BU Research Blog

Student Loans 

It has been reported that some graduates are not informed when their student loans have been paid off resulting in repayments being taken from their accounts, despite clearing their debt. Graduates who keep on paying after they’ve cleared their student debts (The Guardian).

Skills White Paper

BIS is planning to publish a Skills White Paper, which will propose the recommendations from a review into technical and professional education pathways led by Lord Sainsbury. No technical and professional education pilot until 2019/20 (FE Week).

OfS and UKRI

BIS have published their business cases for the Office for Students (OfS) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The documents reveal that the OfS will cost approximately £31 million to run annually, considerably more than the joint £26.6 million running costs of HEFCE and OFFA in 2015. BIS has also predicted a £4 million transitional cost falling in 2017-18 for setting up the UKRI.

 UCAS

UCAS have published their first equality reports for individual universities. This is the first time application and offer data at the institutional level has been made available and broken down by sex, ethnicity and socio-economic background. The data reveals there are many factors that can affect the statistics for individual universities, such as the courses they offer, where they are located, and how they assess different exam subjects. Universities will often have a student profile driven mainly by the demographics of the local population if that is their main recruitment area. You can view the data here.

Student Academic Experience

HEPI and HEA have published their annual findings from their report on the student academic experience. The report reveals that many students would opt for high contact hours above small class sizes. The report also reveals that students care about high-quality teaching and staff who continuously develop their skills. You can view the report here.

 Jo Johnson MP

The Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson spoke at a HEPI event focusing on the student journey. Jo Johnson set out the rationale for the HE reforms saying how students now expect to meet more of the costs of their education through their future earnings and therefore have a sharper eye for quality and value for money. You can read his full speech here.

EU research funding

UUK have published a report claiming that EU research funding generates more than 19,000 jobs across the UK, £1.86 billion for the UK economy and contributes more than £1 billion to GDP. You can view the report here.

I recently returned from Portugal where I spent time as part of an Erasmus staff mobility. I spent a week at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, and more specifically at the Tourism Department within the School of Management & Technology. Viana do Castelo is located in the north-west of Portugal, in a beautiful province called Minho, and sits along the mouth of the Lima River.

Having done my undergraduate studies in Portugal, and then my PhD in the UK, I have always reflected on the characteristics of the two educational systems. One major difference between them is that in Portugal the system assumes that the student has the skills and therefore the educational work mainly focuses on ‘doing’. In the UK, in contrast, we do not make such assumption and there is a very intense focus on study skills. In other words, we focus on content as much as on the process of doing the task well. That’s why we have very comprehensive study skills communities and we focus part of our learning and teaching activity on helping students to develop skills rather than knowledge.

Over the years I have learned about, and reflected on what those key skills are, while at the same time tried to find ways to explain these skills to students in a way that it makes sense to them. Initially, the driver to do this was the help myself (so that I could evolve my style of teaching and adapt to the UK system), but along the way I started to develop simple yet effective ways of explaining those skills to students.

Over the past two years I have put these ideas down on paper through my e-book on “Writing Dissertations & Theses: What you should know but no one tells you”. While the book explains, in a very student friendly way, some of the key skills required to do well in a dissertation, much of its content is also relevant to any academic assignment. After discussing with Portuguese colleagues what would be best for students, we concluded that focusing on developing these research skills would be interesting.

During my presentations I explained some of the key aspects of this work that I have been doing. In particular, I explained the 6Cs of Academic Writing Excellence that I explore in my e-book (Confined, Corroborated, Critical, Concise, Coherent and Captivating) as well as some of the tips & tools required to fulfill with these Cs. These tips & tools include the three pillars of research, the structure of an argument and the stages in the intellectual depth ladder. Personally, this was a great opportunity to share with Portuguese students the material I have been developing at Bournemouth. At the same time, it was an opportunity to test if the material and the explanation is suited to non-UK students.

The feedback was tremendously positive with students using the presentation to reflect on their academic skills. There were very interesting discussions, with many questions asked and students showing a genuine interest in exploring this ‘New World’ for them.  The impacts were immediate as after the first presentation on Monday, Dr. Alexandra told me that they were already applying some of the knowledge during their Tuesday session, where they worked on an assignment. One student commented on the school’s Facebook, saying “congratulations, it was a very interesting experience which has expanded our horizons and made us learn about other realities. Out of the box. An experience, without a doubt, to be repeated.”

During my visit I also worked with Dr. Alexandra Correia on a joint paper we started last year. I also met with Dr. Goretti Silva and Dr. Carlos Fernandes from the tourism department.

With Dr. Alexandra Correia and Dr. Goretti Silva at the Chocolate Factory Hotel, on the last day of the mobility.

Below is a list of committee inquiries with current open calls for evidence. Please contact Emma Bambury-Whitton if you would like to discuss submitting evidence.

Commons Select Committee inquiries

• Science communication | Science and Technology Committee | Deadline: Friday 29 April 2016 (still accepting submissions)
• Robotics and artificial intelligence | Science and Technology Committee | Deadline: Friday 29 April 2016 (still accepting submissions)
• Science in emergencies: chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents | Science and Technology Committee | Deadline: Friday 20 May 2016 (still accepting submissions)
• Electricity sector in Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland Affairs Committee | Deadline: Wednesday 1 June 2016
• Rail franchising | Transport Committee | Deadline: Friday 3 June 2016
• Fragility and development in the Democratic Republic of Congo | International Development Committee | Deadline: Monday 6 June 2016
• SDSR2015 and the Army | Defence Committee | Deadline: Monday 6 June 2016
• Follow-up to PHSO report on unsafe discharge from hospital | Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee | Deadline: Monday 6 June 2016
• MoD support for former and serving personnel subject to judicial processes | Defence Sub-Committee | Deadline: Wednesday 8 June 2016
• Local Authorities and Commissioners | Communities and Local Government Committee | Deadline: Monday 13 June 2016
• Maternity services | Health Committee | Deadline: Friday 17 June 2016
• Local Plans Expert group recommendations | Communities and Local Government Committee | Deadline: Monday 27 June 2016
• Accessibility of sports stadia | Culture, Media and Sport Committee | Deadline: Thursday 30 June 2016

Joint Committee inquiries

• Conflict, Stability and Security Fund | Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy | Deadline: Thursday 15 September 2016

HE & Research Bill

A second reading of the higher education and research bill followed by progression to the committee stage is expected before the summer recess. The government has two windows of opportunity to achieve this: one of seven working days between 6 June and 14 June; and another of 19 working days between 27 June and 21 July.

International Students

The Financial Times has reported on the latest ONS migration statistics which show that tighter post-study visa rules have led to a 6% drop this past year in the number of people outside the EU applying for student visas. Migration Statistics Quarterly Report: May 2016. (ONS).

Student Loans

A petition to protest at the government’s retrospective changes in the terms and conditions of student loans has reached 100,000 signatures in the past three days. The high level of support means that parliament must consider debating the issue. Student loan payback petition tops 100,000 signatures (BBC News).

Teaching and Research

Jane Forster has written a blog on Wonkhe about the future of linking teaching and research. You can view the blog here.

Fee Caps

The Minister of State for Universities and Science has announced that the rate of inflation applying to maximum fees for institutions demonstrating high quality teaching will be 2.8 per cent in 2017-18. However in order to charge the maximum fee, universities must resubmit the access agreements that they have with the Office for Fair Access. Fee caps and inflationary increases for 2017-18 (OFFA).

Sutton Trust

A report published by the Sutton Trust finds that by year 9, almost 65% of girls thought it was ‘very important’ to go to university, compared with 58% of boys. You can view the report here.

Research

A report for Sense about Science has found that the government has no central record of how it spends around £2.5 billion a year in research for policy. Only 4 out of 24 government departments maintain a database of research they have commissioned. You can view the report here.

We have recently signed up to daily policy alerts from Wonkhe. Our subscription allows for a limited number of internal staff to also receive these alerts. If you would like to receive these daily emails, please let me know as soon as possible.

An opportunity has come up for BU staff and students to take their research to Countryfile Live, taking place at Blenheim Palave 4-7 August 2016.  Travel and expenses will be covered by BU and you can either do all four days or just go for two.

For further information about the event take a look at their website, and if you’d be interested in taking your research, email nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk .  We will be attending alongside other universities so this is an excellent networking opportunity, as well as an opportunity to talk to the public about your research.

The themes of the event are around conservation, wildlife and agriculture so research around these areas would be especially relevant.

Over 20 delegates from fisheries and conservation agencies and universities contributed to a seminar at Bournemouth University on the management of emerging and novel fisheries. With rising temperatures and increasing global trade and communications, species that are not native to the North east Atlantic are becoming established around our coast. Most of these are not currently of any concern; however a small proportion can become invasive and cause negative ecological impacts. Yet some non-native species have become beneficial and now support important fisheries, such as the Manila clam in Poole Harbour. There is therefore a tension between developing the economic potential of these new fisheries and risk to biodiversity and species and habitats within protected areas.

Manila clams from Poole Harbour

Photo: John Humphreys jhc Research.

The seminar considered three main questions:

• What can we learn from the history of ‘invading’, yet economically valuable shellfish? Is the pattern of spread any different from other invasions?
• What are the ecological and economic threats, benefits and opportunities from non-native yet valuable species?
• How can we mitigate potential ecological damage through sustainable management and harvesting?

We especially valued contributions from Dr Rosa Freitas and Dr Stefania Chiesa from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, who carry out research on the impacts of some of these species in southern Europe.

Dr Stefania Chiesa from University of Aveiro

Dr. Roger Herbert

Dept. Life and Environmental Sciences

rherbert@bournemouth.ac.uk

Find out more about the Brownsea Marine and Coastal Observatory

This week there were lots of announcements and important changes for the higher education sector. BIS has published the White Paper which sets out the government’s proposals for higher education following on from the Green Paper in 2015. The Higher Education and Research Bill was also published this week. You can view a summary of all the key points from both the White Paper and the bill here.

Below are some updates on the key areas that came out of both the paper and the bill.

TEF

• Universities will be awarded a Meets Expectations, Excellent or Outstanding ​rating.
• Year one (2016/17)- all providers with any form of successful QA award will receive a rating of ‘Meets Expectations’
• Year Two (2017/18)- trial year. The core metrics will be student satisfaction scores (National Student Survey), graduate outcome data (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education), and continuation rates.
• Year Three (2018/19) will include the incorporation of other metrics as a result of the TEF technical consultation and will include pilot assessments at disciplinary level.
• Year Four (2019/20) will be the first year in which disciplinary level assessments take place and will be the earliest the government intends to also include taught postgraduate courses.
• The TEF will allow for inflationary increases to tuition fees for participating institutions that meet basic standards in 2017-18 and 2018-19, ahead of the introduction of differentiated caps in 2019-20 (fee caps are yet to be set).

 Agencies

• HEFCE is closing and is to be replaced by an Office for Students (OfS) which will commence on 1st April 2018.
• The Office for Fair Access will be subsumed into OfS
• HEFCE and OFFA staff will transfer across to OfS which will also have a new board.

Research

• A new body – UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will replace Research Councils UK and will merge the research councils and Innovate UK into this “single, strategic research funding body”.
• A brand new body called Research England will be created under UKRI and will take responsibility for managing the REF and delivering QR, although it will maintain its own governance structure to ensure that the dual support system is maintained.

• The Secretary of State may by regulation add/omit/change the name of a council.

Quality

• The OfS will have oversight of not just the regime for quality, as Hefce did, but also of standards.
• The government will be abolishing the previous process of cyclic quality review where every provider, regardless of risk, was reviewed after the same number of years. Rather, quality reviews will only occur when triggered by a provider seeking to gain approved status, approved (fee cap) status or Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs) as a result of a previous provisionally satisfied assessment, or if annual monitoring activity gives cause for concern.

Additional points

• The OfS will take over responsibility for granting DAPs and University Title for English institutions from the Privy Council.
• Providers that receive public funding will continue to come under the scope of FOI, while those that do not receive public funding will not.
• All universities will be required to publish detailed information about application, offer and progression rates, broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background.
• The OfS will be able to validate degrees

Additional consultations

Alongside the White Paper, the government has released two consultations, both of which BU will be responding to.

• The government is seeking views on student’s being able to more easily switch university or degree, as well as views on accelerated courses. Accelerated courses and switching university or degree
• The government is also seeking views on the operation of the Teaching Excellence Framework in year 2, including the assessment framework and process. Teaching Excellence Framework: year 2

Labour

Labour has launched a campaign to stop David Cameron lifting the cap on university fees in response to the White Paper and bill. Mr Corbyn has said he would abolish tuition fees by raising £10bn of taxes from businesses or higher-earners. Jeremy Corbyn launches campaign against student tuition fees and labels proposed hike ‘a tax on education’ (The Independent).

Teaching quality research

BIS has released data that looks into views on teaching quality in higher education from applicants and graduates. 93% of applicants said that access to transparent and reliable information about universities is important, and 84% of graduates asked said that they believed students should be able to access independent assessment of a university or course’s teaching quality. You can view the data here.

For more information on the reforms to higher education, you can have a look at our intranet pages and a post on the research blog. Please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have.