BU Research Blog

Monday

Student loan book sale U-turn 

Vince Cable has announced plans to scrap a proposed sale of student loans – worth an estimated £12bn. The reversal could squeeze the number of university places offered to school leavers. The sale was announced originally by the Chancellor with the proceeds funding the early years of the growth in student numbers when the university student cap is lifted in 2015-2016. Now it is unclear how the expansion will be bankrolled with undergraduate recruitment for 2015 to begin in less than two months.  The BIS secretary told the Social Liberal Forum that the government was considering the sale of student loans on the basis that it would reduce government debt. Recent evidence suggests this will no longer be the case.

·  Student loans sell-off abandonment raises tension in cabinet (Guardian)

·  Privatisation of student loan book to be scrapped (Independent)

·  Cable ‘scraps’ sale of student loans (THE)

Tuesday

Student Loans

Lots of coverage about the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee’s report warning that the Student Loans system is at ‘tipping point’ and accuses the government of failing to get accurate forecasts on how much of the loans need to be written off. The committee reckons the sale off of the student loan book would raise approximately £2bn at the moment, not £12bn. Incidentally, Downing Street downplayed Vince Cable’s claims the Liberal Democrats were blocking the privatisation of the plan, saying it was “not aware of any change to the policy”.

·  Student loan system reaches ‘tipping point’, warn MPs (BBC)

·  Student loan system is almost financially unworkable, says MPs (Guardian)

·  Aditya Chakrabortty – Student loans: not even Cameron could privatise the unprivatisable (Guardian)

·  Leader – The Guardian view on collapsing plans to sell off student debt (Guardian)

·  Student loan system ‘needs urgent review’ says MPs (THE)

·  Nearly half of students will not pay back government loans warn MPs (Telegraph)

·  Student loan system ‘at tipping point’ says MPs: call to overhaul ‘fragile’ regime to prevent ‘black hole’ in funding (Daily Mail)

·  Funding for more student places thrown into doubt   (FT)

·  Student loan write-off losses cause alarm (The Times)

·  Billions lost in ‘black hole’ of student loans (Daily Express)

Graduate employment 

A summer report published today by the Association of Graduate Recruiters reveals there is a 17 per cent increase in the overall number of graduate vacancies, when comparing 2014 with the last recruitment season. The survey also shows that graduate starting salaries are set to improve, with the median rising £500 from last year to £27,000.

·  Graduate vacancies and salaries rise (THE)

·  UK graduate jobs ‘recover but posts left unfilled (BBC)

·  Jobs vacancies are rising, but graduates lack the right skills  (The Times)

Wednesday

Access

A report by the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that ethnic minority students are less likely than their white British peers to receive offers from UK universities. The only exceptions were mixed white/Asian and Chinese university candidates, who did not have a significantly lower chance of getting an offer.

‘Fewer university offers’ for minority groups’ (BBC News online) 

Ethnic minority applicants to university ‘less likely to receive offers’ (THE)

Ethnic minority students get fewer university offers, research shows (Guardian)

Student loans sell-off

Further coverage after Graham Parker, from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), told the Treasury Select Committee that it was a “reasonable assumption” that cancelling the student loan book sell-off would cost the Treasury £12 billion over five years and the move would add to public sector debt. It may also jeopardise Mr Osborne’s plan to remove the cap on student numbers which was due to be funded by the proceeds of the loan book sale. 

Scrapping of student loans sale could raise public sector debt   (Guardian)

Axing student loan book sell-off leaves £12bn hole  (The Times)

Thursday

University Alliance making the case for urgent need for a more sustainable HE funding system

In the Hepi blog, Prof Steve West, Chair of the University Alliance, responds to HEPI’s new report on ‘Only Connect’: Is there still a higher education sector?,  written by Prof David Weston. Read it here 

The Wonkhe blog was an opportunity to explore the issue in even more depth  Read here. 

Access

There’s considerable coverage following the publication of OFFA’s access agreements for 2015-2016.  

UK universities spending more on outreach and less on bursaries, report shows (Independent)

More universities to charge maximum tuition fees of £9,000 (Telegraph)

Millions spent helping poor students pass (The Times)

Ethnic minorities

Several more pieces on how ethnic minority students are less likely to win a place at university following the publication of research from LSE.  The study looked at 50,000 UCAS applications from 2008.

Universities give fewer places to ethnic minorities – still? (Channel 4 news)

Black And Ethnic Minority Students Far Less Likely To Receive Offers, New Study Reveals (Huffington Post)

Ethnic minority students less likely to win a place at university, finds research (The Upcoming)

Friday

Widening Participation

UCAS analysis has shown record numbers of disadvantaged teenagers applied for university allaying fears that higher fees would deter less wealthy candidates. Poorer students apply to university in record numbers (Times)

The recent OFFA report has shown that universities are moving away from bursaries and are diverting money into outreach and employability work. Universities woo poorer students with mentoring not cash (Guardian)

University Funding

A letter calling for government to resist the urge to re-cap student numbers has been published in the Times and the Guardian.

·         It is time to think again about how we are funding higher education and student loans (Times)

·         Sustainable funding for students (Guardian)

On the 17^th July we hosted an Introduction to developing online interventions workshop in the Psychology department at BU. The aim of the workshop was to introduce colleagues to LifeGuide, free open-source software that allows researchers to develop, modify and test behaviour-change interventions (http://lifeguideonline.org). This is part of plans to eventually create BU’s Centre for e-Health, Internet Research and Practice (CHIRP) a multidisciplinary group of researchers in health, computing and behaviour change. The overall aim of CHIRP is to support researchers to create high-quality, high impact digital interventions that will work in practice.

Workshop attendees included staff and PhD students from Nursing, Health Promotion, Psychology and Computing as well as researchers from Dorset Healthcare NHS University Foundation Trust and the University of West of England. Attendees learnt how to use LifeGuide through talks, examples and hands-on experience of using the software. Discussions also led onto future uses of LifeGuide including ideas for collaborative research projects into obesity, exercise motivation in osteoarthritis and projects for computing students to build on the open-source aspects of the software. Overall, it was a successful morning.

The workshop was led by Dr Sarah Williams, psychology lecturer at BU who is using LifeGuide for her MotivATE intervention. MotivATE has been co-developed with the local Eating Disorder Service, the i*eat charity, students at BU and colleagues in HSC, Psychology and Loughborough University. It aims to provide early intervention to people referred to an eating disorder services and motivate them to attend their first appointment. A large multi-site trial of the effectiveness of MotivATE is planned and funding will be sought in January 2015.

The workshop was also facilitated by Dr Leanne Morrison form the University of Southampton and Kathy Walker a third-year student at BU. Dr Morrison has been working on the LifeGuide project at Southampton since its inception 5 years ago and is keen to continue building links with CHIRP. Kathy has been using LifeGuide as part of her role on the research apprenticeship scheme in psychology where she has been instrumental in building the MotivATE intervention. Kathy presented on her experience of using LifeGuide and provided support to attendees as they got a chance to try out the software. Kathy says of the workshop:

“​I feel that the workshop was able to provide an insight for many people and gave them the opportunity to try out a software which could be potentially useful to the attendees. It was really wonderful getting to meet so many different people and engage with them, and present to them my experiences of using Lifeguide. It was a really warm and friendly atmosphere and everyone seemed to enjoy it.”

If you were unable to make the workshop and would like a copy of the slides or would like to get in touch about using LifeGuide or getting involved in CHIRP please get in touch with Sarah Williams at swilliams@bournemouth.ac.uk  Regular CHIRP meetings will be resumed after the summer for all researchers with an interest in the area.

Unfortunately the ‘Hands-on Information Sharing Session’ due to be held on Wednesday 10^th September 2014 by the Business School’s ‘Influences on Consumer Behaviour’ research cluster has had to be rescheduled until later in the year (original blog post: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2014/07/23/calling-all-consumer-behaviour-researchers/).  Many apologies for this change.  A new date will be published via the Research Blog in the near future, and the cluster look forward to meeting and sharing research activities with others interested in consumer research at the rescheduled event.

Courtesy of University Alliance.

Monday

Reshuffle speculation

Speculation is growing ahead of an rumoured government reshuffle, with the PM expected to inform sacked ministers this evening of his decision.  The usual Tuesday morning Cabinet has reportedly been shelved. Universities and Science Minister David Willetts is reported as among those expected to be reshuffled in Paul Waugh’s Room Memo which suggests that the shape of a Cabinet reshuffle is forming with focus on bring in more women and new faces.

“David Willetts’ Cabinet-attending post as Universities Minister could be an option for the Prime Minister to bring up somebody from a lower ministerial rank, with the Telegraph reporting that this could be the route for Liz Truss to become the youngest-ever female Tory Cabinet member. ”

Old pals axe The Sun

David Cameron ‘open to all-women shortlists on eve of reshuffle The Guardian

Old guard fail to jump before they are pushed from cabinet The Times

Cameron’s youthful, woman-friendly reshuffle is a ‘last-minute worry about votes’ says Labour (Independent)

Scottish Independence

The Law Society of Scotland is questioning whether their government had fully researched the planned policy of continuing to charge students from other parts of the UK in the event of a ‘yes’ vote. It warned that such ‘discriminatory fee structures’ were illegal under EU law.

Scottish tuition fees for English students could be illegal under independence, lawyers warn (Telegraph).

University finance

An interesting piece exploring how changes in generating finance to pay for expansion or new campus buildings by issuing bonds could create a new elite set of universities.  Eight English universities have been awarded credit ratings which are awarded on academic reputation, track-record in student recruitment, financial health and leadership. These could be used by governments to allow universities with the strongest rating to launch their own student loan schemes.

Credit where it’s due as universities borrow millions (The Times)

Languages

The APPG on Modern Languages warns the UK is missing out on almost £50bn a year in lost contracts because of poor language skills among the workforce. They warn the study of languages was in ‘deep crisis’ at A-level and languishing at a ‘record low in universities. 44 universities had scrapped language degrees since 2000.

English youths ‘Europe’s worst at languages’: Just 9% of pupils have basic mastery of French compared with 42% elsewhere  (Daily Mail)

University role ‘crucial’ for languages recovery (THE)

Tuesday

Reshuffle shenanigans – you have already received these updates.

Wednesday

Government reshuffle

Top story for most papers although they do focus on the motivations behind Gove’s departure from the Departure of Education and the appointment of several women to ministerial posts.

Greg Clark universities minister as Willetts steps down (BBC News) – quoted UA.

Steve West, Chairman of University of Alliance, said: “The coming months will be critical in thinking about the long-term sustainability and global positioning of UK higher education.”

Greg Clark appointed universities and science minister (Guardian HE blog)

David Willetts quits as university minister (THE) and Greg Clark takes over from Willetts (THE)

Science sector praises David Willetts (Daily Mail)

Science Minister Greg Clark supports ‘homoeopathy‘ (Huffington Post)

Further coverage in sector magazines including Science, Chemistry World, Laboratory Talk

Thursday

Widening Participation

HEFCE/OFFA have published a report today – Outcomes of access agreement, widening participation strategic statement and National Scholarship Programme monitoring for 2012-13’.  The report (available here) focuses on all universities, but Prof Les Ebdon has commented separately on how there has been less progress in boosting the number of poor students attending the most selective universities. This may have influenced coverage to focusing on what the Russell Group is doing to change this (especially in The Times, Telegraph)

Bursaries are bigger but few get them (The Times)

Top universities ‘must do more’ for poor students (Daily Telegraph)

Rise in university spend to attract poorer (BBC News)

Outreach activity ramped up at dawn of £9000 fees (THE)

There is a live chat happening today between 9am and 11am on widening access in UK and Australia on Guardian’s HE Network webpage on

Has the expansion of higher education helped to widen access? (Guardian) which may make interesting reading.

David Willetts

Interviewed on his “reflections” following his resignation as Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts predicts that his successor will need to face down Labour’s policy to reduce fees to £6000.

Few regrets for David Willetts (THE)

Friday

Skills gap/Job readiness

Catherine Hobbs, head of engineering at the University of the West of England (UWE), argues that part-time postgraduate study can help ease industry’s skills problem but only if universities prove to businesses the direct benefits of investment.

Universities must prove they can help close the skills gap (The Engineer)

A-level reform 

Russell Group universities want ministers to provide schools with more funding, teacher training and resources to ensure that reformed A-levels are taught properly – and ensure students can take fourth A-levels in crucial subjects. They wrote a letter to Michael Gove before his move.

A-level reform: Top universities want more money for schools (TES)

International Students 

Interesting interactive graphic on the Guardian HE Network page demonstrating which countries get the most overseas students.

International students – where do they go to study?

On Wednesday 23^rd July 2014, 12:30-14:00, taking place at the Russell Cotes Museum, in Bournemouth.

A Writing Academy Lunchbyte session where Prof. Matthew Bennett will talk about his personal publishing experience, his approaches to research and writing, how to develop a publication strategy and the challenges of working with colleagues and dealing with both reviewers and editors.  He will talk about all type of publishing from journal articles, to books via edited compilations.  Drawing on personal experience he will also focus on how you target high impact journals.   After the presentation, attendees are invited to stay and discuss the topic with the speaker over lunch.

Facilitated by: Professor Matthew Bennett

To book on please visit our Staff Development & Engagement Pages on the Staff Intranet.

Monday

Employability

According to the High Fliers report the graduate job market has recovered to its pre-recession peak but competition for these graduate jobs has remained high, with 39 applications per vacancy.

·         Graduate jobs recover to ‘pre-recession peak’ (BBC)

·         Employers receive 39 applications for every graduate job (Telegraph)

·         Nearly 40 graduates fighting over each job (Times)

Student Loans

Over 5,000 over-50s have taken out up to £67 million a year in student loans in order to undertake university degrees, despite concerns that they will never repay. Rising numbers of over-50s taking out student loans (Telegraph)

University Enterprise Zones

The four new University Enterprise Zones have been announced in Bradford, Bristol, Nottingham and Liverpool. New University Enterprise Zones launched (THE)

Apprenticeships

DfE figures have shown a 15% increase in the number of school leavers undertaking apprenticeships. More pupils taking apprenticeships straight from school (Telegraph)

Tuesday

University Alliance launches Job Ready report. 

Today University Alliance will launch its new report Job Ready: Universities, employers and students creating success publication at the House of Commons.  This is a new study based on in-depth interviews with small and large employers, including  British Airways, IBM, Marks and Spencer and Bank of America, shows employers are putting graduates at the heart of their strategies to innovate and grow. The report will be launched with speeches by Universities Minister Rt Hon David Willetts, University Alliance, CBI, and British Airways.

Technical Degrees

Ed Miliband will announce today in a speech to the Sutton Trust that young workers would be able to “earn and learn” by studying for a degree for part of the week and working for the rest. The Government would subsidise the new technical degrees to meet the demand for hundreds of thousands of STEM technicians needed and employers would design and sponsor them. Mr Miliband warns the country risks “going into decline” unless it creates greater opportunities for the so-called “forgotten 50% of young people who choose not to follow a traditional academic route. 

·  Labour to offer ‘earn and learn’ technical degrees (Independent)

·  Ed Miliband unveils plan for technical degrees if Labour wins 2015 election (Guardian)

·  Labour will introduce ‘technical degrees’, Miliband to say (FT)

·  Labour proposes ‘technical degrees‘(BBC)

·  Labour plans to introduce German-style degrees (Telegraph)

·  Labour launches Technical Degree Policy (THE)

Apprenticeships

Interestingly UCU have published the results of poll showing that more than half of young people would rather do an apprenticeship than go to university, if there was an apprenticeship in a job they wanted to do. UCU says the poll highlighted the desire for more high-skilled apprenticeships and the support for higher level apprenticeships as a credible alternative to a degree. UCU

Access

Further coverage calling for the Russell Group to open up their data on offers following the publication of figures from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge showing the British ethnic minorities are significantly less likely than their white British peers to be offered places. Today’s Guardian piece is a breakdown of Russell Group offers and in the Telegraph piece, Prof Les Ebdon, the Government’s fair access tsar said universities should be committed to “searching out academic potential wherever it is found” to create a better social mix on campuses. 

·  Show us the data on Russell Group offers to ethnic minority students (Guardian) 

·  Access tsar: admit university students based on ‘potential’, (Telegraph)

Wednesday

Student Loans

The chairman of the Student Loans Company (SLC), Christian Brodie, has apologised to ministers and offered to resign over ‘misleading’ “Wonga-style” letters demanding repayment from graduates that were in arrears. In a written statement, the Universities Minister, David Willetts, said he and Vince Cable did not accept his offer to stand down and that the government believed Brodie had a “very important” job to do at the SLC and it would be unfair for him to take the blame for a practice that was nearly 10 years old.

·  Student Loans Company chief offered to resign over ‘misleading’ debt letters (The Guardian)

·  Student loan boss ‘offered to resign‘ (BBC News)

·  Student Loans Chief Offered to quit over Wonga-style letters (Telegraph)

·  Student Loans Chairman offered to resign over debt letters (FT)

·  Ministers back Student Loans chief over ‘Wonga-style’ debt collection (Daily Mail)

·  SLC chairman offered to step down over ‘Smith Lawson’ letters (THE)

Thursday

Salaries

The ICO have ruled that King’s College London should publish details of staff who earn more than £100,000 a year. Salaries of high-earning professors may be disclosed (THE)

International Students

According to an Observatory on Borderless Higher Education report new policies in Asia aimed at stemming the brain drain of students and expanding domestic HE will lead to stagnation or decline in the number choosing to study in the UK. Stronger Asian systems could reduce student numbers in UK (THE)

Friday

UCAS figures – University applications

Widespread coverage of UCAS figures that show applications for university places are up by 4% on last year, with 659,030 submitted by the end of June. They also show that more women have applied than men and that more Scots than ever before have applied to study at university. 

·  UCAS: women more likely to apply to university than men (Telegraph)

·  University applications rise 4% in the UK (BBC News)

·  University applications up 4% to over 650,000 (Guardian)

·  Boys losing out in university gender gap (Daily Mail print and online edition) 

·  University applications hit new high (Daily Mail – online)

·  University applications up 4 per cent at final deadline (THE)

·  University applications are rising (Yahoo)

·  Free tuition hailed as student numbers rise to a new high (Times – Scotland section (subscription))

A Writing English as a Foreign Language Workshop is Taking place on the Wednesday 16^th July 2014, from 12:30-14:00 on Talbot Campus.

Presented by Paul Barnes from the Library this Writing Academy lunch byte session will look at;

Academic style, levels of formality (register), grammar – including tense usage, passive voice, prepositions and relative clauses and vocabulary choice.
After the presentation, attendees are invited to stay and discuss the topic with the speaker over lunch.

One to one appointments with Paul are also available for attendees.
These are available between 13.00 – 14.00, to book a slot please email Shelly Stringer.

To book on to the above workshop please visit the Staff Development & Engagement Pages on the Staff Intranet.

A Grading and Online Feedback with Turnitin Session is taking place over several dates; Thursday 10^th July 2014 11:00-12:00, Monday 14^th July 2014 10:00-11:00 & Tuesday 22^nd July 2014 all in The Octagon, Sir Michael Cobham, Library  Talbot Campus.

These sessions are aimed at academic staff who are using or considering using Turnitin online submissions and would like to know more about how to mark and provide online feedback using the tools available in Turnitin via a computer or an iPad.

No need to book, just come along on the date and time that suits you best.

For more information please visit the Staff Development and Engagement Pages on the Staff Intranet