Join the LinkedIn #loveHE Group by clicking here!

I know some of those Twitter colleagues personally (@MarioCreatura and I worked together, briefly, at the 1994 Group) and some I only know virtually (@NHJ_HE and @universityboy for example, and worth a ‘follow’ IMHO).

Like me, all three of them blog as well, so without even meeting we can bounce ideas off each other, and get a feel for what’s exercising people. This morning for example the three of them were discussing a Guardian article about the use of A* in admissions, and, according to Mario the ‘Twitter Convo’ is due to turn into a blogpost.

This week Martin (aka ‘universityboy’) has written a blogpost which is really useful to me in the JISC-funded project:

http://theuniversityblog.co.uk/2010/08/03/50-ways-to-choose-a-university

When I get the online resource up and running I hope to have exactly these types of posts from people, so Martin I hope you’ll do a guest blog for me?

In the meantime, dear reader, do have a look at what’s exercising Martin, Newell (aka NHJ-HE) and Mario:

http://theuniversityblog.co.uk

http://newellhj.wordpress.com

http://www.mariocreatura.blogspot.com

I’m going back to my ‘mystery shopping’ online with a ‘prospective student’ hat on, to find examples of good practice in communicating with university applicants. All suggestions welcome! And by the way, yes I did see the xkcd cartoon (below), but I couldn’t possibly comment on how many of the sites I’ve looked at are like that

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

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!)!

> 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

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!

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 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?

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.

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?

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.