BU Research Blog

Monday

Graduate Employment

The Graduate Market in 2015 report has shown that for Britain’s leading employers, the average graduate starting salary will rise to £30,000 this year and graduate recruitment is set to expand by 8.1% (the highest in the past decade). Graduates are getting record salaries (The Times).

Tuesday

Counter Terrorism and Security Bill

The Joint Committee on Human Rights advised that the government should remove universities from the list of authorities covered by proposed new powers in the Counter Terrorism and Security Bill. They say the plans to require universities to stop people from being drawn into terrorism would stifle academic freedom. Terror plans ‘threaten academic freedom’ (BBC News).

Wednesday

US Universities

There is concern that students are choosing to go to US universities amid concerns over rising fees and quality of degree courses – including contact time. British students shun Oxbridge in favour of ‘value for money’ US (The Independent).

Campus Safety

A third of female students in Britain have endured a sexual assault or unwanted advances at university, new research conducted for The Telegraph shows. The End Violence Against Women Coalition, an alliance of charities and campaign groups, warned that higher education institutions are avoiding their legal responsibilities by refusing to investigate sexual assault allegations. One in three UK female students sexually assaulted or abused on campus (The Telegraph).

Thursday

International Students

Higher education leaders have called on Theresa May to stop using international students as a political football in a Conservative Party power struggle, as details emerge of more proposed visa restrictions. Foreign students used as ‘pawns in a political game’ (Times Higher Education).

Friday

Degree Quality

HESA figures show that one in five graduates were awarded a first-class degree last year, prompting claims that universities are handing out more top grades to boost their league table positions. The number of students attaining a first has doubled in the past decade, rising by 14 per cent in 12 months to a record of almost 80,000 last summer. Universities ‘handing out more firsts to lift rankings’ (The Telegraph).

Part-Time Students

Nearly 55,000 fewer part-time students were studying in the UK in 2013-14 than in 2012-13, with overall numbers dipping to 603,325 last year according to data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Part-time student numbers continue to dive (Times Higher Education).

Chinese Students

Last year, 58,810 first-year students from China started undergraduate degrees at UK universities – a rise of 4 per cent on last year. The number of new Chinese students has rocketed by almost 60 per cent since 2009-10. However, students from India declined by 12 per cent and Pakistan by 7 per cent, suggesting that the government’s clampdown on student visas and tough rhetoric on immigration had put many off coming to the UK. More students here from China than whole of EU (The Independent).

 2015 Election

Several Vice-Chancellors have been asked to share their expectations for 2015 party manifestos for the Guardian HE Network, the article includes comments from Professor John Vinney. Vice-chancellors share their expectations for 2015 party manifestos (Guardian HE network).

I have some researchers visiting from the University of Ulster in February and they would like to take the opportunity to interview 2 or 3 SME owners who have used crowdfunding. I’d be grateful if anyone has contacts that they could pass on to me:  palford@bournemouth.ac.uk

Dr John Oliver, Associate Professor of Media Management, has been awarded a prestigious Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

He will focus his research on Dynamic Capabilities Theory which provides an appropriate lens through which to examine: media management, organisational change, and news firms’ ability adapt and renew their resources, capabilities and competencies through deliberate resource investment.

Dr Oliver said that he was “delighted with the appointment and hopes that his research will help a number of different stakeholders, from policy makers to news organisations, to better understand the adaptive and transformative processes that have made some news businesses more successful than others”.

Infested Abalone Shell (Photo:C Simon)

Stellenbosch Unverisity (Photo: C Simon)

This Fusion Investment Fund project is about to kick off involving collaboration between Matt Bentley at BU and Carol Simon at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. The research focuses on control of pest infestation of cultured abalone. Abalone is one of the world’s most valuable aquaculture products and its culture has alleviated the illegal harvesting of wild individuals. In South Africa, abalone and oyster culture form part of the country’s ‘Blue Revolution’ developing sustainable aquaculture. This project will involve two BU students who will work on the development of a methodology for use on abalone farms to manage shell-boring worm infestations which threaten the industry (the abalone’s response is to carry out shell repair/thickening in place of flesh growth thereby reducing the product yield). The methodologies will be developed in the laboratories of Stellenbosch University and then transferred to trials at the abalone farm of Abagold Pty Ltd in Hermanus in the Western Cape.

Monday

International Students

Sir James Dyson has criticised Theresa May’s proposals (for the Conservative Party manifesto) to expel international students on graduation. He argues the proposals are a short-term vote winner that will harm the economy by losing valuable ideas from the brightest foreign minds. Dyson wipes floor with May’s student immigration plan  (The Guardian).

Tuesday

Student Funding Panel

The interim findings of the Universities UK’s Student Funding Panel, which was established last year to examine the current system, has said that raising tuition fees to £9,000 has not helped drive improvements in teaching despite the government’s insistence it would improve standards. It also reveals concerns around a drop in flexible places (i.e. part-time) and the level of support available to students in financial difficulties. Fee hike ‘has not driven teaching improvement’, says UUK panel (Times Higher Education).

Wednesday

International Students

The Chancellor, George Osborne has opposed Theresa May’s plan to deport foreign students after they graduate amid fears that it would damage the economy and universities’ finances. Osborne blocks May’s plan to deport foreign students (The Times).

Thursday

Independent Universities Group

A group representing non-profit and for-profit private providers aims to be “the Russell Group of the alternative sector” and to dissociate its members from “dodgy” for-profit colleges. The Independent Universities Group consists of eight institutions which have degree-awarding powers and/or university titles that are not funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.  Private providers create ‘Russell Group of the alternative sector’ (Times Higher Education).

Friday

NSS 

University teacher training students will be included in this year’s National Student Survey after HEFCE took the “exceptional” step of agreeing to fund their participation. The decision comes days after HEFCE revealed that the National College for Teaching and Learning – the Department for Education agency that funds teacher training, would no longer be funding initial teacher training students’ involvement in the survey. NSS to include teacher training students after funding council steps in (Times Higher Education).

As Bournemouth University’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) portfolio increases, here are the thoughts of current KTP Associate, Celia Beckett, as she reflects on the benefits of her KTP experience.

“There are many benefits to being a KTP associate but perhaps the most important is having the chance to receive training about how to tackle many of the difficult issues of the workplace. It has been so supportive to have the backing of the KTP and to attend the two residential courses.

Coming from a background of academia and having only previously worked in the public sector the challenges of working in a different environment were considerable. I only realise now just how naïve I was about the skills that I would need to develop. I had years of work experience in social work and as an academic researcher and as the post I was engaged in was closely related to my knowledge base I assumed that it would be relatively easy to implement my ideas. My brief was to implement an assessment system into the child care organisation I was based in to assess the emotional and behavioural difficulties of the children and integrate this with improved interventions and planning.

Another key important benefit is the dual supervision, including support from the University as well as the work supervision.  This has been invaluable and enables time for reflection, another person’s pair of eyes and ears to either validate what you are doing or to make suggestions. It provides realism especially when the going gets tough and it is hard to see the way forward. Again going back to the training I was able to learn about my own strengths and limitations and how this could make it difficult to work through issues e.g. that I was a finisher / completer and that much of my frustration was when I found it hard to achieve my objectives. Recognising that some things were not in my control or that change takes longer was critical.

A third benefit was the insistence that I must attend and present to as many conferences and meetings as possible. This was invaluable. It is so easy to be complacent and think that you know about a subject when ideas have moved on or you have missed out particular bits of information. Through attending conferences I was able to make contact with experts in the field and this enabled me to develop further the assessment framework. I already had considerable experience and useful contacts so I ended up with the support of the key people in my field of work. The presentations were also very useful and I worked on 3 posters  and 2 papers, and a number of presentations that helped me think through the salient issues.

A fourth benefit was the importance of finding new ways of working and key to this was communication. Again through the KTP Adviser it was suggested that I should send out a regular bulletin/newsletter. I have just completed newsletter 9 and by the end of the project there will have been 10 newsletters. The style of communication was also very important as to start with I was wanting to put in a more scientific content with graphs and tables, but I soon realised that a much lighter touch was needed and have included pictures, cartoons and competitions. As long as I can get some attention as to what I am doing that is what matters.

Finally it has enabled me to plan for the future of the work I am doing. Currently my work is being taken over by 3 new employees which is a real vindication of the value of the work and we are also going back to Innovate UK for further funding. This time rather than a joint application it will be owned by the company, but they may decide to buy some expertise from the University in terms of academic supervision to retain the links.

 Back in April this year I reported that I had been awarded Fusion Investment funding to establish a research, staff and student exchange partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. As part of that mission, I visited the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) from the 22^nd April to the 26^th April, 2014. The visit involved a number of meetings with the lead UKZN academic contact (Professor Lesley Stainbank), the Dean of the School of Accounting, Finance and Economics and the Acting Vice Chancellor of the University. I was also able to meet with the students at UKZN’s campuses in Durban and Pietermaritzburg. In addition, I presented an academic paper on the effect of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) guidance on greenhouse gas disclosure by UK firms.

On my return to BU, I submitted a proposal for the establishment of research, staff and student exchange to the BU International and UK Partnerships Committee (IUPC). The proposal was approved at the committee’s meeting in July 2014. Professor Lesley Stainbank then visited BU for familiarisation from the 27^th to the 29^th October 2014 as proposed in the fusion fund application. While at BU, Professor Stainbank had a number of meetings with, among others, the Acting Dean of the Business School (Professor Keith Wilkes), Director of International partnerships (Kerry Berry), the Associate Dean for Student Experience (Mark Ridolfo) and other academic members of staff who would like to visit UKZN. The visit by Professor Stainbank to BU brought to an end the project and in that respect I consider that the mission to establish research, student and staff exchange has been accomplished.

I am also happy to report that the paper I presented at UKZN has now been accepted for publication by the British Accounting Review which is a 3* Association of Business Schools (ABS) rated journal. BU has kindly paid for the paper to be published as open access. The paper can be accessed at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838914000560. The other outcome of the project is that I have now started working with Professor Lesley Stainbank on research projects.  Professor Andy Mullineux (Faculty of Management) will be visiting UKZN next April as part of the partnership agreement and other staff members from the Business School (now part of Faculty of Management) have also expressed an interest in going to UKZN.

Dr Ven Tauringana

 Associate Professor of Accounting

Faculty of Management