Myths, damned myths (and statistics?)

0 | July 27th, 2010 | Posted in collaboration, policy, travel

If I had wifi access on my train journey in and out of London I would probably have put this blog post together much sooner, but I don’t, no idea why, other First Great Western trains seem to, but oh well, my enormous season ticket price is obviously not enough to provide that kind of service to regular commuters!

During Universities Week, as you know if you are a regular reader, we held a policy roundtable to bust myths about university. It was a very successful event: 35 senior university leaders, policy makers and representatives for schools and colleges met to debate this overarching question:

> How can we provide more accessible and accurate public information about universities in order to create realistic and manageable expectations?

The debate was lively and wide-ranging, some of the issues raised were:

  • the need to create a better understanding among students, the public, politicians, media and other stakeholders about what universities are for, what they do, and what they contribute to national wealth and national health;
  • the need to create a better understanding of the current university system, how it is funded, how it assures quality, standards and opportunity;
  • the need to produce more transparent and comprehensive information about universities and admissions processes in order to ensure that as good a match as possible is created between what universities are looking for, and the applicants that apply to them;
  • how the provision of fuller information around all aspects of what universities do helps to manage, sometimes to temper, and sometimes to raise, the expectations of students;
  • the need not just for information, but also for advice and guidance (see my recent blogpost: information, information, information (is not enough).

Here are some pictures from the event. As you can see Goldsmiths hosted us in a lovely building (called Deptford Town Hall – no longer a town hall, and not in Deptford, which initially made finding it on a map a bit of a challenge for those of us not from London!).

Pictures from the roundtable at Goldsmiths

Information, information, information (is not enough)

2 | July 23rd, 2010 | Posted in acronyms, policy, uncategorised

I recently attended another acronym-laden meeting: HEPISG (Higher Education Public Information Steering Group) formerly the TQI/NSS Steering Group, to tell them about the Student Expectations of University project and the recent Policy Roundtable: ‘Myth Busting – How can we provide more accessible and accurate public information about universities in order to create realistic and manageable expectations?’.

I had a very brief few minutes in the spotlight, and packing in everything I needed and wanted to say was a bit tricky. A bit like Kirsty Allsopp on Location, location, location it would have been nice to knock a few walls down, move a few rooms about (figuratively speaking)… but still I got my message across: education, education, education (have I heard that somewhere before?) or in other words:

information is not enough, prospective students also need advice and guidance on how to make use of it.

I’m really pleased a lot of people have woken up to the idea that applicants need information to make a well-informed decision about university, but I do feel the need to re-iterate at every given opportunity, they do need more than that!

Hands up anyone who agrees (and #loveHE!)!

Thinking creatively

2 | July 15th, 2010 | Posted in online resource, policy

I’ve had a busy time since I got back from a lovely holiday in Tuscany (www.psmartino.it). On my first day back at work I went to the Apple offices to hear about CampusM, an application designed to give students access to campus services through their smartphones (iPhones and the like!) and a new version/product for student recruitment i.e. applicants.

> By the way, someone asked a question there that no-one was able to answer: how many applicants (not students) have smartphones? Anyone out there in the blogoverse have an answer to that?

I’ve also had a trip to the University of Bath where I talked to staff there about how they communicate with prospective applicants. I rather put one of them on the spot when I asked what the next big thing would be, after blogs, facebook, youtube, apps, what tech is next for young people. But she wasn’t phased, and suggested that I look into foursquare – so I will!

It (foursquare) may not turn out to be useful for communicating with potential applicants, but Bath are certainly doing lots of things to enhance and develop the university-applicant-student relationship, so watch their space!

Both of those meetings were about how other people are ‘thinking creatively’ about communicating with students, so really helped me with keeping my finger on the pulse and reflecting on the design of the online resource. But this week I also attended a breakfast seminar run by IntoUniversity which in its own way is ‘thinking creatively’, in that it offers an “innovative programme that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to attain either a university place or another chosen aspiration”, through out-of-school study, mentoring, aspirational coaching, personal support and, in partnership with universities, FOCUS weeks, days and weekends.

The event was very interesting; Andrew Dilnot (of ‘More or Less’ fame, and also Oxford), Jo Blandon (University of Surrey) and Lee Eliott Major (Sutton Trust) and about 20 participants were discussing whether educational failure has an economic impact, and whether we should in fact be making economic arguments about the benefits of education and social mobility at all. The general feeling around the table (there were quite a few reps from educational charities), was that we all do what we do for moral reasons, but we have to give economic reasons in order to be heard.

Which brings me nicely to Vince Cable’s speech this morning, where the Minister set out his aspirations for the HE sector.  Alarm bells went off in my head when I heard the following: “I’m an economist so I think about the margin, as well as the average. The fact is that we don’t know much about the marginal costs and benefits of HE participation”. Oh dear I thought, a university education reduced to earning a graduate premium. Dr Cable did go on to say that there is more than a cash return to studying at university, but his focus this morning was not on “the transformation of life opportunities”, but on the HE sector needing to think creatively about funding methods.

As you’ll know from previous posts, the Browne Review asked the sector to do precisely that, come up with some proposals for the future funding of  higher education and student finance. It seems that Dr Cable has his own preference: a graduate tax, and this has sparked much debate across Twitter and the blogoverse already. e.g. Vince Cable & the future of higher education and http://twitter.com/#search?q=vince%20cable.

We, the 1994 Group, have welcomed ‘a bold and progressive vision for the sector‘, and, from my personal and project point of view, in particular, the commitment from the Secretary of State to strengthen the information available to  applicants…So now I can get on with ‘thinking creatively’ about how to provide information to prospective students :-)

Information for prospective students and quality assurance

1 | July 8th, 2010 | Posted in online resource, policy

HEFCE today said that under a revised method of quality assurance being developed, providing authoritative and accessible information will be key to the quality assurance process, and a separate consultation will be launched on the types of information that institutions will be required to provide for prospective students.

As you can imagine, this ties in with the work I’m carrying out on developing an online resource for prospective applicants. Aaron Porter, NUS President, summarised it nicely:

‘Providing accurate information about the quality of university courses is central to improving student decision-making. We welcome the importance that the new quality assurance system places on up-to-date, consistent and reliable information.’

And it was nice to see that our Minister, David Willetts, is on the same page:

‘The quality of teaching is a key priority for Government. Our quality assurance system must be fit for the future and aim to improve the student experience. We need a better system that gets more information to prospective students.’

I hope that the need for accessible, accurate, up-to-date information for prospective students will encourage agencies and institutions to work with me on producing the online resource. Obviously it’s time has come!

Myth-busting in Universities Week

2 | June 17th, 2010 | Posted in collaboration, online resource, policy, research

Yesterday saw the long-awaited (by me anyway!) Policy Roundtable event, which took place during Universities Week at Goldsmiths, University of London. It was a very well-attended affair, particularly good given, as the Chair pointed out, that we were South of the river.

Around 30 senior representatives from across the higher education sector attended, including policy makers, university leaders and representatives for schools and colleges.

The speakers and guests debated the following :

How can we provide more accessible and accurate public information about universities in order to create realistic and manageable expectations?

  • How can innovative IT be used to provide accessible public information?
  • What information should universities be providing to parents and the public, and how?
  • What means are needed to engage with international students?
  • How best can universities engage with postgraduate students?
  • Do prospective students need more information, or better, more accessible information?
  • How can universities work in partnership with their students?
  • How can universities work with schools and colleges to manage expectations of university?

The debate was lively, and I hope the discussions will continue on this blog. Any and all input is welcome as I turn discussions and debate into content for the online resource.

Project update

0 | June 3rd, 2010 | Posted in acronyms, research

Six months into the project, time to get out my checklist again and see where we’ve got to, and then write it up as a report for our Board and as another report for JISC’s Chair Committee:

  • Project set up > tick!
  • Desktop research > tick! More to do though.
  • Liaison with 1994 Group members > tick! And ongoing.
  • Liaison with external partners > tick! And also ongoing.
  • Roundtable event > nearly tick! Couting down to 16 June 2010.
  • Development of IT package > half tick! In progress.
  • Dissemination > half tick! Planning in progress.

A lot of what I’ve been doing over the last 6 months is liaison with internal and external partners: the HEA, the QAA, Opinionpanel, UKCISA, HEPI, SPA, NUS, Goldsmiths, UCAS, Durham University, the National Student Forum, Career Academies UK, Oakleigh, The Russell Group, AMOSSHE, ICG HE Community, Connect South West, CIHE, HEFCE and UUK; to name a few acronyms/’interested parties’!

I’ve also been ‘mystery shopping’ on the internet, checking out information sites for people considering applying to university. Members of the ICG HE Community have been sending me links to websites they recommend, and I’d welcome any suggestions from anyone out there in the blogoverse!

Dissemination planning is well in hand, the launch of the proposed online resource and associated report is due to happen at the annual Student Experience conference in November, and I’m also presenting at a UCAS Research Forum in October, plus I have other irons in the fire too.

Well, I’d better go off and turn this blogpost into a report or two then hadn’t I?

Meeting student expectations

1 | June 1st, 2010 | Posted in collaboration, online resource

As I mentioned last Friday, one of the conferences I attended last week was Meeting Student Expectations – Academic progress, reputation and complaints. An extremely interesting conference with sessions on student satisfaction, improving student information, and communication and reputation. All of course very relevant to the Student Expectations of University JISC-funded project!

You can watch Janice Kay’s presentation (for free) on Policy Review TV: www.policyreview.tv/video/405/1967. Do listen out for her talking about the project (as well as pointing me out as the ‘woman in the cream suit’) at the 14:52 mark.

Gradually more and more people are hearing about the project at events like these, and as I continue to meet with ‘interested parties’ such as Universities UK, BrightsideUNIAID and Career Academies UK to mention the most recent contacts.

Please do get in touch if you are an ‘interested party’ or if you would like to input some content for the online resource, e.g.:

  • what is it like to study at Poppleton University?
  • how do people research university and course choices?
  • what advice and guidance would you give to people considering higher education?
  • how does your university communicate with potential applicants?
  • what information do people need to make well-informed decisions?
  • what should people expect of university?

The more input the better, shaping peoples’ expectations of university should be a collaborative exercise.

Conference fever & network railing

1 | May 28th, 2010 | Posted in collaboration, travel

What a busy week of networking I’ve had, and network railing too:

Monday: 06:30 train to London (aka the ‘oh my’ it’s early train); tube to Charing Cross to spend some time in the office; before taking a bus to Tavistock Square to talk to Universities UK about the project; then off to Goldsmiths (tube and overground train) to talk about the roundtable event; and finally home to Cheltenham on the ‘choo choo’.

Tuesday: the ‘oh my’ train again; tube to Euston Square; walk around in circles till I found THE Magic Circle, where I attended the Future of the Prospectus conference. Met some interesting people, heard some good talks, then missed the direct train home to Cheltenham and had to change in Swindon :-( home of the magic roundabout!

Wednesday: usual ‘oh my choo choo’, tube to Oxford Circus, Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education conference which included networking with QAA, University of Exeter Business School, London College of Business and Management, and hearing Morag Shiach of Queen Mary talk about some great things they do. Then tube to Charing Cross, meeting near the office to plan for Enhancing the Student Experience conference in November, and finally my usual train home.

Thursday: groan, another train to London, another tube to Oxford Circus; excellent Meeting Student Expectations conference; excellent networking (bestcourse4me, HEFCE, Ipsos MORI, among others). Getting very blasé about my travelling now. I actually gave someone else directions for how to get to where they wanted to go in London (when did I stop being a tourist?). Fell asleep on the train home to Cheltenham, which luckily terminates there.

Friday: the only link to travelling today is that I made some #followfriday suggestions on Twitter, but I signed up for a conference in July, networking withdrawal perhaps?

The future is rosy

0 | May 18th, 2010 | Posted in collaboration, online resource, travel

Following on from last week’s post, about what the future holds, at the moment the future is looking rosy, well actually red, UCAS red, but that’s not a well-known expression is it.

Following a late night in London, for the Board meeting and working dinner, which meant I only got home at midnight, I went off to UCAS on Friday to talk about working together on the proposed online resource. UCAS already has a student networking website (www.yougofurther.co.uk) and an interest in providing Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) to applicants, so this seems like a good ‘coalition’. There’s more talking to do and agreements to be reached (the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are ahead of me there!), but what a great end to the week.

> P.S. For students and applicants reading this blog who hadn’t heard of the UCAS social networking site:

Yougo is for people who are just about to go to university or are there already. It is a vibrant hub for sharing and offering advice about a whole range of areas including finding out about the UCAS application process, particular HEIs and which courses will be of interest to particular students. It is a way for applicants to meet people with similar interests, studying similar subjects, and to join in debates.

Making progress, pushticuff, pushticuff!

0 | May 11th, 2010 | Posted in collaboration, musing, travel

So four months into this job how are things progressing? I wrote myself a  project plan back in January, and I’ve been busy, chugging along like Ivor the Engine (pushticuff, pushticuff!) to get things done:

  • project set up (blog, web-page, press release & official launch) – tick!
  • desktop research (what do universities do, what do students want & need) – HEI survey ongoing, student input in development, so half a tick!
  • roundtable event – happening in June 2010, tick!
  • liaison with interested parties – tick!
  • dissemination – plans afoot and of course Student Experience Conference in November!

But there’s still plenty to do, and November is fast approaching.

The next ‘station’ this little engine needs to call at is the IT station, so that we can get going putting together the online resource. The progress will seem more real when there’s something concrete to see!

I’ll keep chugging along, and hope you’ll continue to keep me company on the trip.

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