Posts By: Alex Wardrop

SRHE International Conference on Research into Higher Education – quick write up

Maggie Hutchings and myself went to the SRHE’s international conference in Wales to present our research exploring ideas of organisational learning and widening participation. Jacqueline Priego presented her research on participatory learning and undergraduate research assistants. The theme of the conference was Exploring Freedom and Control in global higher education. The thread running through the whole event was… Read more » about SRHE International Conference on Research into Higher Education – quick write up

ESRC Festival of Social Science: Fair Access Research

Festival of Social Science Date: Monday 7 November Time: 10am-1pm Location: F105, Fusion, Talbot Campus Register Here What does it mean to be a student in the 21st century? As part of ESRC’s Festival of Social Science BU researchers Dr Vanessa Heaslip, Dr Clive Hunt, Dr Maggie Hutchings and Dr Alex Wardrop  will be leading a… Read more » about ESRC Festival of Social Science: Fair Access Research

My Voice, My Story: photography, students and social change

Members of the Fair Access Research programme spent the morning working with students in our first workshop for the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science.  In My Voice, My Story, we are exploring what it means to be a non-traditional student at university through the participatory photographic and story technique, photovoice. This technique sees you become the researchers of… Read more » about My Voice, My Story: photography, students and social change

Translating evidence into policy: LSE Research

Jo Ingold and Mark Monaghan at LSE have researched the complex relationship between evidence and policy development. The authors seek to move the conversation about evidence-based policymaking towards a more nuanced understand that sees policy development “as fluid, dynamic and continually re-constituting, rather than a linear or rational ‘transfer’ process”. What emerges from their research is an… Read more » about Translating evidence into policy: LSE Research

Learning together: your voices for widening participation

As part of BU’s innovative Fair Access Research project, we’ve been finding out how widening participation could be understood as a process of organisational learning. Over the summer we have been doing some fieldwork and collecting sector-wide survey data to establish how different people in different organisations learn about widening participation. We want to know how you, here at… Read more » about Learning together: your voices for widening participation

Fair Access Research – news update

As part of the Fair Access Research project we wanted to share with you news and data that has been making headlines over August. HEFCE published Differences in employment outcomes: Comparison of 2008-09 and 2010-11 first degree graduates. One of the most significant findings related to outcomes differences for black and minority ethnic graduates. The report… Read more » about Fair Access Research – news update

Fieldnotes 2: widening participation and organisational learning

Our Fair Access Research project explores the potential of learning and working together to transform higher education. We are interested in finding ways to connect different spheres of widening participation work within — and across — different institutions. With this in mind, Maggie Hutchings and Alex Wardrop undertook a second lot of fieldwork with colleagues in the north of England… Read more » about Fieldnotes 2: widening participation and organisational learning

Fieldnotes: widening participation and organisational learning

Our Fair Access Research project concentrates on the idea of learning and working together to transform higher education. We are interested in how widening participation works differently in different institutions. With this in mind, Maggie Hutchings and Alex Wardrop have been doing some fieldwork with colleagues in the north of England and would like to share some of their reflections… Read more » about Fieldnotes: widening participation and organisational learning

Widening Participation: reaching for hope and solidarity

Silver Clouds, Billy Kruger and Andy Warhol 1966. The Government grants for students from low-income backgrounds to help provide support with living costs while in higher education have been replaced by repayable student loans. Participation rates have been shown to vary according to whether or not a student received free school meals at the age of 15… Read more » about Widening Participation: reaching for hope and solidarity

Partnerships of Widening Participation: Students’ Unions

As part of our Fair Access Research we’ve been doing some filming with SUBU. Our video clips will form part of a resource we are developing to help others find ways to build and sustain partnerships with Students’ Unions for widening participation. Working with Educational Technologist Chris O’Reilly we’ve been compiling useful resources and tips. We interviewed our new full-time officers – President, Daniel… Read more » about Partnerships of Widening Participation: Students’ Unions