BU Research Blog

Monday

Immigration

An article looks at the challenges ahead for the PM’s Immigration Task Force when it meets for the first time. It examines how student immigration should be controlled. The article states that a large number of international students seek to stay in the UK after their course, because immigration rules are generous in allowing students to switch on to other courses or work in the UK once their studies have finished. It will take more than bluster to slash immigration (The Daily Telegraph).

Tuesday

QAA Future

A draft policy paper (Future Approaches to Quality Assessment – England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the final version of which is due to be released by HEFCE later this month) suggests institutional reviews by QAA could be replaced by internal monitoring by universities themselves. QAA reviews ‘could be abolished’ (THE).

International Students

A HEFCE study reveals that 40 per cent of international students who started undergraduate programmes in 2011-12 after taking a course delivered overseas by the same institution, or by a partner, had entered postgraduate study within two years. This was significantly up on the 30 per cent figure for the 2009-10 cohort, according to the report. Transnational students ‘more likely to progress to postgraduate courses’ (THE).

Wednesday

Graduate Employment

BIS data has revealed that more graduates in England are now in work than at any time since 2007. However, these graduates have also seen a fall in their median salary of more than £1,000 in the past five years. Graduates are earning less but more are in work (BBC).

Thursday

BIS Cuts

The government could scrap student grants and convert them into loans or lower the borrowing repayment threshold for graduates as it looks to make cuts to higher education, suggests Giles Wilkes, special adviser to former Business Secretary Vince Cable between 2010 and 2014. Grants may become loans as BIS wields axe, (THE).

Degree Quality

The Higher Education Academy found that 47 per cent of institutions it surveyed had changed their degree algorithms since 2010 to ensure that their students were not disadvantaged compared to those in other institutions. Some 70 per cent of graduates achieved at least a 2:1 in 2013-14 compared with 63 per cent in 2009-10, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Half of universities have ‘made changes to degree algorithms’, (THE).

Friday

Universities Growth Report

UUK has launched its new report The Economic Role of UK Universities, which says that higher education institutions’ ability to invest for the long term and to remain resilient in the face of international competition, relies on a funding system that ensures financial stability and predictability. Back universities to grow economy, says UUK (THE).

The final talk hosted by the Narrative Research Group this semester will take place tomorrow at 4p.m. in PG10. Our speaker is Dr Tim Hutchings from Durham University. Dr Hutchings is a sociologist and ethnographer of digital religion. His PhD (Durham University, 2010) examined the relationship between online and local activity in five online Christian churches, looking at emerging patterns of ritual, community and authority. His subsequent research has included studies of online Christian proselytism and storytelling (HUMlab, Umea University, Sweden), digital Bible reading (CRESC, The Open University) and contemporary pilgrimage (CODEC, Durham University). A list of his publications can be found here: https://durham.academia.edu/TimHutchings. Dr Hutchings is the Editor of the Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture and Conference and Events Officer for the British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion Study Group.

His talk will focus on Bible apps and the impact of digital reading on religious authority. All welcome.

Monday

First speech for Universities’ Minister

Jo Johnson gave his first speech as Universities and Science Minister at Going Global. He gave a warm speech about how international students are welcome to study in the UK and focused on the economic and social value brought to the UK by international students. Jo Johnson: UK aims to grow international education (THE).

Job-ready students

A survey by Universum revealed that 58 per cent of employers rated work experience as the most popular qualification, with a student’s personality coming second, with 48 per cent favouring this. Only 15 per cent said that they were looking for a degree from a specific university. However 16 per cent said that grades from a prestigious university were important. Leading employers prefer value work experience among graduates over grades, says new research (The Independent).

Tuesday

Loan Consultation

The BIS consultation on postgraduate loans has seen responses that stress concerns that loans for PhDs could threaten existing studentships and dampen take-up of doctoral study. Cautious response to PhD loans proposal (THE).

Wednesday

Going Global

David Willetts, the former Universities and Science minister, said in his speech at Going Global that the government should lift restrictions to allow British students to use state loans for fees abroad. He said it was one of his regrets that he was not able to get the policy implemented during his time as minister. David Willetts: allow student loans to be used abroad (THE).

Thursday

Budget Cuts

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced the government department covering higher education, BIS, will have its budget for this year cut by a further £450 million. It is not yet known how the savings at BIS will be found, but a Treasury statement mentions savings in higher education and further education budgets. Universities in firing line as BIS faces almost half a billion in new cuts (THE).

Friday

OFFA

The Office for Fair Access is to review how much poorer students benefit from financial support while at university. The project’s findings will be used by Offa to inform its guidance to universities as it prepares access agreements from 2017-18 onwards. Offa launches review of bursary impact (THE).

We would like to invite all research staff at BU to the third meeting of the recently formed Research Staff Association (RSA), on Wednesday 10th June from 3-4pm in S219.

This meeting will provide research staff with an opportunity to hear about the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, as well as network with other researchers and feedback any comments or concerns.

We are also delighted that Dr Zoe Sheppard, from the Faculty of Health and Social Science, will be joining us as our Guest Speaker talking about her career progression at BU.

Refreshments will be available so please confirm your attendance by email to: rhurst@bournemouth.ac.uk

We look forward to meeting you.

Michelle Heward and Ana Ruiz-Navarro
Research Staff Representatives – Research Concordat Steering Group

As part of the Festival of Learning, the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office are putting together a Research and Knowledge Exchange Showcase.

This will be a visual showcase based in the Atrium throughout the Festival where colleagues across the Institution will have the opportunity to showcase their Research and/or Knowledge Exchange activities via posters, photos and the like.

Colleagues are invited to submit an existing or new poster (or photo/abstract) highlighting a KE project to showcase to the public.

Poster sizes of A2 or A1 are welcome.

If you have a poster or picture you would like us to display (staff or student), please let either Jennifer Roddis (Research) or Rachel Clarke (Knowledge Exchange) to express interest in submitting a poster by Friday 12^th June.  Actual posters, or poster artwork for printing, will need to be received by Tuesday 30^th June.

Monday

Immigration policy

The head of the Institute of International Education has warned that the UK government must be clearer in articulating its immigration policy or risk facing a decline in the number of overseas students. UK risks closing door on overseas student growth, warns IIE head (THE).

Tuesday

Degree overhaul

More than 20 universities have been testing the use of a grade point average (GPA), which sees students given a points score on completion of their degree. The two-year pilot, ordered by the government, follows fears that the traditional honours classification is outdated. The report from the pilot, to be published by the Higher Education Academy (HEA), will recommend a national GPA system, giving students a score on a 13-point scale. Several universities, including Oxford Brookes and University College London, already run the GPA alongside the traditional degree classification. UK degree system in ‘need of overhaul’ (The Telegraph).

Wednesday

Queen’s speech

The Queen’s speech which sets out the Government’s priorities for the coming Parliament did not specifically reference higher education, however, apparently BIS officials have been in contact with University Alliance to say that in the longer term, they do recognise the need for an HE Bill but are not making any promises (although that doesn’t mean it is off the table).

The speech announced the planned introduction of 25 new Bills, as well as one draft Bill. Amongst others, headline legislation included: an income tax, VAT and national insurance freeze, the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, measures to reduce regulations on small businesses, plans to increase energy security, free childcare for three and four year-olds, legislation to proceed with HS2, a cut to household benefits claims, plans for devolution, 500 more free schools and plans to turn failing schools into academies, and a ban for ‘legal highs’.

For those of you that are interested, please find attached an in-depth briefing on each of the Bills which includes a likely legislative timetable. If you’re short on time and only interested in the HE aspects, the UUK blog provides a good summary.

Thursday

Studying abroad

Studying overseas has become more popular, with half of those considering a university course in another country wishing to study at undergraduate level, a new survey by the British Council shows. UK students continuing to look overseas (British Council).

Friday

Senior leadership diversity

Oxford has appointed its first female Vice-Chancellor – Professor Louise Richardson. She is currently the principal and vice-chancellor of St Andrews University.  Oxford appoints its first female vice chancellor (The Guardian).

Degree ratings

The Higher Education Academy has published a report Grade Point Average: Report of the GPA pilot project 2013-14. With 70 per cent of students leaving university with at least a 2:1, employers are finding traditional classifications obsolete, and many use A level results to differentiate between candidates. This report is the product of a pilot involving 21 higher education providers designed to test the use of various GPA scales and to explore implementation issues.  Points system to replace old degree grades (The Times).

Central to the Athena SWAN approach to addressing gender inequality in UK universities are two facts:

1. Vice-Chancellors love/need prizes!
2. Evidence is essential to convince rational people when changes need to be made.

Therefore Athena SWAN offers a series of prizes, based on submissions that acknowledge and attempt to rectify gender inequality. The submissions are data-centred. This is absolutely critical – only evidence can convince, only evidence can direct the Action Plan. Without these data, policies and procedures can be changed (or may have been in place for ages) without understanding the gender implications. The Action Plan targets (set by the data analysis) must be evidence-based as well as SMART – realistic and potentially achievable. Comparative data are tremendously important – there might be only 10% females on the staff of a unit, but if the UK comparison is 2%, then that’s great! Practices that we take for granted, such as female representatives on interview panels, are an outrageous novelty elsewhere! We must have support from leadership – each leader must all the time have gender equality and fairness in mind as a parallel goal to bringing in more money, research achievements, etc. Everybody needs to understand why we doing this – reducing gender inequalities benefits everyone.

To book your place on this workshop, please email Organisational Development

Speaker’s Biography

Christine Maggs started as Dean of Science and Technology at Bournemouth University after five years as Head of School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. At QUB she led the School’s successful 2009 submission for a Silver SWAN Athena award, and was closely involved in the successful Gold award application. Her research interests include the systematics and ecology of seaweeds, and the conservation and exploitation of marine resources. She was appointed as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2013 and in 2014 received the Award of Excellence of the Phycological Society of America.

BU’s Dr Sam Goodman has been chosen to be a broadcaster of the future in a BBC Radio 3 scheme.

BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) today at Hay Festival unveiled the ten academics – and their research – who will be New Generation Thinkers 2015. The scheme is a nationwide search for the brightest minds who have the potential to share their cutting edge academic ideas through radio and television.

Aimed at giving early career academics a break into broadcasting, the scheme attracts interest from a wide variety of disciplines. Ideas from this year’s selection range from the history of tickling to the secret discovery hidden in a chair in Prague; how the lives of the disabled were portrayed in Victorian literature to the symbolism of power.

Sam beat competition from hundreds of other applicants over two selection stages, involving writing a potential radio programme and participating in workshops and debates. It also involved a trip to BBC Broadcasting House in London where Sam presented his ideas to Matthew Dodd, Head of Speech Programming at BBC Radio 3, and other producers.

Currently a lecturer in English & Communication, Sam’s research interests cover Twentieth Century literature with a broad focus on identity, medicine, notions of Englishness and Empire, and post-World War II popular culture. He is hoping to bring his passion for his subject to a wider audience via the scheme.

New Generation Thinkers will give him, and the other selected academics, the opportunity to write for and contribute to BBC Radio 3 programmes such as Free Thinking and The Essay. Sam will also make an appearance at the BBC Free Thinking Festival in November 2015.

Over the course of the coming year he will be working with radio and TV producers at the BBC to develop his research ideas into potential programmes, and gain broadcasting training and skills for the future.

Reflecting on the selection process Sam said, “It was a simultaneously nerve-wracking and very exciting feeling getting the email telling me I’d been selected! What with the scheme attracting so many applicants and having seen so many brilliant presentations on the workshop day it felt great to be told mine had been judged one of the best.”

“Ultimately, this is a great advantage to my existing work in public engagement and knowledge exchange, as well as in bringing my research to a wider public audience.”

Matthew Dodd, Head of Speech programming at BBC Radio 3 and one of the selecting panel, said,
“Some of the very first graduates of the New Generation Thinkers Scheme are now experienced TV and radio broadcasters having first participated in the scheme; we’re sure that this year’s intake will prove just as insightful and enticing to our audience who are always thirsty for knowledge.“

The full list of New Generation Thinkers is available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/r3-new-gen-thinkers

Dr Carol Clark and Dr Judith Chapman visited INTL-International University, Nilai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia following a visit at the end of 2014 by Professor Tim McIntyre-Batty. The faculty of Health currently consists of one programme – Physiotherapy BSc (Hons). Colleagues at INTL-IU wish to expand their provision of health science programmes and their research profile. Carol and Judith met with some of the faculty including Dato’ Professor Rahmah Mohamed – Dean of the Faculty of Health and VC of INTL-IU, Professor Narasimman Swaminathan – Head of Research and Praveen Surendran – Head of Physiotherapy Programme. Primarily to discuss similar research interests, physiotherapy programmes in Malaysia and the UK and provision of additional health related programmes for example; public health, nutrition and paramedic science. We found we had a lot of common ground and put together a paper setting out ideas relating to future collaborative work.

Carol and Judith joined Dato’ Professor Rahmah Mohamed the Dean of the Faculty of Health and VC of INTL-IU and colleagues from the faculty for an evening of entertainment. We were introduced to Malaysian culture in the form of dancing and cuisine and were made to feel very welcome.

Carol and Judith facilitated a work shop highlighting the importance of Physical activity in the prevention of non-communicable diseases including Metabolic Syndrome. Non-communicable diseases account for over two thirds of the global health burden in relation to mortality and morbidity. The non-communicable diseases include: diabetes, heart and lung diseases, stroke, some cancers and dementia. In Malaysia the prevalence of diabetes is 10% and increasing while metabolic syndrome in the > 30 year olds is between 24% – 47% and ethnically dependent. With a growing elderly population and rising obesity the burden of non-communicable diseases has increased significantly in Malaysia in the last 10-15 years. The aim of the workshop was to explore how Physiotherapists might influence and engage in the promotion of physical activity through the lifespan by considering the motivators and barriers in Malaysia.
Students from two universities (INTL- IU and Ramsay Sime Darby University) attended the workshop and shared their own levels of physical activity and explored ideas relating to increasing physical activity engagement amongst different groups in Malaysia in the future.

Dr Carol Clark, Dr Judith Chapman (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, BU) Professor Narasimman Swaminathan and Praveen Surendran (Faculty of Health, INTI-IU)