BU Research Blog

The bi-annual NCCPE Engage Competition has launched for 2016, aiming to recognise and reward high quality examples of public engagement with research. The competition first ran in 2014, when 230 entries were received and awarded prizes to some exceptional engagement projects.

This year there are six competition categories, and the winner of each category will receive a prize of £1,500 to go towards further public engagement work at their institution. The winners and runners-up from each category will be celebrated at an awards ceremony as part of Engage 2016, the NCCPE’s annual conference, this year on the 29^th and 30^th November.

Please follow the link for more de

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)
• Follow-up to PHSO report on unsafe discharge from hospital | Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee | Deadline: Monday 6 June 2016 (extended to Monday 4 July 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
• Maxwellisation | Treasury Committee | Deadline: Monday 1 August 2016
• Adult social care | Communities and Local Government Committee | Deadline: Friday 19 August 2016

Joint Committee inquiries

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

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.