Last chance to submit…
The Conference Committee welcome all PGRs in HSS to submit an abstract to present at the 2nd annual department conference, which will be held on Tuesday 4th June.
Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Last chance to submit…
The Conference Committee welcome all PGRs in HSS to submit an abstract to present at the 2nd annual department conference, which will be held on Tuesday 4th June.
Some more optimistic takes on what might be in the party manifestos for HE: the sort of commitments being asked for seem somewhat optimistic: later in this update I look at some detailed proposals on maintenance finance, a call to scrap the REF (which might have more take-up in the manifestos), the KEF via a HE- BCI survey (might someone suggest scrapping the KEP?), apprenticeship results are out and numbers on international education. Amongst all that I also look at a speech from Susan Lapworth.
You’ve seen the UUK one, here is the one from MillionPlus. (Policy update from February: The UUK manifesto sets out a wish list for the sector. It all looks very expensive and so while ambitious, unlikely to be replicated in anyone’s actual manifesto. We can expect to see more of these over the next few months. Research Professional have the story here.)
Iain Mansfield says that Labour should ‘scrap REF and save half a billion’, Research Professional reports. Not because there is any problem with a metric for research: just a strong feeling that it shouldn’t include a metric for environment and culture. RP add: Speaking at Research Professional News live last week, Labour’s shadow science minister, Chi Onwurah, said she was “concerned about some of the bureaucracy associated with the REF” and stopped short of committing to retaining it in its current form. I don’t think that means stopping the culture and environment part, but it is hard to know. These debates will run for a while.
The HE-BCI survey is used in the Knowledge Exchange Framework. Just how much difference the KEF makes to anything and how interested anyone except the sector really is in it, is still, for me, an open question that I have asked since KEF was just a glint in Jo Johnson’s eye (the third leg of the HE stool etc…). Of course if they started using KEF to allocate HEIF it would matter a lot more, but the KEF data doesn’t really lend itself to that. As a reminder, it uses a different comparison group (clusters) to everything else, three of its “perspectives” are self-assessed and all it tells you is whether engagement with the perspective is deemed to be low, medium or high. In a highly technical presentation format.
But as the (only real) metrics behind the (incomprehensible) KEF wheels (just take a look here and see what you learn), HE-BCI data does have some influence. And HESA did a survey on some bits of it which closed in January. There will be another consultation at some point.
It is always interesting to hear or read a speech by the head of the OfS, so here is one.
After a friendly introduction telling the Association of Colleges what good work their members do, it is straight in on quality:
Talking about the ongoing quality assessments, there are some changes coming:
A defensive approach to the big effort on freedom of speech? You decide
And some new areas of focus:
And there is a new strategy consultation coming for the OfS.
Achievements rate update: a update published by the DfE. The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, Robert Halfon has written an open letter to the apprenticeship sector celebrating the latest achievement rates and setting out some developments.
While the government are very keen to encourage more apprenticeships, there is a stern approach to providers here: not dissimilar to the rhetoric on HE, there will be student number controls linked to quality as defined by outcomes. While “training not being as good as hoped” is a factor in the list above, as is “poor organisation” of the programme, that is in the context of all the other reasons linked to employers and jobs. However, the government can’t do much about those, and is not in the business of discouraging employers from participating. But this will put more pressure on providers who are already finding apprenticeships bureaucratic and hard and expensive to deliver.
It’s not putting them off just yet, though. This update from the OfS on the second wave of funding for apprenticeships highlights how many providers are really going for it. Degree apprenticeships funding competition: Funding allocated to wave 2 projects (officeforstudents.org.uk)
Anyway, the ideas for future development in the Minister’s letter are:
Oh dear, another negative story about student debt that will discourage potential applicants (and as always, their parents). This time it is the BBC who revealed that the UK’s highest student debt was £231k. Quite how they managed to rack up that much is unclear: by doing lots of courses, it seems (although surely there are limits on that – apparently there are exceptions to those rules). The highest level of interest accumulated was around £54,050. The student interviewed is a doctor: the length of medical programmes means that, along with vets and dentists, doctors tend to accumulate the highest student loans.
The Sutton Trust have published a report on reforming student maintenance ahead of the general election.
There are suggestions about how to address the challenges.
Scenarios include
The government has issued 2021 data on UK revenue from education related exports and transnational education activity.
David Kernohan from Wonkhe has some analysis, always worth checking out for the nuances, including:
Research Professional also has an article.
Today we received a copy of the book Appreciating Health and Care in the post. This book has a sub-title ‘A practical appreciative inquiry resource for the health and social care sector’ and refers to the work led by Bournemouth University’s Dr. Rachel Arnold. Appreciative Inquiry values people’s expertise and vision and can motivate people to see the world differently and instigate positive change. Rachel been the lead author on several publications around Appreciative Inquiry [1-3].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health (CMWH)
References:
TBL for supported self-management of low back pain
A team based in the Department of Nursing Science led by Dr Jonny Branney have began a research project to investigate the potential role of Team-based Learning (TBL – for more on TBL, please read on) in enhancing the supported self-management of patients with low back pain. The team will be working with Joe Barry, musculoskeletal physiotherapist, NHS Somerset, to implement this new approach in a 5-week course for patients with persistent back pain. The project began with a patient-public involvement (PPI) online consultation in February 2024, funded by NIHR RDS South West, where 10 expert patients gave their views on what was planned – and the plans have been modified and improved accordingly. The TBL pain classes will be implemented in April-May 2024. The team are eagerly awaiting the outcome of a bid for a TBLC Research Grant which would fund a researcher to interview the patients who attend the first class to learn from their experiences with a view to learning how best to scale up the innovation.
Connected to this research there are two TBL workshops running next week – if this has piqued your interest then please read on and we hope you can join us next week!
Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an evidence based flipped classroom teaching and learning strategy. With TBL, students are required to engage with pre-class materials before working through a test in class as an individual and then in a team of 5-6 students. This process helps to prepare the student teams to then engage with application exercises, where they apply their knowledge in making decisions to manage real-world scenarios relevant to their discipline. Think TBL might be a good fit for your teaching and learning approach? Fancy trying something different? Come and join us!
Facilitators: Dr Jonny Branney, Principal Academic in Nursing and Clinical Sciences; Certified Consultant-Trainer in TBL
and Ryan Muldoon, Lecturer in Adult Nursing
Venue: BRANKSOME – Talbot Campus
Date: Wednesday 6th March 2024
Workshop 1: Fundamental Principles and Practices of TBL (10am – 12pm)
Learning outcomes:
Workshop 2: Evaluating Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) for Readiness Assurance Tests (RATs) and Application Activities (1pm – 3pm)
Learning outcomes:
Want to know more? Have a look here: www.teambasedlearning.org
Hope to see you there!
An interesting mixture of news: a look around through the eyes of the House of Lords library and a lengthy analysis of the differences between the 4 nations, a hopeful look forward through the UUK manifesto for the election, Research England are taking steps on spin-outs and there are serious concerns about abuse of franchised provision arrangements in some parts of the sector. I also look at the latest developments in two sad cases of student deaths and what the might mean for the sector going forwards. A look at Scottish and Welsh funding for HE just makes everyone scratch their heads more about how to make the numbers add up.
Here’s something cheerful in the context of all the criticism of the sector: a House of Lords library briefing on the sector’s contribution to the economy and levelling up. This has come out because there is a motion in the House of Lords in early March: Lord Blunkett (Labour) to move that this House takes note of the contribution of higher education to national growth, productivity and levelling up.
As we were reminded by all this week’s chaos and anger about the Gaza motion and its various amendments, these “motions” have no actual force: they don’t directly lead to any action or decision, they are usually very party political in nature and it is not unusual for one party or another to decline to vote on them at all so that while they may be passed there is even less meaning to be taken from them.
That is not to say that they don’t have some impact: the debate itself can influence perceptions in the longer term and the briefings are always interesting. A reminder that briefings from the libraries of the House of Commons and the House of Lords are not party political: they are intended to be factual and to be used by all potential participants in the debate. As such they provide a useful summary of the current state of affairs.
So to this one:
Citing a London Economics report for UUK in August 2023: Its analysis estimated that the ‘economic footprint’ of HE providers across the UK resulted in:
And goes on to quote from the report: In addition to the large impact within the government, health, and education sector itself (£52.8bn of economic output), the activities of UK HE providers are estimated to generate particularly large impacts within the distribution, transport, hotels, and restaurants sector (£15.4bn), the production sector (£12.6bn), the real estate sector (£9.7bn), and the professional and support activities sector (£9.2bn).
Using a separate London Economics Report with HEPI and Kaplan International Pathways from May 2023 it also refers to findings about the contribution of international students: The average impact was highest for parliamentary constituencies in London (with an average net impact of £131mn per constituency, equivalent to £1,040 per resident). The average impact per parliamentary constituency in the North East and Scotland was estimated at £640 and £750 respectively per member of the resident population; between £500 and £510 per member of the resident population in the East and West Midlands, Northern Ireland, and Yorkshire and the Humber; and between £360 and £390 in the North West, South East, South West, the East of England, and Wales
There is a load of data about participation, and then this on outcomes, using the government’s graduate labour market statistics from June 2023
The paper goes on to talk about government policy, including its levelling up strategy, but also its policy statement from July 2023 which was the final response to the Augar review from 2019. You’ll remember this one, it talked about promoting level 4 and 5 courses, applying student numbers controls to provision with “poor outcomes”, and proposed fee caps and loan limits for foundation years. [You will also recall that this confirmed they would not go ahead with the minimum entry requirements that had been proposed].
In the context of international students, the paper notes the concerns about immigration and the recent changes to visa rules to prevent most students bringing their families to the UK. Following some exciting stories in the press about entry standards (which were covered in the last update), the paper notes the recent announcement by UUK that they will review admissions practices for international students.
UUK has recently announced a review of admissions practices for international students following concerns that institutions were lowering admission standards to bolster recruitment and fees. This will include reviews of:
There’s an analysis of responses to the levelling up approach including a reference to a report by Lord Willetts from October 2023 which set out four groups of benefits that higher education can offer individuals and society.
It should be an interesting debate, and a useful reminder of the value of higher education. Just don’t expect any policy changes as a result.
The UUK manifesto sets out a wish list for the sector. It all looks very expensive and so while ambitious, unlikely to be replicated in anyone’s actual manifesto. We can expect to see more of these over the next few months. Research Professional have the story here.
An article in the FT by Alison Wolf calls for the percentage of the apprenticeship levy to be reduced, for it to be extended to smaller businesses and for limits what it can be used for.
In the meantime, the Education Policy Institute, along with a range of partners, have published a report Comparing policies, participation and inequalities across UK post-16 education and training landscapes. This is an interim report and compares contexts, choices and outcomes across the 4 nations. It’s a weighty piece and mostly about 16-18 education, but some highlights relevant to HE include:
Recommendations are mostly about schools and FE not HE, but we would agree with this:
In the section about funding it notes the divide between FE and HE (from p24):
You will recall that the government published alongside the Autumn Statement its response to the Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies. The government said that it accepted all the recommendations of the review and would implement them all. These were:
Research England have now set out how they are going to do all this. There is a blog here.
And this: Our Connecting Capability Fund (CCF)-RED programme is our main approach to developing university commercialisation capability, through collaboration. We are shortly to publish our priority commercialisation themes for CCF-RED including a first opportunity to bid
In late January there was a National Audit Office report that triggered press interest into allegedly fraudulent outsourced providers of HE. It doesn’t name providers. As a result there is a hearing at the Public Accounts Committee on 26th Feb. More here from Wonkhe.
We already knew that subcontracted provision is one of the OfS priorities for quality assurance reviews this year but those quality assurance reviews are not usually announced in advance and we don’t believe that they have been kicked off for this year yet.
This week the OfS have announced a formal investigation into one university in relation to its subcontracted provision, looking at whether:
A Wonkhe article on the formal investigation: 22nd Feb 24 highlights the large proportion of subcontracted students at this provider.
Context from the NAO report:
Summary findings:
There are some interesting articles from the last year here:
A HEPI paper from this week suggested some ways forward, describing what one provider (Buckinghamshire New University) already does and concluding: “We believe the solution is a strong sector-wide and sector-owned code of practice that requires higher education institutions to work together in the wider interests of students and stakeholders, including government and regulators. This would see higher education institutions establish effective consortia for each franchisee, simplifying and coordinating the multiple demands they place on franchisees, and strengthening the requirements to enhance quality and promote stability”.
There has been a long running campaign by bereaved parents, politicians and others to impose a “duty of care” on universities in relation to students with mental health issues, sometimes described as similar to universities being “in loco parentis” for students. The stories are always terribly sad and this is a difficult area, especially as students are adults and sometimes do not want to engage with university services or staff on these issues, and sometimes don’t want to involve their parents either. A little bit of clarity is emerging as a result of two recent cases. There is no legal duty of care (whatever that means) yet, but there is discussion about a responsibility on staff to “notice” and also about a duty to ensure that process and procedures don’t get in the way of reasonable adjustments.
This debate will continue: the government is pushing all universities to sign up to the University Mental Health Charter (BU has) and the OfS is also undertaking work on this. The government have a taskforce led by Professor Edward Peck, and I reported on their first stage report in the last policy update: you can find that report here and the policy update from 5th Feb here. It is a complex area but one where there will certainly be a lot more changes in approach to come: including potentially OfS licence conditions in the future.
I noted last time the recent coroner’s report into a student death at the University of Southampton. This Wonkhe article from January covers the story.
The next case relates to the University of Bristol. Again, Wonkhe have the story.
The response from the University of Bristol is here.
A year since the OfS launched their consultation on their new approach to this, we are still waiting for the outcome: the consultation closed in May 2023. There’s an anniversary HEPI blog on the issues, which are complex and contested: perhaps why it is taking the OfS so long to reach a conclusion.
Recent updates have talked about the conflicting rhetoric on international students: Lord Jo Johnson has written in the FT with a plan to sort out the problem. Nice try; but the first two seem unlikely to catch on:
There has been concern about falling numbers taking up healthcare courses, recently. This story on Research Professional notes the fall in nursing applications.
Research Professional noted that some of the mission groups have written to the Secretaries of State for Education and Health calling for a cross government taskforce. You can read the letter via the University Alliance website here.
The mission groups argue the taskforce would:
Universities UK have issued a report on why students may not go ahead, based on a survey.
As we have described before, we know very little about what a potential Labour government would do about HE funding: they want to make it both fairer and more affordable, they are not keen on capping ambition and reducing numbers, but there is no more money. The only thing we do know is that they are interested in what is happening in Wales on post-16 regulation. And it seems likely that they would improve maintenance funding, at least a bit.
So in that context this HEPI blog is interesting. HEPI are doing a tour and holding events this Spring to talk about how funding works across the UK and how it could be changed: I will report the outcomes.
The IfS have published a report on the Scottish budget for higher Education Spending.
Research Professional have the story here.
The implementation of the new legislation on freedom of speech continues. A new blog on the OfS website reminds us of where we are and of what is to come.
Our article in the January/February edition of the National Health Executive (NHE) magazine highlights misinformation around trials of the use of drones to transport medical items. The article, written in collaboration with Dr Andy Oakey at University of Southampton draws on findings from the three-year E-Drone research project and is part of a targeted dissemination plan as this project draws to a close. The article challenges assumptions around cost and carbon savings whilst questioning the need to transport items more quickly. It offers some quick ‘filters’ to apply when considering the role of drones in NHS logistics systems. Read it here for a taste of E-Drone Research (see project website for much, much more…)
Prof. Ann Luce (FMC), Ms. Georgia Turner (PhD candidate FST), Ms. Lauren Kennedy (MSc student FST) and Dr. Reece D. Bush-Evans (Lecturer in FST) are pleased to announce the publication of their most recent work in British Medical Journal: Medical Humanities titled, “Quite simply they don’t communicate: a case study of a National Health Service response to staff suicide”. You can access the article here for free.
Workplace suicide can have significant knock-on effects within an organisation, yet research has shown within the healthcare profession, not all staff receive suicide prevention training, and few employers take the time to reflect on the need to change workplace policies or practices following the death of a staff member to suicide. How staff suicide is communicated across an organisation and to family members is important. Effective crisis communication is critical for effective management for a timely and sensitive response to a staff suicide within an organisation. By doing so, workplaces can help to reduce the significant emotional trauma suicide can have on an employee, and support good mental health across its workforce.
This groundbreaking work in the field of suicide prevention is already having an impact. The work was cited by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee recent report on “Improving Mental Health Services”. Furthermore, the research has served as the underpinning evidence for NHS England’s National Suicide Prevention Toolkit for England, which will be implemented across all NHS Trusts in England. And, with a renewed focus on healthcare suicide, with a specific focus on female nurses, the research served as underpinning evidence for England’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy that was released in September 2023.
The team would like to thank all research participants as this was a difficult project to complete. Further, thanks must also be extended to NHS England for funding, the BU Open Access Fund, and the colleagues across BU who read drafts of the work prior to publication.
New year, new start for the BU HE policy update.
It’s an election year, so I will be looking at the policies, predictions and plots as the year unfolds alongside the usual news and comment. I’ll be trying some new approaches this year so let me know what you think.
Alongside all the policy and politics there are the big geopolitical issues that may escalate even more dangerously this year; with luck some of them may creep towards a resolution. Just to list a few: Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, China/Taiwan, ongoing conflict or issues in Yemen, Afghanistan, North Korea, elections in the US, Mexico, Venezuela, India and Pakistan and a new leader in Peru, a third of African nations have elections this year) alongside climate change and equality issues across the world. These issues have an impact on domestic politics including through the impact on cost of living and potentially as people seek clarity, reassurance or perceived strong leadership in a time of fear or uncertainty. There’s an interesting article here from CIDOB on the issues the world is facing this year.
If you are interested in predictions, IPSOS have a survey of what the public are expecting.
Let’s start with the current government’s pledges and likely priorities: as the year unfolds I will look at some of these in more detail and review the alternatives.
YouGov have a take on the most important issues facing the country: the economy, health, immigration and asylum are at the top
A year ago the PM set out 5 pledges: we can expect to hear a lot more about them. Reviews here from the BBC and the New Statesman:
The reason inflation mattered so much was the impact on cost of living. The increases may have slowed but costs are still high:
… food bank charities like the Trussell Trust are helping record numbers of people, and some people are using debt to pay for essentials … The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) collects data on destitution in the UK. Someone is ‘destitute’ when they didn’t have two or more of six essentials in the past month because they couldn’t afford them, or their income is too low to purchase the items themselves. JRF found that 1.8 million households experienced destitution in 2022, a 64% increase since 2019. The rising prices of essentials has contributed to this increase. The essential that most destitute people went without most often was
Things to watch this year: net migration:
Despite the focus on the small boats, the real policy issue is the net migration number, going back to the original pledge from more than a decade ago to reduce that number.
There is a useful annual report from the Migration Advisory Committee here (Oct 23).
This report also has a section on student migration which is discussed below in relation to international students.
Local elections and by-elections – always interesting in the run up to a general election: Local elections are in May (not in BCP), there is a by-election in February in Wellingborough: another test for the government as the former seat of Peter Bone MP is contested; and another possibly in Blackpool later in the year.
Spring budget: 6th March 2024: likely tax cuts, with a potential to reduce the fiscal drag point noted above, plus possible cut to inheritance tax. Other appeals to the Tory base are likely and there are rumours of “traps” to make life hard for Labour in the election campaign or if they win the election.
Political leadership: this is a mainly post-election consideration, but would Sunak step down if the Tories lose the election and who would replace him? What would happen to Starmer if Labour lose? What about the SNP and what will happen in Northern Ireland? Wales will have a new First Minister this year (in the Spring as they are holding leadership elections).
The political fallout from the Covid inquiry: which will continue through this year.
Some parliamentary bills of interest to HE were carried over to the new session, and new ones were announced in the King’s Speech such as:
As well as these, Labour have also talked about the possibility of replacing the system of education regulators with one combined regulator, as they are doing in Wales, Unlike the Conservatives, they do want to encourage more 18 year olds into HE. See the bold highlights below.
These were set out a while ago:
Lots of MPS are stepping down: update here from the Institute for Government and a nice interactive map from Cambridgeshire Live here: makes Scotland look very interesting as they lose standing MPs just as they are in trouble politically on lots of fronts.
This will be an interesting year as plans for REF 2029 (as we must now call it) are developed further. We will be watching for R&D announcements in the Spring budget.
If you missed our coverage of the King’s Speech and the Autumn Statement then you can catch it via the link and here are some highlights relating to RKE:
Announcements made in December including:
BU’s approach to the REF: the REF Steering Group, led by Professor Kate Welham, is working with the Interim Associate PVC for RKE, Professor Sarah Bate, and with colleagues from across BU on our approach to the REF and Kate is attending UET regularly to discuss developments. The REF Committee is chaired by Professor Einar Thorsen.
BU has responded to the consultations so far on the REF and will continue to do so: we broadly welcome the changes although we have flagged some concerns about inclusivity and the administrative burden.
The government have a database of their areas of research interest. These tell us “what policymakers are thinking, what their priorities are and where they need help”
UKRI are working through a 5 year strategy and it is helpful to recall their strategic themes:
There is always a lot to talk about on education in the policy updates, but for the first one of the year I wanted to go back to basics and look at the priorities for the OfS and the government and set them in context. For example, did you know:
Government policy as it relates to HE does not address the big elephant in the room: in other words they are NOT proposing any changes to fees and funding or maintenance arrangements. A series of changes to student loan arrangements came into effect in the autumn, including extending the repayment period.
If you missed our coverage of the King’s Speech and the Autumn Statement then you can catch it via the link and here are some highlights relating to education:
Funding priorities:
Read about OfS funding for 2023-24
The objectives are:
The two areas of focus are quality and standards and equality of opportunity. That results in 11 goals:
The OfS annual review provides some data to set the scene.
The report highlights that continuation is lower for:
The report highlights that completion is lower for:
The report highlights that attainment rates are lower for:
The report highlights that progression rates are lower for:
In relation to mature students, those aged 31-40 have the highest progression rates while those aged 50 and over have the lowest.
If you don’t follow the announcements from the OfS closely, you may have missed the trickle of OfS quality reports, so far in two subject areas, business and management and computing. There are context papers which provide an interesting read and then the investigation reports themselves (so far 5 published for business and management and one for computing). Concerns were found in 2 of the 5 business and management reports: no sanctions have been confirmed yet.
More detail is given below, but just to flag the priorities for 2024 quality assessments. With the government already having announced that fee caps will be reduced for some foundation year courses, note the link to foundation year courses below: there will be quality reviews in this area especially as outcomes are lower, as noted in the linked Wonkhe article from October.
OfS sector context papers:
Quality assessments: Business and management
Themes: concerns were found in relation to two of the five published so far and findings included:
Quality assessment: Computing: no concerns were found in relation to the one report published so far.
As noted above these remain a priority for the government (and would likely be for a Labour government too). In that context a report from the summer by UCAS with the Sutton Trust is interesting:
Student finance
The cost of living update from the House of Commons Library Nov 23 has a section on student loan repayments and maintenance support (page 64) which links to this report from September 2023 on the value of student maintenance support.
Despite all the negativity about international students in the context of the migration policy (see above) and the OfS’ regulatory concern about the risk of large numbers of international students, there is a positive policy in relation to international students: the government have an International Education Strategy that has two ambitions by 2030:
According to the annual report from the Migration Advisory Committee here (Oct 23) referred to below, this second target was achieved in 2020/21:
Student visas
The annual report from the Migration Advisory Committee here (Oct 23) referred to above also has a section on international students. It includes the policies on stopping dependants which have now been implemented.
There is some interesting data on student numbers: it shows the large number of international student in London and also Scotland (not surprisingly given their student number cap for home students). Perhaps surprisingly, there are more international than UK students in the East of England and the North East and numbers are more or less equal in Yorkshire and the Humber, although this data includes students on the London campus of universities based outside London.
Student numbers and admissions
UCAS projects that there could be up to a million higher education applicants in a single year in 2030, up from almost three quarters of a million today.
But will there be? Applications and admissions fell last year, but that was after a bumper post-covid year in 2022 and UCAS described it as a return to normality. Or is it the rhetoric from the government on mickey mouse degrees etc and changes to loan repayments making it more expensive for students in the long run having an impact? Time will tell: eyes will be on this year’s applications.
The OfS annual review provides some context for this. The OfS issued their annual report on financial sustainability in May 2023 and identified the following key risks which are still relevant:
The OfS identifies a number of strategies that they may see to address financial sustainability concerns.
JANE FORSTER, VC’s Policy Advisor
Follow: @PolicyBU on X
We are excited to report that the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer (APPGC) has invited the Whatever it Takes team to speak at their upcoming meeting entitled: ‘Making cancer care inclusive for all’.
The meeting, chaired by Elliot Colburn MP, will discuss some of the current inequalities that exist across the cancer pathway among those with protected characteristics, specifically those in the LGBTIQ+ community and Disabled and Neurodiverse people. Recent studies suggests that both groups report worse experience once on the cancer pathway with difficulties with respect to provision of information, communication and decisions regarding care. Importantly, the meeting will also discuss what further action could be taken by the NHS and Governments across the UK to ensure everybody, no matter what their background, has equal access to the healthcare and support they need.
The Whatever it Takes Project is a collaboration between BU PIER Partnership, Wessex Cancer Alliance and Help and Care. PIER were funded by CRN Wessex to provide mentoring and support to Rosie and Katie, two Disabled and neuro-divergent community researchers, using the PIER community research model, to engage with a wide range of Disabled people across Wessex, to better understand the barriers and enablers for accessing Cancer Care. Dr Kate Jupp (PIER officer) and Stevie Corbin-Clarke (research assistant) with the support of Prof. Mel Hughes (Academic lead for PIER) worked alongside Katie and Rosie (community researchers with lived experience) and Amanda (specialist cancer nurse) throughout the project.
You can view the project film and report here
Katie and Rosie, along with colleagues from Macmillan and Help and Care, will be presenting the film and report at the APPGC at the Houses of Parliament next week. The team have been invited to present the film and report after which the Chair will open the meeting to questions and comments from those in attendance including parliamentarians, charity and other health stakeholders.
The APPG on Cancer is an informal group bringing together MPs and Peers from across the political spectrum to debate key issues, and campaign together to improve cancer services. As well as parliamentarians, their meetings are usually attended by stakeholders working in the cancer and health space, including charities and local and national health organisations.
We hope to report back after the event
The best bits from the summer period!
To keep the overall size of this policy update smaller we have included several linked documents to provide further detail on some items. These documents are in pdf format and accessed through a hyperlink in the text. If you would like the original documents (in Word) for accessibility purposes, please email us on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
Rishi has reshuffled his Ministers and you can find all the Cabinet members here. All the junior ministers and their portfolios for both departments are here.
It’s stability in the main for both departments. David Johnston OBE joins the DfE as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (mainly care, SEND and schools focussed but with free speech in education within his brief too), replacing Claire Coutinho, who was promoted). Johnson was previously Chief Executive of the Social Mobility Foundation (a charity which runs a range of programmes that incorporate mentoring, internships, university application support and skills development to help young people from low-income backgrounds enter universities and professions). Johnson has been active in the media on education, generally supportive of technical education, and tweets about social mobility factors a lot.
Labour has reshuffled the Shadow Cabinet appointments – I’ve put all the appointments (both new and those that have remained in post) here. Of most interest are:
Finally!!! The Government has announced that the UK has made a deal and will associate with the Horizon Europe and Copernicus programmes through a bespoke agreement with the EU. Researchers can apply for grants and bid to take part in projects under the Horizon programme, as a fully associated member from now until the end of this Horizon programme in 2027. Once adopted, the UK will also be able to join the governance of EU programmes – which the UK has been excluded from over the last three years.
The UK will also associate to Copernicus, the European Earth Observation programme. This will provide the UK’s earth observation sector with access to specialist data, e.g. to help with early flood and fire warnings, and be able to bid for contracts (we’ve been excluded for the last three years).
It may be a case of the devil is in the detail however, the Government’s press release sets out the financial protections that have been agreed for the UK:
UUKI state the agreement must be adopted by the EU-UK Specialised Committee on Union Programmes. They also clarify:
From Minister Donelan’s written statement:
Links: Government press announcement; EU/UK joint statement; FAQs on the deal (provided by EU)
Press: Guardian. Research Professional: charm offensive, plan B still on cards (Minister Freeman), implications for Switzerland. UUK warm welcome
The Future Research Assessment Programme (FRAP) is gradually wrapping up following the latest publications. The FRAP addressed how research might be measured (and rewarded) in 2028 and proposed a number of changes to the current REF. The reports that informed the planned changes have been released. This Research Professional article is a good quick read, it begins: we learned what had influenced the thinking behind these changes, with the publication of a summary of stakeholder engagements, an analysis of equality, diversity and inclusion in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and another analysis, commissioned from the policy-advice group Technopolis, of how much that exercise had cost to run.
You can find all the reports here and the stakeholder engagement summary here.
Wonkhe have a blog too: REF is expensive because it’s good value.
The Science and Technology Committee published their interim report into the governance of AI: summary here. There’s a world first summit on AI safety to be held 1-2 November. International governments, leading AI companies and experts in research will unite for crucial talks and agree a set of rapid, targeted measures for furthering safety in global AI use. Matt Clifford and Jonathan Black have been appointed as the Prime Minister’s Representatives.
Life sciences competitiveness indicators 2023
Life sciences competitiveness indicators 2023: life science ecosystem
Life sciences competitiveness indicators 2023: user guide
Life sciences competitiveness indicators 2023: data tables
Read more about the government’s latest plans to incentivise quality below. In that context, the outcomes of the first two of the OfS investigations into quality related matters – 2 of the 8 business and management investigations – were reported this week. The OfS haven’t announced any sanctions yet, but number controls could be in their toolbox. The VC of London South Bank University (no concerns were found after the investigation) wrote for HEPI about the experience.
Way back (February 2018) PM Theresa May announced a review of post-18 education and funding whereby the Government consulted on HE reform, and the Augar report (2019) resulted. There was a lot of change on the table for consideration and the Government launched further consultation concluding in January 2021 and February 2022. The Government introduced piecemeal changes since the Augar report, most recently laying the legislation for the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (implemented from 2025). This Government response document is the latest in these piecemeal changes and continues to focus on changes to ensure high quality HE provision across the sector. The Government states:
We have set out…what more government will do to continue to drive up the quality of higher education. This includes asking the Office for Students (OfS) to use recruitment limits to help drive out provision which is not delivering good student outcomes, a sharp focus on franchising arrangements, and a reduction in the maximum fee and loan limits for classroom-based foundation years. We will also ask the OfS to consider how they can take graduate earnings into account in their quality regime. We know many factors influence graduate earnings – but students have a right to expect that higher education will lead to improved employment opportunities and commensurate earnings… These reforms represent the start, and not the end, of our determination to drive out low-quality provision. We are confident that this will be successful with the support of the sector. The Government has decided not to proceed with a minimum eligibility requirement at this point in time, but if the quality reforms set out here do not result in the improvements we seek, we will consider further action if required.
Student Number Controls: The government believes that as most HEIs charge the maximum fee, combined with no student number controls, it has incentivised providers to expand student numbers on courses that are less expensive to teach, but which may only provide limited benefits to graduates and the wider economy.
There was a consultation on whether to introduce student number controls to prevent ‘the growth of low quality provision’. Instead the Government decided to task (via statutory guidance) the OfS to consider ‘recruitment limits’ for courses not delivering positive outcomes for students – this is already in train because the OfS is already permitted to impose recruitment limits on providers. However, the Government’s newly announced plans concern the OfS’ existing powers and regulatory framework, including the B3 condition of registration on student outcomes (continuation rates, course completion, and graduate progression). Recruitment limits won’t be applied to a course without a prior investigation, and providers will have opportunities to set out contextual information for why a course might not be delivering the student outcomes required by the B3 condition.
The OfS is expected to consider how it can incorporate graduate earnings into its regulatory regime for quality purposes too.
Foundation Year Fee Caps: Foundation years are a route in for students that do not meet the entry requirement for a particular course. However, the Augar report questioned how effective and necessary they were for students. And with the introduction of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement the Government does not want the full lifelong entitlement to be taken by one degree course entered through a foundation year. They have also been vociferous in their questioning of foundation year costs and urged for some time for the fees charged to be lower. Through the document the Government has stipulated the from 2025/26 the maximum fee and loan limit for foundation years will be lowered to £5,760 for classroom-based subjects whilst the maximum fee and loan limits of £9,250 will remain for all other subjects.
Here’s a little more detail:
Throughout the Government’s campaign to reduce foundation years undertaken, and reduce their costs where there do continue has been the push back from the access and participation community who state foundation years remove barriers and allow non-traditional or disadvantaged students to enter HE and ultimately achieve a degree.
Finally, other consultation questions covered plans for a new national scholarship scheme and how to grow the provision of high-quality level 4 and 5 courses. The Government document didn’t contain any detail on the scholarship scheme, however, they have confirmed they will not change the maximum fee limits for level 4 and 5 courses from £9,250 at this time.
The research on the impact on students of the cost-of-living crisis also found that 1 in 5 students were working more than 20 hours a week alongside their studies, with 64% of those with jobs saying it negatively impacted their students.
PwC and StudentCrowd published Student accommodation: Availability and rental growth trends July 2023 for privately-owned Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) across the UK.
While demand outstripping supply creates an investment opportunity, particularly for private capital, it also represents a challenge for both universities and students. If left unresolved, it is likely to adversely impact affordability of accommodation, the student experience, university reputation and, ultimately, future recruitment of students. With students facing rising costs of living, without a corresponding increase in maintenance loan levels, the cost of accommodation will, for some, become a prohibitive factor in higher education (HE) participation, impacting those from under-represented groups the most.
There are illustrative charts and more detail along with recommendations for colleagues particularly interested in student accommodation – see the full report.
There are three petitions currently in front of parliament relating to pay and financial support (childcare) for healthcare students including student midwives, nurses and paramedics. The petitions call for healthcare students to be paid at least minimum wage for their placement hours and for the 30 hours free childcare offer to be extended to the students. Pay and conditions for healthcare students has been a constant rumble in the background since 2017 when the NHS Bursary and free tuition fees were abolished and students were switched. The strong public support shown for the petitions means a debate has been scheduled and a Government representative will be asked to respond to the petitions.
For colleagues who would benefit from dipping into the full history and detail behind healthcare student’s pay and financial support there is an excellent briefing provided in advance of the parliamentary debate. You can view the petitions here: 610557, 616557 and 6196409.
The House of Commons Library has updated their briefing on student loan statistics. The content is the same as we’ve outlined in recent policy updates. However, what is of interest to the sector is that these briefings are how many non-ministerial policy makers obtain their in-depth information on topics (because they don’t have a departmental team briefing them on the topic). The briefings are impartial (i.e. don’t side with one political party over another) but the content the brief focuses on may lead to debate focusing on these topics in the House. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation and the reinforcement of the focus can lead to a self-fulfilling circle – hence why it’s useful for the sector to be aware of the information the parliamentarians are reading.
For more detail and other student loan statistics you can read the full briefing.
Parliamentary Question: The Plan 5 reforms will make the student loan system fairer for taxpayers and fairer for students, helping to keep the system sustainable in the long term.
Other sources on debt: The cost of student loan debt has been picked up again recently by media. The Times and Martin Lewis ran features on whether it’s better (or not) for parents who can afford to pay upfront for university costs rather than burden their children with long term debt. CAPX wants to replace student loans with ISAs. And Wonkhe report on the small but significant number of students…taking out maintenance loans but not fee loans – in 2021–22 this amounted to £281.2m across 51,000 students. Or 6% of full time English undergraduates. This blog explores the group and considers reasons nicely. There’s a data heavy section in the middle, do skip past it if you’re not keen, and read on further through the blog for more context. Here’s a quick summary of the data elements: The providers where maintenance loans outnumber those with fee loans are mostly connected by a strong access and participation role – that and a recent strategic focus on franchise and partnership arrangements. Wonkhe explain: One possible explanation is that students, agents recruiting students, or some providers are taking advantage of the time period between when students are to access and spend the maintenance loan and when they become liable for the fee loan. We don’t know for sure, but it is certainly one possibility that regulators and those responsible for university partnerships may wish to keep in mind.
UUK report that 73% of UK graduates credit going to university with enabling them to find the job they wanted in under 1 year. In addition the report finds that 79% of graduates say going to university enabled them to build skills that have proved professionally valuable, and 71% of first in their family UK graduates said that going to university opened doors to companies for them.
Employment
Industry knowledge and skills
Increasing social mobility
Vivienne Stern MBE, Chief Executive of Universities UK, said:
The LEO (Longitudinal Education Outcomes) data for 2020-21 has been released. Quick reminder – the LEO data looks at the employment and earnings outcomes of graduates and postgraduates at 1, 3, 5 and 10 years after graduation. One aspect of a university’s performance that the regulator watches with their quality hat on is their graduate outcomes. If you’re interested in graduate outcomes I’d recommend you engage with the short, simple explanations here and there’s plenty to capture your attention further down the page where you can drill down into charts and summaries by student characteristics such as subject, prior attainment, ethnicity, and disadvantage (POLAR). The provider level data is also well worth a browse through. There’s too much of interest for us to cover it all here so do dive in at source.
What we will mention is where media focussed their attention – on the widening pay gap for graduates previously receiving fee school meals. The data shows that at one, three and five years after graduation, graduates whose families claimed free school meals (FSM) were less likely to be in sustained employment, further study or both than graduates whose families did not claim FSM…and their median earnings were lower – 10% lower at 5 years post-graduation. It continued a trend seen in previous years – that the earnings gap increases as the years after graduation increase. You can see the charts and read more of the detail on the gap here.
If you’d prefer a very quick overall here’s what Wonkhe have to say: This latest iteration of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset shows that the impact of Covid-19 as measured by subject area and by industrial area varied widely. Overall, the experience was a negative one for graduate and postgraduate earnings – though in most cases these remained relatively stable in real terms. At a subject level, there appeared to be a greater impact by provider in computing, law, and business and management subjects. This year’s Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data drop refers to the 2020–21 tax year – a period during which you may recall that the global economy was subject to a number of shocks. The fascinating thing about what we see from our heavily-caveated data on graduate salaries is how little impact this appears to have had. In most cases graduates could expect a similar level of pay, in real terms, to every other year LEO covers.
And what they read into the politics: All this prompts us to ask what LEO is really for, and what it really shows us. It’s gone from being a central feature of the government’s armoury of tools to identify and destroy “low-quality” courses – thus driving down the cost of the loan system – to featuring only on the data graveyard that is Discover Uni. Even the people who write those “best course for a big salary” articles rely on aggregated CVs rather than an actual government release. One wonders if Wonkhe will change their opinion on this given the weekend’s announcement on the role of graduate data in student number controls.
Plus a blog: LEO – it promised much, but in regulatory terms has delivered little. David Kernohan wonders what went wrong. And another: however, it does offer a useful corrective to the use of provider- and subject-level outcomes measures.
Note: the LEO data is different to the DfE 2022 Graduate labour market statistics (see Graduate Employability section for coverage of the DfE statistics).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published an article on the data released exploring the educational attainment of pupils in English towns, using data from the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes (LEO) dataset. It examines how educational attainment differs by town size, deprivation level and the average qualification levels of residents in the previous generation, using LEO data, and focusses on pupils who sat their GCSEs in the 2012 to 2013 school year. A summary provided by Dods Political Intelligence is available here.
This Parliamentary Library paper on Sharia-compliant alternative student finance is a good catch up on the basics and latest news for the alternative student finance system which the Government plan to introduce from 2025. There haven’t been any further developments since this was announced at the beginning of the summer period.
Cost of living: Wonkhe blog – Eighteen months into the biggest cost of living crisis the UK has seen in decades, Jim Dickinson tries to work out if university advice on the costs that students will face has improved.
Mental Health: Wonkhe – Some 30 per cent of undergraduates starting university this September will have a history of missing education due to their mental health, the Unite Students 2023 Applicant Index suggests, drawing on a survey of 2,141 applicants for 2023–24 entry conducted by Savanta in May (and weighted to be broadly representative of the applicant population as a whole). Of these, 24 per cent have missed 20 days or more due to mental health issues. The survey also found that 18 per cent of applicants with a disability say they have no plans to disclose it to their university.
Harassment: The Women and Equalities select committee report Attitudes towards women and girls in educational settings concluded that sexual harassment and abuse of female students and staff is a serious problem in education. They call on the Government to support the following recommendations for implementation in universities
Transport: Parliamentary Question – the cost of public transport on students’ finances and mobility.
Parliamentary Question: Students cost of living (grant question).
The UCAS and Sutton Trust report What influences the choices of would-be apprentices looks at the choices and barriers students face on the journey to an apprenticeship, such as when discovering, applying for and entering a role. Here’s the press release if you prefer the quick read version: Three in five do not pursue apprenticeships because they cannot find one, or here’s an impartial succinct summary of the key points prepared by Dods.
Of note for HE in the report are the recommendations for degree apprenticeships (below) and the recommendation for parity between degrees and apprenticeships (see page 7).
Parliamentary Question: Incentivising universities to provide more higher apprenticeships
The Government responded to the House of Commons Education Committee’s report on The future of post-16 qualifications. Committee report here; Government response here. The Government’s response does not depart from the same party lines you’d expect – rationalising qualifications, the study of maths to age 18, skills bootcamps and is primarily focussed on T levels and apprenticeships. Halfon’s priorities are apparent – HTQs, apprenticeships/skills, and careers advice (especially as relates to T levels). One concession is that the Government does ‘note’ or acknowledge the Committee’s interest in Baccalaureate models.
We’ve three major data releases included in this policy update. This one is the 2023 cycle application data (at 30 June deadline). The June deadline is when students have to apply for (up to 5) choices of HE provision (and make their conditional firm and back up selection) so this data snapshot provides a good look at the application rates.
We cover the high level data below, but for those who want more interpretation of the implications we recommend reading Research Professional’s (slightly irreverent) Ucas’d a spell on me – What’s the difference between reality and spin in this year’s application data? It begins: It is one of the perennial puzzles of higher education in the UK: why does the university application service Ucas insist on trying to spin good news stories about higher education entry data when the available evidence points to the contrary?
Here’s the top level data:
Note: All data relates to UK applicants unless we specify otherwise.
HEPI published their annual soft-power index (where the world’s countries are headed by someone educated in the UK or another country other than their own). America still leads the field but the UK has taken a step closer to America’s top numbers.
Research Professional verge dangerously close to stating that the recruitment of international students for financial sustainability is/will impact on the number of domestic UK students recruited when they report on this Telegraph article and this opinion piece. Read the Squeezed Middle (meaning middle class students are/will be pushed out by international recruitment and outreach targets to recruit disadvantaged students) to see if you agree with the reasoning presented. Of interest is that the number of unplaced applicants (presumably domestic applicants) rose by 46% last year to 20,000 (was 14,000 the previous year), that’s quite a jump.
Quick news from Wonkhe:
Parliamentary Question: Cost of living support for international students.
The Research Professional article Squeezed Middle may be of interest.
TASO (Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education – one of the Government’s what works centres) published a project report – Addressing gaps in the participation of sandwich courses. Project partners were:
Findings – intention to apply and participate
Findings – successful completion of sandwich course
Recommendations for HE providers:
The Sutton Trust published: Stories from the Class of 2023 – Education experiences of high potential students from different backgrounds as part of its new Social Mobility: The Next Generation series. The report sets out key differences and similarities between high attainers from different socio-economic backgrounds:
Differences
Similarities
Recommendations include a national strategy to close the attainment gaps that have opened since the pandemic, reform of school admissions for a better socio-economic mix of pupils across schools (those who attend more socially mixed schools progress more at GCSE), universities to recognise the disruption faced by students and support their transition and success (universities to identify key gaps in learning at an early stage in the first term, and provide continuing support if necessary, as well as support for student mental health and wellbeing).
There’s a short blog on the report if you don’t fancy reading the full content.
HE Minister Halfon spoke at the NEON Summer Symposium. The key element of his speech focussed on social justice, structured around his three ‘P’s of Place, Privilege and Prestige. His passion topics of skills, FE, apprenticeships and careers advice were all explored in the speech.
As far as I am concerned, social justice is fundamental to higher education. Universities should exist to facilitate the studies, progression and graduation of all students – including those from disadvantaged backgrounds – so they can go on to get good jobs and pursue worthwhile careers.
On Privilege: the Office for Students recently launched the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, with 12 key risks to equality of opportunity across the student lifecycle. These have used evidence to determine where interventions can really move the dial on social justice. They’ll be an important tool for designing future initiatives to broaden access to HE, and I look forward to providers rewriting their upcoming Access and Participation plans to incorporate them.
On Prestige:
You can read the official (as written, not necessarily exactly as Halfon delivered it) speech here.
However, NEON report that the audience was unimpressed and even angered by Halfon’s speech. One attendee, Jessica Newton, felt compelled to blog and give voice to her frustrations. Excerpts:
The DfE published the 2021/22 widening participation in HE statistics. The statistics explore young progression to HE study by a range of student characteristics such as free school meals, ethnicity,
Parliamentary Question: Accreditation scheme for universities to demonstrate the gold standard in the care leaver provision.
Blogs: Wonkhe – To meet legal responsibilities to disabled students, the sector must address the overwhelming workloads of disability services staff, says Hannah Borkin.
The House of Lords debated the Lifelong Learning (HE Fee Limits) Bill. Despite the vigorous debate no changes prevailed as all amendments were either withdrawn or not moved. Baroness Barran as Minister for the School System and Student Finance was able to bat away most of the opposition. She emphasised that the policies behind the Bill had been designed in consultation with relevant HE sector stakeholders and there would be further consultation to come.
The Government intend to set most of the detail of the Bill through secondary legislation. In essence this means that Parliament passes the Bill so it becomes an Act. Then the Government backfill the nitty gritty detail which sets out the operation and how things run. The positive of secondary legislation is that it can flex with the times – fee limits can be raised, new clauses can be brought in to respond to the unexpected and keep the sector functioning well and responding to change. The negative is that it hands full power to the Government of the time to set these items with very little parliamentary scrutiny or power to change the Government’s will – it could result in a bad deal for the HE sector being forced through. In practice, while the Bill is passing it means that Parliamentarians, and the Bill is currently with the House of Lords, can raise objections and call for certain things to be changed and the Government’s representative can simply provide reassurances without conceding or changing the wording of the Bill. Likely the Government will listen to the amendments and speeches made and may make concessions or adapt to points raised through the secondary legislation (as suits their policy ideals). But there is no guarantee of this. There is little detail for the Lords (who now have a very well informed, experienced and powerful HE faction, with several ex-Universities Ministers) to take a stand on and force a change. Meaning the Bill may pass quite quickly as it is so bland. Short of the unexpected this Bill will become law before the next general election (and is planned to be implemented in 2025).
Distance learning fees: the Government have no intention of differentiating fee limits between distance and in-person learning under the LLE. The per-credit fee limits will be the same for full-time, part-time, face-to-face and distance learning…Distance learning courses will remain in scope for tuition fee loan support under the LLE.
Distance maintenance: The Baroness stood firm against calls for maintenance support for distance learners although will continue current arrangements for distance learners with a disability to qualify for maintenance loans and disabled students’ allowance. The disabled students’ allowance will be extended to all designated courses and modules.
More reading:
This parliamentary question reveals there is still no set date for the free speech Act to come into play: The timeline will involve working in collaboration with the OfS on the creation of new registration conditions and a complaints scheme dedicated to handling freedom of speech complaints, which will be operated by the OfS. The OfS will also develop guidance on how to comply with these duties, in consultation with providers, constituent institutions and students’ unions. Another related parliamentary question asks whether freedom of speech in the UK includes the right to criticise ideas around gender identity. Answer – it’s defined in case law and in the HE (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 and the Government has no plans to outline the specific content of freedom of speech on an issue-by-issue basis.
Finally, Wonkhe report: At the House of Lords Education for 11–16 Year Olds Committee yesterday, schools minister Nick Gibb was on the end of a grilling from committee chair Lord Johnson of Marylebone over the Department for Education’s use of Russell Group entry rates as a performance indicator for schools in England. The former universities minister suggested that the government was “fixated” on the Russell Group and disincentivising schools from sending students to other universities. Gibb replied that the term “high tariff” could have been used instead. You can watch the session back online.
HEPI celebrated their 20th Birthday by releasing UK higher education – policy, practice and debate during HEPI’s first 20 years. Fifteen contributors cover a wide range of HE policy matters including governance, research, student learning, funding and finances, and the relationship between HE providers and Government. One thing HEPI haven’t learnt in 20 years is that not many people enjoy the thought of reading a 184 page document, so do use the contents page to jump to the section you’re most interested in.
Click here to view the updated inquiries and consultation tracker. There isn’t much of interest at present but things will pick up over the autumn period. You can email us on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk if you spot a consultation or inquiry that you’d like to contribute to.
Turing: The House of Commons Library has a comprehensive briefing on the Turing scheme which funds international study and work placements. At 51 pages it’s a bit long but there is a useful 2 minute read summary here.
Cyber employment: DSIT published Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2023. It sets out the skills needs and job vacancies across the UK cyber security sector.
Findings:
DAPs: The OfS has published new operational guidance for providers to apply for (or vary existing) degree awarding powers (DAPs). The OfS’ powers mean they can authorise HEIs to grant different types of degrees, including:
Full details here.
Digital Education ID: The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change published The Future of Learning: Delivering Tech-Enabled Quality Education for Britain. There are a number of recommendations mainly aimed at schools. Of interest is their recommendation to introduce a digital learner ID for every pupil that would:
A digital ID implemented as described may have implications for the HE admissions system and for student data interface, particularly as the expectation would be to continue this regular feedback model direct to the student throughout their HE study.
Parliamentary Question: Evaluating the interventions aimed at increasing boys’ learning in educational settings.
HE Net Zero: Wonkhe – Achieving a net zero higher education sector will cost £37.1bn based on current decarbonisation costs, according to a report from the Association of Higher Education Directors of Estates, the British Universities Finance Directors Group and the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education. A “cost of net zero calculator” has also been released, designed to allow individual institutions to estimate the financial resources required to reach net zero. Also from UKRI:
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The second call for applications for the Scheme is currently still open, but closes on 1st October.
Under the scheme, imaging research projects can apply for up to 100 hours of scanning time on the IMIV’s state-of-the-art 3T Siemens Lumina MRI scanner.
Please note: the award does not cover any additional expenses related to scanning, or other aspects of the project.
For further information and an application form, please email imiv@bournemouth.ac.uk.
This half day course is an introduction to PPI and will:
1. Define PPI and why it matters
2. Explore the links between PPI and health equity
3. Explain how to deliver PPI and support those involved
It will be an interactive session, including input from someone with lived experience, talking about their involvement in research.
It will be delivered by Sue Bickler from the Involving People team at Help and Care, an organisation that ‘helps people and communities live the lives they choose’.
Sue has worked in the voluntary sector, local authorities, and health, and has substantial experience engaging with people and communities to ensure that services meet their needs. Her current role brings together the four Healthwatch in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (HIOW), ensuring that patient voice is central to decision making in the HIOW Integrated Care System and that people are equipped to support effective Patient and Public Involvement (PPI).
The session is funded by Clinical Research Network Wessex and is open to all health and care researchers working in Wessex including public contributors and community organisations.
Book your place here. A link to the online training will then be sent to you.
Many researchers will already be aware of patient and public involvement (PPI) and the many benefits and the positive impact it can have in their research. Please read two examples of how Cathy and Louise, both postgraduate researchers, have implemented public involvement in their research and read on for more information on VOICE and how it help with your research.
Cathy Beresford, Full time PhD student – Experiences of care in advanced liver disease
“For my research with people who have liver disease, I found VOICE extremely helpful for my public involvement strategy. Before I accessed VOICE, I struggled to reach people for public involvement. Although I am a nurse, I do not specialise in liver disease, and I did not have established links with the people I was seeking to do the research with. With fantastic support from BU PIER Officer Kate Jupp, I advertised my public involvement opportunity and had eight people come forward to take part in an online workshop. I reached a mix of people from different parts of the UK, four are people with liver disease and four are carers of individuals with liver disease. I found this to be the perfect number for a really constructive meeting where we discussed the findings of my recent systematic literature review and made plans for the upcoming research as part of my PhD project. All of the attendees of the meeting said they wanted to be further involved in public involvement as part of the research. Members of the group have since contributed to the participant information leaflets for the study and we are planning a further meeting in the autumn. For each meeting, individual members are given a £25 voucher for their time, which is part of my PhD funding.”
Louise Ward, Part time PhD student (and PPI adviser within BUCRU) – Online PPI: Perceptions and experiences of public contributors and researchers in health and social care research.
“Given that PPI is my chosen topic, it was essential that I have voices of those with relevant lived experience in my own doctoral research to help shape its planning and design. After some initial struggles acquiring funding to undertake PPI in my PhD, I ran some informal introductory PPI sessions to gauge how people have found online PPI and whether it’s been working for them. I spoke with 11 people, 9 of which were found via the VOICE platform, they were a broad range of voices from around the UK.
I posted an ‘opportunity’ on VOICE and was overwhelmed by the response, 38 people applied. I had included additional questions to aid selection, e.g. length of time people have been involved in research, but you can choose whatever you wish to ask for extra information, e.g. experience of a certain health condition or use of a particular service. You are also able to state certain criteria, e.g. age, gender etc. Even with the additional information, it was tough to narrow down to a smaller number (within the budget I’d allowed myself), but after reading through each application I reduced numbers to 10 people and approved/declined/added to wait list accordingly. I ran two PPI sessions via VOICE, the first one with three people (I had some non-attendees so it’s good to plan for that) and the second with six people. Kate from BU PIER also joined the sessions as it’s always good to have a second person to co-facilitate. Both were really useful sessions and all were keen to stay involved in helping with my future research. I have since contacted a smaller number of them and plan to run a regular public advisory group throughout my PhD at various stages to ensure my research stays relevant to those whom it impacts the most.”
To summarise, researchers can:
You can register with VOICE and explore what is available. Please email Kate Jupp or Louise Ward or on: voice@bournemouth.ac.uk to discuss how we can help get the public involved in your research and/or promote an event or opportunity to VOICE members.
VOICE are running an introductory session for new members on 11 September 2023 to explain what VOICE is, it will mostly be aimed at members of the public but will give a good insight into what VOICE can offer for researchers too.
The Health Research Authority (HRA) has launched new Quality Standards to improve information given to people who are invited to take part in research. The Quality Standards have been launched alongside Design and Review Principles, which show researchers and Research Ethics Committees (REC) what the important ethical considerations are for participant information.
The Quality Standards and Design and Review Principles will be phased in from autumn 2023. As study materials are prepared in advance, REC reviews of participant information will initially be presented to research organisations as recommendations as opposed to actions required for approval.
From December 2023, the Quality Standards and Design and Review principles will become mandatory and will be applied to all research applications submitted for review.
Changes to participant information are currently the most likely reason for ethics committees to give a provisional opinion. Using this guidance will increase the possibility of receiving a favourable opinion.
Remember that BU has Participant Information Sheet templates that provide much of the required wording to ensure your participants are making a fully informed decision before agreeing to participate.
It is vital that when compiling your information sheets that you remember to include the HRA GDPR transparency wording.
If you have any questions regarding these new standards or about clinical research in general, please email Suzy Wignall, Clinical Governance Advisor – swignall@bournemouth.ac.uk or clinicalresearch@bournemouth.ac.uk
The NIHR Be Part of Research platform is an online service that makes it easy for research participants to find and take part in health and social care research. Participants may search for trials and studies taking place looking at certain health conditions and in locations accessible to them.
Clinical researchers may also make use of the service to extend their recruitment and widen their recruitment methods, as the platform has been designed to make it easier for researchers and potential study participants to find each other.
To use the service for your recruitment, the study must meet the following requirements:
Additionally, to make sure that participants contact the appropriate person, the contact details provided on ISRCTN or ClinicalTrials.gov should be up to date and accurate. In general, the registry record should be monitored continuously so that any changes are reflected on Be Part of Research as soon as possible.
If you have any questions regarding the platform or regarding clinical research in general, please email Suzy Wignall, Clinical Governance Advisor: swignall@bournemouth.ac.uk or clinicalresearch@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dr Rejoice Chipuriro a Post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Social Science and Social Work has been awarded a grant from the NIHR Clinical Research Network Wessex. The grant is aimed at generating new insights into asylums seekers’ lived experiences with community based mental health care support services. This study involves partnership between Bournemouth University and Vita Nova- a community arts organisation that supports people in recovery from addiction. Vita Nova works in a holistic way to support members with their ongoing recovery programs which helps to avoid relapse back into treatment centres, mental health institutions or prison.
In recent years Vita Nova has worked with other underserved communities including asylum seekers, for example the Refugee Nativity last Christmas with local asylum seekers which brought communities together and raised awareness of the current refugee crisis. Vita Nova uses creativity to process trauma as a form of art therapy. Asylum seekers will be supported by Vita Nova to co-produce drama and photography for public exhibition to connect with mental health service in community, as well as the public, to dispel stigma around mental health and marginalisation of asylum seekers. The photo exhibition will also be co-designed with asylum seekers as a way for participants to share about their lived experiences, and break taboos about mental health.
Talking about this new research Dr Rejoice Chipuriro shared the following, ‘Mental health is a priority area for the NHS. Asylum seekers are listed by the NIHR as an underserved group in health research which is why this research seeks to generate new knowledge about mental health which is co-produced with asylum seekers.’
Michael Armstrong the Creative Producer at Vita Nova had this to share , ‘ As we step into a new chapter, we’re reflecting on the journey that brought us here. Rooted in the centre of Boscombe, our charity has dedicated itself to empowering community members and artists alike for almost 25 years. Through a rich tapestry of events and projects, we’ve woven connections, shared stories, and nurtured creativity. The partnership with Bournemouth University advances our approach to evaluation and how we can capture the voices of some of the most vulnerable people in our wonderful community.’
Sharon Coyne, Artistic Director at Vita Nova says ‘our partnership with Bournemouth University really helps us think differently about how we communicate the experience of our wonderful members and engage new partners and (hopefully) new funders’.
Congratulations Rejoice!
Congratulation to Dr. Rachel Arnold and her Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health research team on the publication yesterday of their paper ‘I might have cried in the changing room, but I still went to work’. Maternity staff balancing roles, responsibilities, and emotions of work and home during COVID-19: An appreciative inquiry [1]. This paper focuses on how to support staff and enhance their well-being in a small UK maternity service. The underpinning methodological approach is appreciative inquiry using interviews with 39 maternity staff and four group discussions exploring meaningful experiences, values and factors that helped their well-being.
The key findings are that maternity staff members were highly motivated, managing a complex melee of emotions and responsibilities including challenges to professional confidence, mental health, family situation, and conflict between work-life roles. Despite staff shortages, a demanding workload, professional and personal turmoil, and the pandemic participants still found meaning in their work and relationships. The authors go on to argue for a ‘whole person’ approach, since this approach provided insight into the multiple stressors and emotional demands staff faced. It also revealed staff resourcefulness in managing their professional and personal roles. They invested in relationships with women but were also aware of their limits – the need to be self-caring, employ strategies to switch-off, set boundaries or keep a protective distance. Overall, the paper concludes hat staff’s well-being initiatives, and research into well-being, would benefit from adopting a holistic approach that incorporates home and family with work. Research on emotion regulation strategies could provide insights into managing roles, responsibilities, and the emotional demands of working in maternity services. Emotion regulation strategies could be included in midwifery and obstetric training.
This paper was proceeded by a more methodological paper on the application of Appreciative Inquiry in this study [2].
References:
Under the scheme, imaging research projects can apply for up to 100 hours of scanning time on the IMIV’s state-of-the-art 3T Siemens Lumina MRI scanner.
Please note: the award does not cover any additional expenses related to scanning, or other aspects of the project.
Deadline for applications: 1st October 2023.
For further information and an application form, please email imiv@bournemouth.ac.uk.