Widening participation

HE policy update w/e 20th January 2017

Higher Education and Research Bill – the Bill continues its committee stage in the Lords, with long and lively debates. Only government amendments have been approved so far, apart from last week’s amendment to clause 1. The list of amendments has continued to grow in the meantime, there is a genuine risk that they may… Read more » about HE policy update w/e 20th January 2017

HE Policy update w/e 13th January 2017

HE and Research Bill – the Bill was debated in the House of Lords on Monday and Wednesday with a lively debate on both days.  Monday’s was marginally more exciting because the House voted on one amendment (248 to 221) and the government was defeated, but this is likely to turn out to have been… Read more » about HE Policy update w/e 13th January 2017

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

The first year student experience – ‘stay-at-home’ students

Colleagues, A ‘hot-off-the-press’ publication exploring students experience living at home – maybe of interest to staff busy welcoming our new students ===== Commuting, transitions and belonging: the experiences of students living at home in their first year at university (Pokorny, Holley, Kane) In this study, our cross-case analysis of students’ lives challenges the conventional home–university… Read more » about The first year student experience – ‘stay-at-home’ students

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