership contest process in detail in last week’s policy update. However, here is a quick recap: the next phase requires the candidates to seek nominations from Constituency Labour Parties and the Unions by 15th Jan – to carry on they need support of 5% of the constituency parties (the BBC said 30) OR 3 affiliate organisations, including 2 trade unions. The members’ ballot opens on 21st Feb and runs to 2nd April. Votes are redistributed if there is no clear winner. Results announced on 4th April
An interesting background briefing on the Labour leadership candidates prepared by Dods is available here. It is worth a read to get to know the candidates better.
The House of Commons Library has a new briefing paper on the Augar Review (Post 18 Education and Funding Review). The paper considers the recommendations of the Augar Review and the (page 26) initial responses to it from major HE bodies. The Government is rumoured to have made the decision on how they will respond (which parts they will adopt) of the Augar Review and intend to release their response at a suitable point (soon-ish!). Most likely the briefing paper has been produced because Education Questions will take place in Parliament next Monday.
And some Parliamentary questions:
Q -Baroness Bennett Of Manor Castle: following the announcement that nursing bursaries are to be reintroduced, what plans [the Government] have to support nurses, midwifes and other healthcare professionals with any debt incurred before the reintroduction to support their study and training.
A -Baroness Blackwood Of North Oxford:
Q – Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon): To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to introduce Sharia compliant student loans.
A – Chris Skidmore (Kingswood): The government remains committed to introducing an Alternative Student Finance product for tuition fee and maintenance loans. Details on implementation will follow the conclusion of the review of post-18 education and funding.
Parliamentary business has been laid to commence the election of the select committee chairs now the new Parliament has formed. We anticipate the chairs will be announced early in February. Below is a diagram stating which party will chair each select committee.
There are several committees where the previous chairman has vacated their position through losing their seat, or where the chairmanship has switched from Labour to Tory to reflect Parliament’s new arithmetic (the number of chairs for each party is proportionate to the size of the party in Parliament). These include the Treasury, health, transport and work and pensions committees.
There is a potential change on the horizon. In the past when a parliamentary session ends the chairmanship and membership of a select committee ceases – as it did when the 2019 general election was called. However, a parliamentary motion introduced this week seeks to remove the limit on the maximum length of time an individual can chair a committee. This would allow parliamentarians to become long-serving chairs. There is also a clause which stipulates that the Brexit committee will continue for another year, even though the department it shadows — DExEU — is being wound up at the end of January.
There was a major Education and Local Government debate within the House of Commons this week led by Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education. On schools the debate covered content on: the minimum school funding (per pupil), rolling out free schools (Midlands, North and South West), extra funding to Councils to support children in care, capital funding for childcare provision within schools (for school aged children), an arts activities premium for secondary schools from 2021, school building safety – following advice in the independent Hackitt review,
Gavin Williamson also said:
Angela Rayner challenged the Government on the lack of response to the Augar review, particularly in relation to decision on the regulation of home education. She said: “While we are on the subject of Bills that are missing in action…The Augar review went from being a flagship to a ghost ship”.
SNP Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Carol Monaghan, asked the Minister whether a fee change would be forthcoming, further to the Augar review recommendations. She also raised concerns over the implications of Brexit on HE staff, research funding, infrastructure and collaboration: “A recent report from the Royal Society has shown that the UK’s share of EU funding has fallen by €500 million since 2015. There has also been a drop of 40% in UK applications to Horizon 2020. We are still in it just now, but we have had that drop because people do not have any certainty. The UK is now seen as a less attractive place to come and do research, with 35% fewer scientists coming to the UK through key schemes. That is of concern, as is Erasmus and what Brexit will mean for that programme”.
David Davis (Conservative) criticised the university tuition fees and loans scheme for delivering poor-quality education, high levels of expectations and low levels of outcome. He called for concerted action to tackle low productivity, including translational research, but also, “investment, education, infrastructure, magnet cities and garden villages”.
Previous chair of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon welcomes the Queen’s Speech and said that he believes that “skills, social justice, standards and support for the profession should be the four interlocking foundations of this Government’s education programme.” He called on the Government to turbocharge adult learning, citing that adult learning is at its lowest since 1996 and that this county needs a world-class apprenticeships programme.
Halfon also raised concerns about disadvantaged pupils who are often 19 months behind by the time they reach their GCSEs, he called on the Government to have a “bold, assertive agenda that has compassion and aspiration right at its core.” Halfon told the chamber that the Government should offer top-quality childcare, to help plug the gap of disadvantaged children who are already left behind when they start primary school.
Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland Karin Smyth told the house that the Government has got it wrong in its implementation of apprenticeships, particularly by making the process more complicated for small and medium sized enterprises.
Janet Daby (Labour, Lewisham East) raised a number of concerns surrounding the funding of schools and local authorities. She told the house that “in the midst of a mental health crisis in young adults, we must do more to address the increasing lack of support in further education colleges.”
Steve McCabe (Labour, Birmingham, Selly Oak) welcomed the Secretary of State’s admission of the problems faced by pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. He also hoped that the new student visa would make it easier for people to come here to study, but noted that PhD students did not find it particularly easy to stay after they completed their doctorates.
Alex Norris (Labour/Co-op, Nottingham North) spoke about the educational trouble faced by working class boys, saying that it was caused by a cocktail of poor discipline, irregular attendance and below par curriculums. He called on the Government to have better curriculums based on international best practice; specific, targeted resource to augment the pupil premium; a focus on catching up for boys who fall behind at key stage 1; and the deployment of the best teachers in the most challenged schools, incentivised to work in the hard environments.
Bambos Charalambous (Labour) said there wasn’t enough school funding to reverse cuts on areas like school maintenance and a lack of further education.
You can read the debate in full here.
The Local Government Association (LGA) published a report (compiled by the Learning and Work Institute) considering 2030 projected skills gaps in England. It considers eight areas and quantifies potential loss of economic output due to the skills gaps. They conclude that 6 million people in England risk being without a job or in work they are over-qualified for by 2030. This is a similar message to the Government’s line on upskilling the workforce to plug business needs due to insufficient skills within the workforce. However, the LGA imagine a more localised solution to the skills gaps. Key points:
This note looks at the extent and nature of the potential skills gap that could be faced in the future through to 2030 – at both the level of England as a whole and in eight selected local areas:
The LGA are critical of the current centrally-governed skills and employment system whereby £10.5 billion a year is spent by eight government departments and agencies across 20 different national schemes. Unsurprisingly the LGA is calling for the Government to use the Budget to devolve all back-to-work, skills, apprenticeship, careers advice, and business support schemes and funding to the local areas in which they are used. They envisage groups of councils across England with the power and funding to deliver a one-stop ‘Work Local’ service for skills, apprenticeship, employment, careers advice and business support provision. Bringing together local skills planning, overseeing job support including Jobcentre Plus and the Work and Health Programme and coordinate careers advice and guidance for young people and adults.
Cllr Kevin Bentley, Chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board, said:
Stephen Evans, Chief Executive of Learning and Work Institute, said:
A thought provoking HEPI blog considers the last 20 years of research published on addressing widening participation (WP) aims. It covers all the expected current topics from the BME attainment gap to the non-participation in HE by costal and/or rural areas. It highlights international approaches such as that from Australia and Canada explaining how studies addressed the same enduring gaps as the UK has now. Overall there are no magic solutions but the blog is reinvigorating in the way it brings all the WP themes together for fresh reconsideration. You can read the full blog here.
At Prime Minister’s Questions this week previous Head of the Education Select Committee, Robert Halfon said that despite improvement in educational standards and funding, white working-class boys underperform at every stage of education system. He questioned whether, in the context of large infrastructure projects expected, and the high value apprenticeships associated, whether the apprenticeship levy could be reformed to enable such young people to climb the skills ladder of opportunity. Boris responded that the House should follow Halfon’s advice and reform the apprenticeship levy, and intimated that the Education Secretary would update the House on this in due course.
And some Parliamentary questions:
Q – Lord Bourne Of Aberystwyth: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in improving education outcomes for Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities.
A – Lord Agnew Of Oulton:
Medical Science is one of BU’s strategic investment areas (SIA). Colleagues with an interest in this SIA area will be interested in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy update which highlights progress in delivering the strategy since 2017. It covers:
The report notes very substantial progress in making the UK a more attractive place for life sciences companies to succeed and grow. These developments are the result of a strong collaboration between all aspects of this diverse industry – pharma, biotech, medtech, digital and diagnostics – the wider research community in the UK, the NHS and government. And states A substantial majority of the objectives in the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy have been met and more are being delivered now. Page 5 details the key achievements and page 10 onwards details the health and clinical research and development. Page 20 covers growing the skills base and workforce to deliver the life sciences industrial strategy. However, the content is limited and mainly covers AI and existing initiatives. It does not that the 2030 Skills Strategy will be published this year so we can expect more detail in the new future facing document. Page 21 briefly touches on commercialisation of university research. You can read the sections that interest you most here.
Unconditional offers: Nottingham Trent have followed their public discussion on grade inflation last year by collaborating with The Times and publishing detail of their defence on conditional unconditional offers. Wonkhe had an article by Mike Ratcliffe, their Academic Registrar.
Care Students: The Scottish Funding Council has published its National Ambition for Care-Experienced Students, which outlines its commitment to equal outcomes for those students by 2030.
Languages: The Financial Times responds to the HEPI language report, arguing that foreign language study should be made compulsory.
Social Commuting: The Guardian have a short, to the point, piece advising commuter students how to balance a social life with their commuting arrangements.
R&D – extending definition to cover the Creative Industries: Last week there was an interesting mini-debate following this question by Baroness Bull: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to adopting a broader definition of research and development that includes, and incentivises, research and development investment in the creative industries. You can read the debate responses and follow on questions here.
Universities and Crime – a Parliamentary question
Q – Lord Taylor Of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with UK Universities about reports that universities are not reporting crime statistics.
A – Baroness Berridge:
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JANE FORSTER | SARAH CARTER
Policy Advisor Policy & Public Affairs Officer
Follow: @PolicyBU on Twitter | policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
Last week FHSS’s Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen held a workshop on ‘academic publishing and writing’ with BU Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada. This event took place at Tribhuvan University, Nepal’s oldest and largest university. The capacity building workshop was organised by HEAN and the Health and Population Education Department at the Central Department of Education at Tribhuvan University. The local charity Green Tara Nepal acted as a facilitator. Bournemouth University has been collaborating with Green Tara Nepal for over a decade!
This capacity building workshop is part of Bournemouth University’s GCRF-funded project called “Sheetal Asthitva” covering India and Nepal. Sheetal Asthitva is the brain child of Dr. Shanti Shanker in the Department of Psychology.
Global staff mobility, including training and teaching, leads to professional development and networking and brings great benefits to BU and our students, whilst offering invaluable international experience.
We are pleased to announce that staff, both academic and professional support, can now apply for funds to support these activities through Erasmus+.
The closing deadline is 9am Monday 10th February 2020.
Erasmus+ staff mobility funds can be used to support travel, accommodation and subsistence of academic and professional support staff attending training at an organisation or institution in Europe. It can also be used for academic staff wishing to teach at a European university.
To be eligible for teaching (not training) mobilities, BU needs to have an agreement with the proposed University – you can check which organisations we have inter-institutional agreements with in the globalBU database.
You can find all the necessary application forms, FAQs and guidance at Global Staff Mobility
This year we are running two formal Information Sessions for interested staff members on:
| Thursday 23rd January 2020 | 1pm – 2pm | Lansdowne Campus, EBC | EB203 |
| Friday 24th January 2020 | 1pm – 2pm | Talbot Campus, Poole House | P221 |
Please book your place for 23rd Jan using this link: Eventbrite link Thursday Jan 23rd 2020
Please book your place for 24th Jan using this link: Eventbrite link Friday 24th January 2020
In addition we will have informal drop-in sessions as follows:
| Thursday 16th January 2020 | 1pm – 4 pm | Global Mobility Hub, Ground Floor, Poole House (next to student shop) |
| Thursday 30th January 2020
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1pm – 4 pm | Global Mobility Hub, Ground Floor, Poole House (next to student shop) |
Don’t hesitate to contact globalstaffmobility@bournemouth.ac.uk if you have any queries.
“On the twelfth day of Christmas ….” the editor of the Journal of Health Research Ms Sunanta Wongchalee informed us that our paper ‘Silicone use in Nepali transgender women: The hazards of beauty’ has been accepted for publication [1]. That is nice belated Christmas present to receive on January 6th and a good start of the New Year. The paper is written by FHSS’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen with Sanjeev Raj Neupane in Nepal. This is the second paper from this unique study on transgender women in Nepal, the first one was published last year in BMJ Open [2].
References:
For nearly a decade BU researchers have published widely about the hazards and risk of Nepali migrant workers in Asia and the Middle East [1-9]. Despite the fact that most migrant workers end up in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in their host countries, only a minority report poor working environments. For example, in Pratik Adhikary’s PhD study in FHSS only just over a fifth of migrant workers reported that their work environment in the Middle East or Malaysia was poor or very poor [4]. This relatively high level of satisfaction appears to seems contradict reports in local media on the risks associated with Nepali migrants working abroad, especially focusing on the football world cup in Qatar [7], official reports that many hundreds of bodies of dead Nepali migrants return home every year [10], and the fact that many of these Nepali migrant workers end up doing the jobs the local populations finds too dirty, dangerous and demeaning (colloquially referred to as 3D-jobs). Why do so many who travel abroad take to do risky, dirty and otherwise undesirable jobs, but still assess their working environment as not too bad?
More theoretical papers on the drivers of migration have referred to many interconnected factors and links [11-12]. Local drivers in Nepal include poverty, lack of employment opportunities, having a history of work-related migration, a growing culture of migration (i.e. it becomes more or less an expectation) and many more. One local element that is perhaps too easily ignored is that many Nepali migrant workers would have ended up in dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs at home too. And the risk, on for example building sites in Nepal might be even greater than that in Qatar or elsewhere in the Middle East as some of the photos below illustrate. These photos of an accident involving an external building lift were taken today on a building site in Kathmandu. 
References:
The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology published its final edition of 2019 today, on the final day of the year. This issue included an editorial co-authored by BU academics and BU Visiting Faculty. The editorial ‘Vaping and e-cigarettes: A public health warning or a health promotion tool?’ [1] addresses the topical public health question of what to make of vaping. On the one hand, vaping is generally regarded as less harmful than smoking tobacco, but on the other hand, it can be a gateway drug to cigarettes and the process of vaping a range of chemicals it in itself not harmless.
The paper has been written by two academics based in CMMPH (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health), Dr. Preeti Mahato and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and FHSS Visiting Faulty members Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at the University of Huddersfield) and Dr. Brijesh Sathian (based at Trauma Surgery,in Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar) in collaboration with e-cigarette user Mr. Cameron van Teijlingen (based in Dorset) and Dr. Mohammad Asim (based at Trauma Surgery,in Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar). The Nepal Journal of Epidemiology is Open Access and therefore freely accessible across the globe.
Reference:
It’s our last update until the New Year – we give you the Queen’s speech (not that one, the one at the State opening) and the OfS annual review, to get you ready for what will be coming in the New Year. At the time of writing MPs are expected to pass the second reading of the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill, paving the way for the more detailed third reading stage in January.
Happy Christmas and a happy new year to all our readers, and thank you for your patience in what has been a very interesting year!
You can read the Queen’s Speech here along with the PM’s introduction and briefing notes about all the legislation etc. The Executive Summary in this briefing document sets out the legislative programme clearly.
This Queen’s Speech will deliver Brexit on 31 January and allow the Government to deliver on people’s priorities and unleash the country’s potential. The Government’s first priority is to deliver Brexit on 31 January and to negotiate an ambitious free trade agreement with the EU that benefits the whole country This Queen’s Speech sets out how we will seize the opportunities created by Brexit:
You will remember that “The Home Secretary has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (the MAC) to consider points-based systems, including the Australian immigration system and other international comparators. The MAC is due to report in January 2020.”
And this from the more detailed briefing:
Our new single system will allocate points on a range of criteria in three broad categories and it will be focused on skills and talents, not nationality:
Although it isn’t mentioned in the briefing, this was the October 2019 briefing on graduate employment rights
The Speech sets out a number of proposals to invest in and support our public services:
This is from the more detailed briefing on education
The Speech sets out a variety of measures to support workers and families:
The Speech reaffirms our commitment to strengthening the criminal justice system, ensuring it keeps people safe:
The Speech sets out how we will improve our infrastructure and level up opportunity across the country:
The detailed note says:
To build on our world-leading excellence in science and deliver solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges we are:
This Queen’s Speech deepens our commitment to safeguarding the natural environment for future generations:
The Government will continue to work to strengthen the bonds between the different parts of the UK and to safeguard its constitution and democratic processes:
The Speech confirms our determination to celebrate and support the work of our courageous armed forces and to retain and enhance the UK’s global status and reach as we leave the EU:
We have mentioned the government’s promises on research funding above. Wonkhe have done some analysis
The Office for Students have issued an annual review which defends their approach to date and sets out some continuing and new frontiers for intervention in the sector. The headline lets you know what is coming: England’s universities world class, but pockets of poor provision letting students down.
Before we get stuck into the detail, there is some analysis of this and the OfS board papers from Wonkhe – Jim Dickinson on plans for student protection:
And David Kernohan on the OfS board papers – he has a whole advent calendar full of points (26) but we’ve pulled out a few
So back to the Review. Nicola Dandridge says:
The blog summarises the areas of focus:
In the main document, there are some interesting points:
Registration:
And the process has not been without challenges:
And what does the future hold:
On 20th December, Nicola Dandridge published a blog with similar themes:
From Wonkhe: The Home Office has published statistics on individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent programme for April 2018 to March 2019. Of 1,887 cases reported by the education sector (the largest single sector in terms of referrals), only 324 linked explicitly to Islamic extremism – 530 cases specified right wing extremism. David Kernohan asks if we should be thinking again.
In an announcement trailed in the Conservative manifesto the government has confirmed the reintroduction of maintenance support for nursing (and other healthcare) under=graduates, with more details to follow in the New Year.
Students will receive at least £5,000 a year, with up to £3,000 further funding available for eligible students, including for:
This means that some students could be eligible for up to £8,000 per year, with everyone getting at least £5,000. The funding will be available from next year. Further details on who can access the support will be available in early 2020.
The funding will not have to be repaid by recipients. Students will also be able to continue to access funding for tuition and maintenance loans from the Student Loans Company.
The day of the election, twitter was full of pictures of long queues of students at University polling stations waiting to vote. Students were encouraged by the Labour party to vote tactically. HEPI have a blog about the impact and David Kernohan of Wonkhe did some more intensive analysis.
Nick Hillman says:
David asks:
UCAS issued more data about the 2019 admissions cycle. There were headlines about unconditional offers (they went up) with some faux outrage associated with it (the bit Ministerial assault on conditional unconditionals came too late for any institution to change its policy for 2019.
From the UCAS reports – main report
All very interesting stuff for the OfS when doing their review of admissions.
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 is the second time in a week that I have the pleasure of announcing a paper by our PhD student Orlanda Harvey. This PhD-based paper ‘Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs’ has been accepted by the scientific journal Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy (published by Taylor & Francis) [1]. Orlanda’s PhD is a mixed-methods study of social workers working with people using un-prescribe /recreational Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) in several high-income countries including the UK.
With her success in publishing Orlanda is a good ambassador for Bournemouth University’s PhD Integrated Thesis format. Such Integrated Thesis allows PhD candidates to incorporate material that has been published or submitted for publication to an academic peer-reviewed journal. Apart from the inclusion of such materials, the Integrated Thesis must conform to the same regulations as the traditional PhD thesis. Including Orlanda’s previously published review on AAS [3] she is well underway to putting together a well-balanced Integrated Thesis supported by her Faculty of Health & Social Sciences supervisors: Dr. Margarete Parrish, Dr. Steven Trenoweth and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen.
Of course, last week Orlanda already featured in the December of HED Matters as Early Career Researcher (ECR) with an article on ‘ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids’ [2]. See also my BU Research Blog of four days ago (click here!).
Congratulations!
Prof . Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Reference:
We will have a seminar session with the guest lecturer, Professor Nariaki Ikematsu (Consultant, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology; NICT). This session is the third ‘spin-out’ event from DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS (6-7 December 2019). This research seminar is conducted as a Skype video conference.
Professor Ikematsu will present a contemporary topic of blockchain impact in the Asian countries, Thailand and Vietnam. He will talk about some cases including the business practices of ‘PIZZA 4P’S Makes the World Smile for Peace through “Edutainment”’ referring to the key factors ‘local consumption’ and ‘innovative supply chain management’. https://www.earthackers.com/pizza-4ps-makes-the-world-smile-for-peace-through-edutainment/ (Accessed 12 December 2019).
This seminar is held in line with the suggestions from a Key Note Speech made by Professor Sangeeta Khorana at the conference, DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS on the 6th December in Tunis.
This session will provide unique topics in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as ‘Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’ and ’Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals’.
This session also aligns with BU2025 strategic investment areas (SIAs), Simulation & Visualisation and Assistive Technology.
The BU ECRs, PhD researchers, and MSc students are welcome to this session.
The session will be facilitated by Dr Hiroko Oe and an ECR, Ediz Akchay. Mr. Gideon Adu-Gyamfi (MSc International Management) will also contribute as a discussant.
*For more details, please email to hoe@brounemouth.ac.uk
It’s a full moon on polling day and the results will be announced on Friday the 13th! Superstitions aside we’re issuing your policy update early this week before the election outcomes are announced so you can focus on all the educational news. Fear not, we’ll bring you all the election fall out and early outcome scenarios in a post-election special edition.
We’re not including the myriad of speeches and party declarations this week. However, worth a short mention is the Education Policy Institute (EPI) who have (like many others) analysed the five main parties’ manifestos, compared them against EPI costings, and considered what the impact would be from an independent perspective. They conclusions don’t paint the rosiest of futures for the education sector:
Natalie Perera, Executive Director and Head of Research at the Education Policy Institute, said:
A NUS General Election survey with healthcare students found that 68% of students (with a loan) are more likely to vote for a party because they plan to bring back maintenance grants post-election. Claire Sosienski Smith, NUS Vice President (Higher Education) also mentioned the NUS Homes Fit for Study Report which said 1 in 6 students are unable to keep up with their rent payments. She said “we know that a student finance system based on individual debt is fundamentally flawed.” This was reinforced by the recent General Election survey with 2 out of 3 students stating they did not have enough money left to pay for everything once they had paid their rent and 43% rely on their bank overdraft. Healthcare students particularly raised issues of having to fund placement expenses up front, inadequate hardship funding systems and paramedics who are unable to access reimbursement for placements.
Also hitting the news this week are the health care courses at risk due to the bursary removal recruitment crisis – podiatry, radiotherapy, prosthetics, orthoptics, and mental health and learning disability nursing. BU’s Steve Tee, Executive Dean of HSS, is quoted in the article:
There is an interesting article on Wonkhe by Mark Corver of dataHE. Sarah was lucky enough to hear him speak at Wonkfest and explain how claims about grade inflation rely on inaccurately data. The data modelling actually suggests grade deflation –a double whammy for students. The article is a little technical but worth a read to understand why the Government’s claims are being refuted. It also has a high number of comments at the bottom of the article showing how engaging it is (and as Wonkhe only publish the ‘most interesting’ comments we can imagine there was a lot more chatter than published). Some excerpts to get you started:
Clear Accessible Finance Information throughout the Student Lifecycle
In June UUK and NEON published The Financial Concerns of Students. They said that the available information on tuition fees and the student loan system in England is often inaccessible and unclear, and that students want more information on how universities spend tuition fee income. The main findings were:
Since the report NEON and UUK ran a student finance information advisory group consisting of sector experts from nationwide leading organisations who work with prospective and current students to communicate student finance information. This week the group published Improving the provision of information on student finance and have proposed a Student Finance National Education Programme which recommends how to ensure student finance is more understandable and accessible for all (including family members). In summary:
Wonkhe have a blog on the topic: How we communicate student finance needs a re-think.
Accommodation
Wonkhe report that Commercial Estates specialist Cushman and Wakefield have reported on the level of private student accommodation. Key points:
The Times covers the report in the (very short!) Students struggling to find affordable accommodation.
Research Professional also covered the report in their own way highlighting concerns over absence of affordable student rooms stating that private student accommodation blocks are becoming more luxurious but affordable options remain scarce.
Eva Crossan Jory, vice-president for welfare at NUS echoed this and called for rent controls to stop prices spiralling further. “This is the latest report to confirm the increasing cost of accommodation has created a real affordability problem for students,” she said, adding that “reform is urgently required.”
HEPI have released a wide range of content this week. Their policy note (prepared by colleagues at Exeter University) on Social Mobility has particularly been picked up by the media. The note begins by stating
Interestingly they state that if the number of degree places at the selective institution remains static (i.e. doesn’t grow) the number of places for advantaged pupils would need to fall by as much as 10,000, which is one-third of current annual intakes [to meet social mobility targets]. To meet the targets highly selective universities would need to double their places over the next 20 years to ensure all young people access the same participation rates as the most advantaged students. An extra 19,400 18-year old students from the least advantaged areas would need to enrol each year at highly-selective universities to equal the current participation rate of 18-year olds from the most advantaged areas.
Other recommendations:
On Contextual Admissions the report states:
Later the policy note acknowledges how university league tables have ‘chilling effects’ on universities’ efforts to promote social mobility. But rankings are here to stay.
Instead the policy note authors suggest that social mobility rankings could bring balance to the importance placed on current attainment based ranks.
On the place lottery:
The policy note concludes:
The Times takes up the HEPI report arguing for most selective universities to allocate places to all those meeting the A level grade criteria threshold by lottery (with a fall back place at another University for students who do not ‘win’ the lottery).
HEPI have also published a reply to the paper on their website by Tim Blackman, VC of the Open University.
Meanwhile Prospect Magazine takes a differing tack arguing that education is no longer a path out of the social mobility trap and that a greater focus on creating better jobs is a solution.
Finally Wonkhe have a new blog on the transformative experience of HE for care leavers.
Student Minds have created the University Mental Health Charter – a set of principles to ensure student and staff mental health becomes a UK wide university priority. The principles will inform the Charter Award Scheme which will be developed during 2020 to recognise universities promoting with excellent mental health practices. This summary contains the key recommendations under various topics such as transitioning to university, learning and assessment, support services, managing risks, residential accommodation, and proactive interventions. There is a timeline highlighting the next steps as the Charter Award Scheme is developed and piloted. The Scheme is due to launch in Winter 2020.
Student Minds highlight that the Charter has drawn on all the current evidence, research and sector context to ensure its real world validity for the university sector. It states it isn’t intended to be definitive and encourages institutions to combine the elements to fit the local context. Future work will review the Charter and refresh it as new evidence emerges with a major review every 3-5 years. In conclusion Student Minds state:
Mark Fudge, Chair of the University and Colleges Division for the British Association of Counselling, responded to the Charter’s publication:
Universities UK has published a public poll (data available here). British adults were interviewed on their attitudes towards the immigration of university staff coming into the UK. Had there not been a purdah period for the General Election the timing of this poll would have hit whilst the Migration Advisory Committee considers how to implement a points-based immigration system and a salary threshold for international staff. Key points:
Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK, commented on the findings:
Wonkhe reported that a linked report from Universities Scotland had similar attitudinal findings with 78% of Scottish adults agreeing that the immigration system should support the entry of academics and support staff. The National covers the Scottish perspective.
Political untruths: Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price published a new draft law on Thursday that would make deliberate lying by politicians a criminal offence. The bill states “It shall be an offence for an elected representative acting in their capacity, or an agent acting on their behalf, to make or publish a statement they know to be misleading, false or deceptive in a material particular”. Adam was interviewed by Sky News highlighting how Parliament had changed: “Unfortunately we are normalising a dishonesty, we used to have conventions, social mores and norms etc. you know people used to resign in parliament if they mislead”. Adam said the push for the lying law was triggered by the misleading and false information such as Conservative HQ rebranding their twitter account to appear to be a fact checking service alongside other politicians Brexit claims which the EU have refuted.
Student Vote denied: The Independent report on the c.200 Cardiff Halls students who registered to vote but were not informed their application was incomplete and have been denied the vote. The student quoted in the article selected her address from a pre-filled drop down list but later discovered it had not registered her because it did not contain her room number. NUS called for Cardiff Council to resolve this unacceptable outcome. The Council said they had not been able to contact the c.200 people who supplied the incomplete addresses to register them in time.
Gamification: A Wonkhe article considers whether gaming could be a positive outreach method (alongside more traditional current efforts) in Simulation games: can gaming break barriers to university?
System Working: NHS Digital has published a briefing on workforce challenges in the NHS:
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
A fresh selection of educational reports were issued this week. When we issue next week’s policy update the election results will be out. The campaign has already got a bit over-heated, with leaks from both main parties, edited videos, dodgy data and everyone trying to avoid making the ultimate error in today’s world – the soundbite in which you admit that the interviewer may have a point. It is becoming increasingly hard to listen to interviews in which people read out their prepared lines and then repeat them over and over again. And it will probably get worse next week. So we’re going election light in this update.
If you are interested in comparing manifesto pledges, the BBC have an interactive tool here. And here is our own comparison of the major parties’ take on the key HE issues.
The Nuffield Foundation have published a new English Atlas of Inequality (created by University of Sheffield) challenging the current one-metric approach to disadvantage in distinguishing between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ areas.
The research uses three separate measures of inequality and compares the results of each measure in ‘travel to work areas’ to outcomes for the population in mortality, poverty and entry to higher education; to understand how alternative approaches to understanding inequality can produce very different results. The measures used consider income distribution, a measure of economic imbalance within areas, and geographic clustering of different income groups. The report also stresses the risk of relying on one metric to understand an issue so they compared all three measures across the geographical classifications of local authority districts, parliamentary constituencies, and the ‘travel to work’ areas.
Professor Rae (author, Sheffield) said:
An example given in the report is that
Alex Beer, Programme Head at the Nuffield Foundation, said:
The report makes four recommendations:
On local areas Dorchester and Weymouth are rated 11th in the country as least unequal. Portsmouth and Southsea are among the most unequal. (Remember areas can be poor but still equal.) You can also delve into all the map detail for different areas here (e.g. by constituency, by travel to work area, and by local authority areas).
(Joyce, R. and Xu, X. (2019) Inequalities in the twenty-first century, Introducing the IFS Deaton Review, Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Nuffield Foundation, London.)
UCL and the Nuffield Foundation have launched ‘Mismatch in Higher Education’ . Mismatch is a term that’s become very popular in widening participation and governmental circles recently, particularly after the Behavioural Insights Team considered how they could use nudge theory to tackle academic mismatch. A ‘mismatch’ is when a student selects or attends a course/institution which is less or more selective (competitive) than their academic achievement might suggest they could attain.
In the Nuffield investigation a course was benchmarked by using the median A-level (and equivalent) exam results of the students studying on the course as well as the average earnings of previous graduates of the course. The report finds that there is significant under- and over-match in the UK. They also confirm the widely held belief that there are substantial socio-economic status (SES) and gender gaps in mismatch, with low SES students and women attending lower quality courses than their attainment might otherwise warrant. Past universities ministers Sam Gyimah, Chris Skidmore and (briefly) Jo Johnson all picked up the theme of ensuring the most capable students from disadvantaged backgrounds aspired to and were able to access the most selective institutions. Under matching by disadvantaged students and females has ramifications for social mobility and the gender pay gap.
Key Points:
The data points have been taken from a report by Dods Political Consultants because at the time of writing the full report findings have not been released to the public outside of those attending the launch event for us to verify their accuracy.
Cheryl Lloyd, Programme Head at the Nuffield Foundation, says:
Co-author, Professor Lindsey Macmillan (UCL Institute of Education) explains:
HEPI have published students or data subjects? What students think about university data security.
The research stems from the volume of data HEIs collect on students both for regulatory purposes or to gather information about student experience. The authors suggest the volume of data collected will increase further as the Government’s focus on measuring universities’ performance through metrics and the internal analysis of data increases. Key Points:
Rachel Hewitt, HEPI’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, said:
Michael Natzler, HEPI’s Policy Officer, said:
On learning analytics the majority of students were happy for their anonymised data on accessing university buildings, online platform usage, library books checked out to be aggregated into patterns and used as insights for other students, lecturers, to forecast if future students will drop out and to predict their own performance from the similarity of behaviours from past students (including possibility of drop out).
HEPI concluded:
The DfE have published the PISA (programme for International Student Assessment) 2018 reports coving the four areas of the UK. Once every three years the PISA measures 15-year-old school pupils’ abilities in reading, mathematics and science through ‘their competence to address real-life challenges’. PISA is administered by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). It is a snapshot assessment checking how countries are performing relative to each other,
TES covered the release in PISA results must be a relief for the government (but there are still many challenges that we must address). This includes the England’s higher scores for pupil dissatisfaction and poorer wellbeing. Also that many pupils said they only read if they have to, not for enjoyment which the article says is of concern, given the importance of reading – for future learning, stimulating creativity and imagination (sought after by employers).
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 are not any new consultations or inquiries this week because we are still in the purdah period.
Transnational Education: The Government have released statistics costing the revenue generated through transnational education (THE) and other education related exports. The HE highlights:
New Welsh Tertiary System: The Welsh Children, Young People and Education Committee have published their final report scrutinising the HE (Wales) Act 2015. This report aims to showcase evidence to learn the lessons of the 2015 Act, which is considered unsuccessful and set to be repealed. The report also sets the scene to influence the preparation of the forthcoming Tertiary Education Bill. The new bill will establish a new Tertiary Education and Research Commission for Wales, which will oversee the entire post-16 education system. Lynne Neagle AM, Committee Chair, said:
GCSE changes: The Sutton Trust has released the report Making the Grade analysing the impact of GCSE reforms on the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Read the executive summary for a main synopsis in general the gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their more advantaged peers have not changed significantly (except for triple science), partly due to the conscious maintenance of grade boundaries and the comparable outcomes approach. Of concern is that less disadvantaged students are achieving the highest marks and grades – potentially impacting on future social mobility as less disadvantaged students achieve the top grades needed to apply to the most selective institutions and impacting on their graduate wage due to the focus top employers place on recruiting from the selective institutions.
Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, commented on the report:
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
In early December the Maternal & Child Health Journal accepted our latest research paper on maternity care based in Nepal [1]. The first author, Amrit Banstola, is based in Nepal and this exciting paper is co-authored with several Nepal-based collaborators as well as BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada. Prof. Simkhada recently moved from Liverpool John Moores University to the University of Huddersfield. The target journal Maternal & Child Health Journal has an Impact Factor of 1.736.
The Government of Nepal is trying to expand and improve the quality of maternal and neonatal health service delivery in more remote areas of the country. However, relatively little is known about the preparedness of maternity care facilities to providing Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) in remote and rural areas. In order to achieve improvement maternal health services in one remote district to help achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Our study assesses what birthing centres exist and how ready these are to provide EmOC services in Taplejung District.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Reference:
EMA held its 6th triennial education conference in Malmo, Sweden from the 28-29 November 2019. Dr. Luisa Cescutti-Butler and Professor Sue Way had three abstracts accepted, two of which highlighted units of learning in our midwifery undergraduate programme (Evaluating the student experience of introducing newborn infant physical theory into a pre-registration midwifery programme in the UK and An evaluation of the student experience of peer facilitated learning) and a further one which was focused on a national collaborative project on grading practice (Developing a set of key principles to achieve consistency in assessing pre-registration midwifery competency in practice in the UK). The opening keynote speaker at the EMA Conference was Fran McConville – Midwifery Expert at WHO. Fran presented on ‘Strengthening Quality Midwifery Education for Universal Health Coverage 2030’. Our takeaway message from her presentation was the following important statement: “When midwives are educated to international standards, and midwifery includes the provision of family planning……more than 80% of all maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths could be averted”.
On the social side we were privileged to a hear a woman from the Sammi tribe in Sweden sing three traditional songs and a tradition adopted from Syracuse in Sicily which was the ‘Santa Lucia’ group of singers celebrating the start of Christmas who sang Xmas Carols in Swedish. We were also able to network with some significant and contemporary midwifery leaders such as Gill Walton (CEO of the Royal College of Midwives), Fran McConville (WHO) and Grace Thomas, Reader and Lead Midwife for Education (Cardiff University).
RDS hosted the annual UK Research Office visit to BU on 18th November 2018. The event was well attended and wide-ranging. Topics included overview of the impact of Brexit on EU research funding and a review of hints and tips for being successful at securing international funding. The session was delivered by Dr Andreas Kontogeorgos, BU European Advisor at the UK Research Office.
All staff interested in EU funding were also able to express their concerns related to Brexit and discuss the EU funding related questions they were concerned about.
Presentation slides are available on Brightspace.
If you wish to further discuss issues related to Brexit or remaining H2020 funding opportunities, please contact Research Facilitator – International Ainar Blaudums.
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