Great Expectations of University

Charles Dickens is forever associated with Misery, Bankruptcy, Debt, Hypocrisy, Poverty, Legal delay, Unrequited Love and, as my title suggests, the hope of better things to come.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

A pity then, that Dickens did not write about University life.  It was not part of his personal history, of course.

But what if he had?

Would the themes  be familiar to him?  Misery, Bankruptcy, Debt, Hypocrisy, Poverty, Legal delay, Unrequited Love, and, as my title suggests, the hope of better things to come?

Happy Christmas to both of my readers.

Practice what you teach

Business Schools have long been teaching about globalisation and technological and business model disruption - the sort of thing that has consigned the shopping experience to history.  But how many have applied that teaching to their own practice?

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Yes, it was a great adventure in the 1960s to go shopping with Mum, to visit the various separate emporiums (emporia?) in our local town, where she was greeted as a valued customer and known personally by staff members  (actually my Auntie Edna worked in one of the shops too).  The traditional skills of the shopkeeper were in choosing the right selection of products for the market and locality they served.  Human memory, careful record keeping and building relationships with families and generations ensured repeat business.  But it could not be scaled up and the corporate learning was slow.

Don't get me wrong.  The AI capabilities of firms like Amazon, their prodigious memory and their relationship with us via the data we freely give them, make them appear like traditional shopkeepers - except, of course, they can scale up and they can, and do, learn very rapidly.

So, the Amazon Business School?  built on the capabilities of digital technology, delivering bespoke education, flexibly and in a variety of ways.  What could possibly go wrong?

Get a GRIP on your teaching

I have spent a productive summer working with a GRIP role play simulation.  The concept of role play for teaching purposes is not new but to combine it with an internet based business scenario and timely interventions from news bulletins and video calls from managers is.

The simulation is the work of GRIP (Gamified Roleplay for Innovation Policy from Organiq.nl of Rotterdam) and is based on a fictitious Dutch company in need of urgent turnaround negotiations.

I worked with the game designers to ensure that the game could be delivered to an English speaking student audience - terminology may be different but the management problems and stakeholder perspectives are universal.  I then used the simulation as an introduction to a final year undergraduate module in Corporate Reconstruction and Turnaround.

So why not simply run out the lectures in the same way you have been doing for years Keith?

Because students HEAR and they (might) remember, they DO and they understand.

Where there's MOOC, there's brass?

Please forgive the bending of that famous Yorkshire saying to fit the point I make.

...AND YORKSHIRE TEA IS NOT GROWN IN YORKSHIRE. PICTURE BY E.THIK.

In 2014 many observers considered that MOOCs (Massive  Open Online Courses) would change the face of education.  Why spend so much money when Harvard (and others) are giving their stuff away for free?
In 2019 we know different.  MOOCs have moderated their numbers and are seen as "tasters" for fee paying courses.  Some allow the issue of a certificate (for a fee) but these are not really commercial ventures.
Those benefiting from MOOCs are the institutions that allowed MOOCs to act as a training ground for their Academics, Learning Designers and Technologists.  A training ground that has allowed the evolution into fully online programmes of study (fee paying) offered via MOOC platforms such as Coursera and FutureLearn.

So, hands up if you thought MOOCs were a fad that would pass?

управление

According to Google Translate the most frequently used Russian word for "Management" is:

управление

(pronounced upravleniye)

...it also translates as CONTROL.

SORRY, BUT I JUST HAD TO USE THIS PIC AGAIN

Just where have Business Schools gone wrong if the evidence of their own "Management", through the influence of "professionals" in key roles, the metric-driven measurements that are REF, TEF and KEF, and the subservient attitude of staff (I won't call them "Faculty") looks more like управление than the best practice our management teachers impart in their courses?

100 years and counting...

Visitors to Barcelona in Spain (and I count myself as such) marvel at the vision, splendour and pure magnificence of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Basilica of the Holy Family.

It'll be finished in 2026...apparently.  Picture by E.Thik

Like so many huge projects it has had its ups and downs over the last 100 years but is now nearing completion.  One thing has sustained the builders, sponsors, churchmen and tourists over the years is the vision of just one man and the ability for his vision to be communicated to all.

• How many of us can say that we even understand the "vision" of the organisations we work for?
• How many "visions" have been re-thought, changed, cancelled, re-calibrated or updated over time?
• How many "visions" have been changed simply because of the 5 year contract of the "visionary" and the need to show some outcomes before the next job beckons?
• How many "visions" are marred by the over-enthusiastic use of the SMART target?
• How many, and here's the biggest concern, have changed their "vision" but have failed to communicate it clearly to those charged with putting it into operation?

So - KEEP IT SIMPLE AND BE PATIENT.

Achieving something lasting and worthwhile takes longer than you think.

Summer break

Keith's blog now takes a summer break, having amassed a readership of at least SEVEN* people after FIVE years of blogging.

I HOPE THAT YOU DO NOT MIND THE GAP BETWEEN THIS AND MY NEXT POST**

* This may not be accurate
** The gap could be considerable...

One small step

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landings I want to share a vivid personal memory of that time...bear with me.

As an 11 year old, excited by space adventure and, having followed the Apollo missions from the start (bedroom full of Airfix Rockets and a Lunar Lander to prove it) I eagerly awaited the launch of Apollo 11.  As the moon landing date neared I realised that it would take place on my 12th birthday - July 20th 1969.  I further realised that the whole adventure would be shown live on TV - albeit in Black and White.

We watched the early evening landing of the Lunar Module (about 8pm GMT).

Could I dare to hope that I would be allowed to stay up for the first moon walk scheduled for around 3.a.m?

Well, I could hope - and pray that this would be a birthday to remember.

But the parental answer was "NO".

Now, I was brought up to do what my parents said and so I missed it, the single most iconic event in my life to that point, and I missed it.  Watching highlights on the news the next day did not replace the loss, much like knowing the scores before watching Match of the Day.

The moral of this story dear reader:

Don't hurt for 50 years, the only one it damages is yourself - especially as my Mum does not remember the incident at all.

Centralise, Centralise, let not one task evade your eyes...

Naval historian, C. Northcote Parkinson coined the phrase:

 "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".

This is known as Parkinson's law.  Parkinson was a University man and so may well have been thinking about the increasing managerialism and centralisation in modern Higher Education (doubtful, as he died in 1993, but bear with me...)

picture from: kisspng-trinidad-blackhole

Over thirty years in Higher Education have certainly taught me that Parkinson was partially correct.  The work certainly expands but not always because we want to "look busy" as "the boss is coming".

The work expands as:

• Centrally positioned administrators find "efficiencies" in faculty based administrators and academics taking on more administrative tasks.
• The multiplication of meetings, sometimes to discuss other meetings, soaks up time better spent on the "real work".
• IT systems multiply as new uses of technology are embraced.  The investment in getting each to talk to existing or separate systems never quite materialises.
• Marketing, Human Resources, Finance and Academic Registry procedures are codified, translated into forms to be completed by staff and then embedded deep in intranet sites, clearly to challenge the intellectual capacity of users.
• The concept of "end user" control is applauded and enthusiastically applied to everything from booking travel, claiming expenses, getting permission to travel, submitting, refereeing, announcing and recording research outputs, classroom booking, equipment requests, photocopying, VLE completion....the list goes on.

A pity that time does not expand so as to ensure that the work assigned can be completed.

Reading level stage 1: REF, TEF and KEF go to University

"Come on TEF and KEF" calls REF, as they climb the hill.

"We are nearly at the top."

REF, TEF, and KEF have been sent to find out exactly what

is happening at the top of University Hill.

Illustration by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

"What will we do when we get there?" asks KEF? who knows

that REF and TEF have been there before.

"Will the people at the top of the hill be nice to us?"
 asks TEF nervously, as his last visit had not worked out too well.

"Buggered if I know," says REF.

Watching Paint Dry

Apart from those of a scientific bent few of us relish the thought of watching paint dry.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

However, Lecture Capture technology gives students of drying paint a wealth of options:

1. Watching Paint Dry
2. Filming Paint Drying
3. Watching the Video of Paint Drying
4. Selectively watching the Video of Paint Drying
5. Fast Forwarding the Video of Paint Drying
6. Saving the Video of Paint Drying to watch later
7. Accidentally Erasing the saved Video of Paint Drying that you were going to watch later.

The remedy?  Choose something else to engage students...

Who gives a TOS?

Teaching Only Staff (TOS) are becoming more visible in Business Schools, where the main income and, often, the only surpluses that a University can derive from its activities, are derived from teaching and programme management.
But Researchers make good teachers...good communicators...good heavens, you mean that they don't necessarily?  My previous blogs on SECOND CLASS LECTURERS and THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW might suggest how I feel about this, but I digress.

TOS feel, to me, like outcasts - even the epithet attached suggests some deficiency in their value - Teaching ONLY!!  It's like the Catholic Church thinking of all other religions as "non-catholic".

Pope Francis with non-catholics

The tag ONLY also allows institutions to hide the disproportionate loading of what some research professors call "Admin.", to you and me, that's "Management".  Management of recruitment, student experience, programme suitability, teaching policy, learning resources....the list goes on. TOS staff are highly professional, have skills, often bring industry insights and are developed in their specialist area - teaching.  Why is this part of the university mission so undersold?

So, what could we call TOS to try to avoid and reduce the stigma that is surely embodied in the name and the career opportunities?

• Professor
• Reader
• Senior Lecturer
• Lecturer

Worth a thought...

If you want answers, ask questions...

One of my favourite poems, and one that I use in teaching, is by Rudyard Kipling and appears in the Elephant's Child:

I KEEP six honest serving-men

 (They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When 

 And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

 I send them east and west;

But after they have worked for me,

 I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,

 For I am busy then,

As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,

 For they are hungry men.

But different folk have different views; 

I know a person small—

She keeps ten million serving-men,

Who get no rest at all!

She sends'em abroad on her own affairs,

 From the second she opens her eyes—

One million Hows, two million Wheres,

And seven million Whys!

Just how many lectures give answers without the students being given the opportunity to ask questions?

The 5 Rs of YouTube Learning

I love a good mnemonic or contraction, initialisation or acronym - it makes the most common sense things sound thought-provoking.  Price (2009) considered the needs of the generation of "millennial" or YouTube students.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

What emerged was a fantastic and alliterative contraction - 5 Rs.

Let me attempt to explain...

The 5 R's stand for:

• Relevance. It's got to mean something to the student - linking it to the assessment may not be enough, but linking it to their future is a step in the right direction.
• Rationale. Rules need to be explained - why is the essay only 2,500 words?  What is the tolerance for exceeding the limit?  Why can't I use the good stuff I found on Wikipedia?
• Relaxed. Flexibility is the key - learning when I'm ready, not when the timetable says I should.
• Rapport. Approachability of tutors, professors and administrators is very important to today's students.  Do they know that you are human too?
• Research-based methods. Learning by doing and practical styles of delivery are favoured.

REQUIRED:

Review a course that you have just delivered against the 5Rs.

Ask yourself how the student experience could be improved by tweaking things like:

• Timetable hours - who on earth learns at a time convenient to administrators?
• Assessment - is it relevant and practical or is it an exam?
• The different ways in which you communicate with students - just how available are you?

Now consider why you probably do not take action on any of these things...

REFERENCE: Price, C. (2009). Why Don't My Students Think I'm Groovy? The Teaching Professor,
23 (1), 7.

The farmer's breakfast

There's an old story that goes like this....

The Chickens wanted the Pigs to contribute to the farmer's breakfast.

"The problem is", said the pigs, "that whilst you are involved in the breakfast we pigs would be fully engaged".

Now, we don't ask today's students to give their lives for their studies as that would miss the point and mess up the graduate employment statistics but we do ask them to give rather more than the Chickens.

Student engagement is somewhat of a Holy Grail for Higher Education.  Of course, engaged learners are higher performers but just what motivates them to become engaged?  It's certainly not simply the desire to "get their moneys worth" - so is there a secret?

Skinner et.al. (2008) - considered 805 schoolchildren, attempting to define the reasons for disaffection.  They broadly concluded (and the summary is mine) that active, repeated, rewarded learning leads to behaviours that drive engagement.

Lectures are rarely active, never repeated (except for Lecture Capture) and rewarded fleetingly by the attention of the academic scheduled to drone in front of rapidly changing Powerpoint slides.  So why are we still designing our HE experience on things that do not lead to learning?

20/20 vision

PechaKucha is beginning to appear at conferences, in classrooms and on-line.  It is the simplest of concepts - 20 Powerpoint slides delivered for 20 seconds each (automatically timed).  There are associated concepts - such as using mostly pictures and few words and trying not to make more than three key points.

HERE IS ONE I MADE EARLIER FOR A CONFERENCE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY.

Watch this: PechaKucha demonstration.

Not tried it?  Well, it takes a lot of rehearsal but is very powerful.  Audiences actually listen to what you are saying, you have to focus on the key points and ditch anything that is peripheral.

Perhaps the biggest task is to source/photoshop or create pictures that convey the points you are making.  And if you are organising a conference it gives the chance to have up to five speakers in a 30 minute slot.

...and its great fun...

Artificial Stupidity or Artificial Intelligence?

Will my job be taken over by a robot?  Will I be replaced?  What will become of me?

At least University lecturers can rest easy as experts believe that theirs is one of the few jobs that will not fall victim to the inexorable march of AI.  But if machines can actually learn for themselves and the processing further mimics the human brain we are all doomed.

PICTURE BY SIMON HOWDEN AT FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

Or are we?

Surely Asimov's 3 laws will protect us?  Oh no wait, there was a Zeroeth (?) law preceding and supervailing the first law ("robots must not harm humanity") and then a fourth/fifth law, added by another Science Fiction writer.

Did you say Science Fiction?

Well then, surely robust and well-designed regulation agreed by the world governments will protect us?

We are all doomed.

Power failure on campus: Official

From 1st April 2019 there will be a power failure on campus.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

• Academic colleagues will no longer have the power to decide what, when or how to undertake research;
• Academic colleagues will no longer have any influence on promotion cases, job interviews, contract terms or, frankly anything that stops the University from owning their very souls;
• Academic colleagues will no longer have the power to decide what, where, when or how to teach as their practice must conform to the University teaching protocol that was imagined in the last TEF submission.
• Academic colleagues will no longer have the power to...(complete as applicable to your own institution).

April fool?

Video for dummies

Creating your own video for teaching is much easier than you might think.  Whilst a mere 10 years ago you would need a good camcorder and microphone or even the extensive professional kit, as shown in this week's picture, today's video can be achieved with a smartphone, a tripod and an external mic.

FILMING A CASE STUDY - PICTURE BY FIERY RED

Although smartphone video technology has advanced in recent years the key rules for making acceptable video have not changed.

• Background - choose a background that supports your message, does not distract and does not have obvious flaws such as people walking by and staring at the camera.  Greenscreen offers many possibilities but needs a lot of post-production effort.
• Lighting - typical smartphones take care of this automatically but do avoid stark lighting.  If you do have additional lights, bounce them off the ceiling to give a diffused effect.
• Sound quality - an external mic is best but do make sure that it has the power to amplify the voice and cut out the background noise.  Even the quietest scene will pick up traffic, the hum of computers and lights and loud voices in the vicinity.
• Focus - this is the one thing that cannot be fixed in the editing suite.  Learn how your smartphone can focus on a subject (normally by holding a finger on the screen at the position you want to focus on) and then keep the camera still.

Now all you need is some killer material to capture....  

Playing games

Higher Education has been slow to embrace a technique and concept used extensively by corporate educators, many employers, social media and sport - gamification. (click on the link to provide a full explanation in the context of the undergraduate degree).

PICTURE COURTESY OF COOLDESIGN AT FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

Key concepts in gamification are:

• The sense of competition - we love to win;
• Risk and Uncertainty - the unknown - not everything can be controlled by an algorithm;
• Opportunity to put lessons to use (feedback plus repetition)
• Complexity - just like real life, and
• Reward - Normally the warm glow of a job well done...but virtual badges and icons seem to work reasonably well too.

Oh, and another vital couple of ingredients:

• Imagination from the tutor and the students, and
• Risk (again) - but this time on the part of the tutor, it's so much easier to conform to traditional lecture and seminar formats.

So, what's stopping you?

Podcasts - some Do's and some definitely Don'ts

Those benefitting from the success of Apple Inc must be in a similar (but wealthier) mood to those of Hoover in the last century.

PICTURES FROM SURARCHI AND FRANKIE242 AT FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

The PODCAST has become synonymous with the provision of a digital audio or video file (VODCAST) made available on the Internet for downloading or streaming to a computer or mobile device.  It was just the same for Hoover - a name for many vacuum cleaners made by many alternative manufacturers.

But to achieve a watchable and useful podcast/vodcast we must bear some key points in mind.

1. Keep it short - as long as it needs to be but no longer.  Nothing to do with the attention threshold of the average student but the power of the message.  Just ask PechaKucha fans whether they can get their message across best in a set of 20, 20-second slides or a 2-hour lecture.
2. Use pictures, diagrams or charts rather than words.  Your voice provides the words.
3. Speak faster than you normally would.  You'll need to rehearse this aspect but it does sound surprisingly natural when played back.
4. Focus on ONE thing - this helps you to do number 5.
5. Keep it short.

That's about it.

Basic software packages to record and edit your PODCAST/VODCAST abound - so there's no need to get put off by the technology.

Go on, give it a go and see how that 2-hour lecture can actually boil down to 10 or 15 minutes of powerful input.  Then put your feet up and wonder what you can do with the rest of the time you have saved...

Disruption in HE #2

Some of the world's most successful companies: Amazon, Netflix, PayPal, Easyjet and AirBnB, to name but a few, have disrupted their respective industries by unbundling the packaged product on offer from larger incumbents and initially competing on the basis of one part of the package.

Disruptors can have an easier time where incumbent and monolithic companies fail to recognise the mood music of the market and rely on their hard-won legacy.  It's not that these innovators and disruptors are producing new goods and services - before Amazon there were shops, before Netflix, the cinema, before PayPal, banks...

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Readers of this blog will know, already, that I am really talking about Universities.

The thing is that others, and not always Universities, are providing learning and even getting paid for it.  They are disruptors because they focus on one aspect of the University experience - rather than trying to replicate the whole thing, the campus, the gowns, the qualifications...Instead, they focus on timely, self-paced, flexible and accessible learning.  The disruptors undercut prices (not difficult), use teaching staff in a gig economy way, enable delivery in areas and use technologies that traditional Universities do not.

Wake up and smell the virtual coffee?

Brexit busting Universities

Following Coventry and Lancaster Universities' decision to establish branch campuses (campi?)  in Poland and Germany respectively, other universities are seriously considering the move that could secure continued EU access, attractive visa arrangements for international students and added revenues for Ryanair.

Photo by Andrew Palmer on Unsplash

From my extensive knowledge of European destinations and my hallowed status as a multi- badge winning contributor on Tripadvisor I'd like to share some suggestions for institutions to help them select appropriate EU locations for their new campuses.

EU locations should, of course, have key features that underline the rationale for the initiative:

• Ease of access for flying faculty and administrators.  This rules a lot of locations out where the closest U.K. airport to their campus has been abandoned by everyone but Flybe and DHL.
• Availability of English speaking locals to serve as tutors, support staff but definitely not faculty - else issues might affect things like AACSB accreditation where cash cow business courses are offered.
• Long distances from good institutions in the host country.
• Willingness of some local students to forget that their county offers them free higher education.
• Proximity to either beaches or ski slopes to host meaningful conferences and seminars that are bound to attract scholars from around the globe.

Helpful?

No such thing as a Free MOOC

Massive Open On-Line Courses (MOOCs) offered by some of the world's most prestigious Universities (and some of the others too) hold out the possibility of mass education and reaching those that traditional education provision has not yet reached.

The Openness of MOOCs makes them FREE - so the study is free as long as you do not pay for the certificate of completion at the end of the course (NOT an award, you understand).  And yet, the mode of delivery - the internet, still makes MOOCs inaccessible for many.

Cable.co.uk published a downloadable spreadsheet of 2018 broadband prices at:
https://www.cable.co.uk/broadband/deals/worldwide-price-comparison/

The data shows that around 80% of nations pay over $15 per MB.  This includes Niger at $263 and Somalia at $250.  Afghanistan pays $35and the UAE $16.50.
A combination of geography, economic priorities and diplomatic exclusion from submarine cable access are responsible for the high costs.
Amongst the cheapest are Singapore ($0.03) and Ukraine ($0.04) with China and India at $0.42 and $0.60 respectively.  Once again, geography and economic priorities help to explain costs.

So for MOOCs in many parts of the world, especially the developing, landlocked, disputed and friendless parts, access is anything but FREE.

Want students to research? Send them to China!

During a recent trip to Shanghai the significance of  having the not so ubiquitous Google blocked made me think about student research techniques over the years. I'm certainly no Luddite, you understand, but for all my embracing of Technology Enhanced Learning I can see the downside.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

As a Bradford undergraduate in 1975 I recall an excellent foundation module in research methods for business studies.  Out of a class of 50 only two students attended, me and one other (a mature student who had been a journalist and so knew the value of good research). The key reason for the low turnout was that the module was not assessed, providing formative feedback only.

Great! That meant individual attention from Prof. Gerry and Dr. Roger, the tutors! Take that suckers!

Anyway.  Back to the research.  Back to a manual trawl through the library card index system, the microfilm and dusty tome copies of journals and then selecting a small number of published papers for purchase as the library did not subscribe to all relevant journals.  I recall that the search took weeks, the discussion to authorise the purchase a further period and then the arrival of the printed paper after another couple of weeks.  Touchingly, the paper came with a handwritten note from the author (an Oxford academic) wishing me well with the project I was designing.

My project took all term, the report received feedback and I had learned new skills.  The report proudly carried two key references of quality. What endured from that episode was not the outcome of the research itself  but the process of research. It required me to engage my mind at an early stage, to focus and to organise my time carefully in order that I did not spend my entire life in the literature search phase.

Today, many colleagues anticipate that students with access to Google will be able to garner literary resources far more swiftly.  But speed comes with a cost. Did they stop to think and focus BEFORE opening their laptop? Did they actually read the paper or rely on Google Scholar's algorithms to judge its relevance?

Disruption in HE #1

Disruption is the new buzzword in Higher Education.  Whether through the march of regulation, the whims of government policy or through simple demographics and not so simple technology, many Universities are feeling disrupted.  Things just aren't what they used to be.  Things university staff knew for certain (such as poor pay and stable pensions) are now no longer so assured.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA 

None other than Professor Clay Christiensen of Harvard Business School talks a lot about disruption and paints a picture of the corporate world that can very readily be overlaid on Higher Education.

Universities, with their visions of excellence, their efforts to achieve the highest goals have, sometimes, eschewed the disruptions in their own markets:

• Technology - "we're proud to be a campus university"
• Teaching specialisation - "we're convinced that the best researchers make the best teachers"
• Flexibility for students - "we're capturing all lectures as part of our digital strategy"
• Regulation - "we produce excellent REF and TEF submissions"
• Population diversity - "we are proud to have a widening access scheme that allows up to 10% of applicants to come from state schools"
• Focus on skills - "turning up to lectures is a key part of developing organisational skills"
• Impact - "just look at the number of firsts our students achieve"

To be continued...

Babies and bathwater... 2 year degrees

Innovation in HE is so rare that any attempts to change the status quo should really be applauded.  The University of Buckingham plans to take advantage of government policy and offer a 2-year degree.  Just use the long summer holiday - how innovative!
The initiative possibly misses the point that 3 or 4-year degrees provide opportunities for maturity development, reflection, experience and application that may not be accomplished in shorter timeframes by the average student - but that's for another blog.

Photo by Elijah Hail on Unsplash

It is about time that Universities were shaken up - selling the same old stuff to the same old customers has seen many household names in the corporate world miss out on trends and disappear.  The strongest, and best, plan, build and change their strategy in a major way so that the "new" opportunities are met and the right resources are in the right places.

But - "Babies and Bathwater!" I hear you cry.  And you'd be right to question some innovations.  Not everything about the old ways of doing things is wrong, not everything needs to be changed but we DO need to question it all.

Teaching intensity metrics - transparency is key

As we enter a new year of study, after the bloating of Christmas, and when everything in the heads of undergraduate students is consigned to distant memory, to make room for the excitement of beer and family skiing trip, many students reflect on their need to redouble their efforts when they get back to Uni.
Continuing the diet of fun, alcohol and freedom might seem remarkably inviting. But the stark reality of Semester 1 assessments and a Semester 2 of building on the shaky foundations of knowledge acquired before Christmas will cause many students to think about their wastes and their preparedness for the hard slog to Easter Vac.
Echoing Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's call for clearer labelling on food I have devised a transparent teaching labelling system: that should help students to be selective about how they spend their valuable time:
The TEF Teaching intensity metric is a blunt instrument, looking only at "contact" hours - whatever that means - as if sitting in a lecture for a long time miraculously transforms into student learning!
My Teaching Intensity Trafficlight System (no acronym suggests itself) will show students just how much they are missing by not attending the lecture and really meaning to watch the Lecture Capture (honest).
Any takers?

Is your University going bust?

Students of Insolvency Law and Practice (all three of us) will be aware of a "tongue in cheek" but alarmingly prescient list of danger signs of corporate insolvency compiled by Mark Holman of Price Waterhouse in 1984.

Picture by Matt Banks

Anecdotal and observational, the list can be decried by academics more used to statistical rigour and triangulation in their own research efforts but still retains the ring of truth:

• Personalised number plates on the Rolls
• Company flagpole
• Fountain in the forecourt
• Fish tank in the boardroom
• Founder's statue in reception
• Beautiful new offices
• Beautiful new secretary
• Company yacht/aeroplane
• A fast-talking MD
• Directors who use military titles
• Obsession with tax avoidance
• Too many board papers
• No accountant on the board
• Too many auditors
• Too friendly with their banker
• Too many bankers

Homan opines that many of these indicate a Board / MD pre-occupied with prestige rather than profit.

Just how many of these can you see at your University?