Taking horses to water...

In this post I offer a helpful translation guide for those unfamiliar with academics working in Higher Education:

What the University says:	What the academic hears:
Ensure that your marking of exam scripts corresponds to FHEQ Level 6	You’ll know a pass when you see it.
Your teaching input is an important part of the student experience	Don’t teach right up to 5pm as it wastes valuable drinking time.
Embed ethical standards in your teaching	Mention the failures of the banking system once in a while followed by the phrase “tut, tut, tut…”
Consider alternative assessment strategies	Set an exam that your PhD student can mark for you.
Cater for students with different learning preferences	Talk slowly and loudly
Ensure that your ILOs differentiate between FHEQ levels 6 and 7	Blah, blah, blah ACRONYM, ACRONYM…
Be enthusiastic about your subject and your interaction with students	Tell a few jokes.
Contextualise your teaching to reflect real world issues	Mention the failures of the banking system once in a while followed by the phrase “tut, tut, tut…”
Consider podcasting key learning points in your lectures	Do nothing and this type of irritation will go away
Ensure that your students know when you are available for tutoring purposes	Be in the Dog & Duck every Thursday at 7pm.

Blended or Single Malt Learning?

At £15,000 for a 70cl bottle the BOWMORE 1964 46 Year Old Fino Sherry Cask  42.9% Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (Distillery Bottling) is probably the most expensive single malt whisky on the Whisky Exchange website.  Compare this to the £12 - £15 blended whisky available through many UK supermarkets.  Blended is cheaper but, ahhhhh  the taste, rarity  and prestige of the single malt....

My family knows what I want for Christmas...

The same price disparity does not occur in studying for a degree.  Blended Learning is becoming more common on £9,000 a year undergraduate degrees from many providers  - but the single malt experience of, say, Oxford or Cambridge is priced at exactly the same level.

The error of effectively fixing prices is one that the last UK government must be blamed for but UK Universities are equally culpable for maintaining a high cost model of delivery and provision that now threatens their own solvency.

But is Blended Learning a low cost answer? Probably not.  However, the costs come up-front (that's called investment in the business world) and, what is more, require longer-term thinking and planning and staff with different skills.

So where will the investment in research of online and blended learning and innovative teaching come from to make UK Higher Education, once again, the leader in its field?

Answers on a Google form please...

From the archives for 1st April: UK Universities hit by DPI mis-selling scandal.

In the early 2020s UK Universities were hit by compensation claims running into the billions of pounds in respect of the ill fated Degree Protection Insurance (DPI) scheme that they had sold to unsuspecting consumers students..

The origins of the scandal appear in 2015/16 when vulnerable Universities were feeling the financial pressure of rising costs and dwindling revenues (due to fee capping and visa restrictions for domestic and international applicants respectively).
Scores of experienced teaching staff had deserted " research focused" universities for private practice or consultancy or early retirement leaving the higher paid "research active" staff to carry the burden of increased domestic student numbers and increased expectations of stellar learning opportunities.

So, enter left, the equally beleaguered Investment banks, seeking new outlets for their "jam today" products such as DPI.

DPI was a simple concept: for payment of a 10% fee premium (£900 on a £9,000 undergraduate fee - double for International fees! ...without anyone even blushing at the disparity...) students could claim on the policy for:

• Failure of University to provide a chauffeur driven car from station / airport on arrival (£50)
• Failure of University to explain why cheating in exams is not allowed (£100 - double if you get caught!)
• Failure by the University to award a good mark for your essay, even when your mate thought it was worth a lot more (£200 on each occasion)
• Failure of University to ensure that you got out of bed before 1pm in term-time (£50 per day)
• Failure of University to force you to turn up to a lecture or seminar (£50 per occasion)
• Failure of the lecturer to deploy very heavy hints regarding the exam questions (£100 per exam)
• Failure to secure a £100,000 p.a. job in an Investment Bank (or similar) within 1 year of graduation.

DPI also carried a "no claim bonus" of up to 50% for subsequent years' premiums, making the scheme very profitable indeed for Banks and Universities alike.  The DPI policies were sold through University Finance offices on a commission basis.  Claims handling was concentrated in a call centre in rural Ukraine.

OFFSTUD, the Office of the Student Commisar, began to receive complaints from DPI buyers as early as 2014 - before the scheme started - and accelerated its investigation and report (due in 2030, perhaps).

View from Down Under

Academic tourism is a wonderful thing (for academics and airlines) but every once in a while academics have to work hard to "earn" their travel and accommodation perks.  Visiting Australia is a wonderful (academic) experience, especially if the visit's by-product is to see just what advances, innovations and expectations that an HE system, restricted by its demography, the distraction of breathtaking scenery and kangaroos roaming about campuses, the UK can learn from.

Taken by Mr Norman's Dad

...and there are quite a few lessons that can be packed in the hand-luggage and brought home:

• International students do not represent "easy money" - accommodating educational visitors requires excellent support resources if the students are to maximise benefit from the experience.
• Educational Scholars, those who research and study to improve the student experience are lauded and valued amongst their peers, although not, perhaps, amongst their employers.

Hang on...I could have told you that without going all the way to Australia to find out!

Bugger.

Nottingham Forest and the attention span of a jellyfish

Unfair on jellyfish I hear you cry!!

But much on-line learning material designed for the modern generation of student suggests that 7 minutes is the optimum time for on-line video.  Plenty of academics fear that the lecture (typically 1 or 2 hours) is dead (see Turner, 2015 for example).  Podcasts, videos of lectures etc. are becoming more accessible for teachers and students alike but are we doing our students justice?

Many young people will maintain rapt attention to a 90 minute football match (even Nottingham Forest), just as long to a F1 race, longer to the many variants of cricket...the list of examples is long.

So what has football got that lectures haven't?  For that matter what have movies or plays, concerts and recitals have that lectures do not.

You are too polite to say this but.....they aren't BORING.

Make your own word clouds at 

https://tagul.com/

You know what to do...

Bankers: Professionals or Parasites?

Much has been written about the greed, negligence, recklessness, selfishness and foolishness of banks over the past 10 years.  It does not really help that the profession or trade of banking is inherently parasitical (after all banks do lend other people's money and keep the profits for themselves).

My favourite type of bank - photo captured in Taipei

Over that same period of time an "alternative HE provider" (what an ugly term) has arisen - the ifs University College.  Actually the professional body, formerly the Institute (then Chartered Institute) of Bankers has been around for almost 140 years but gained taught degree awarding powers (TDAP) in 2010.

None of the terms: "greedy", "negligent", "reckless", "selfish" or "foolish" can be laid at the door of the ifs University College, however.  It has carved a specialist niche in higher education in Financial Services, educating the next generation of banking professionals and leaders.

I raise this example as it provides an excellent example of segmented competition in niche areas that begins to threaten a poorly understood concept amongst the University elite - the market.

Part of the UK government threat to the cosy clubs of UK Universities (alongside the greater transparency that TEF will bring to Teaching quality) is the expansion of "new (private) universities" to challenge the incumbent providers.  The best Universities will survive this threat comfortably, trading on names and reputations, endowments and unquestioned excellence in research.

The middle ground of UK Universities will begin to tremble, however, as niche areas are targeted by the incomers, key staff focused on teaching and learning will be poached and rewarded (it makes a welcome change to being undervalued and overtaken by "REF Bunnies") and reputations will be harmed as consumer power is unleashed.

As for the rest, the "post 92" Universities that never managed to throw off the perceived yoke of teaching, a new opportunity is presented.  What does the market now value?  What benefits are there in partnerships with the new breed of specialists? What business model will now prevail (after all, the research funding dangled before the many was always illusory).

So, whatever we think of bankers, we can applaud and learn from the example of the ifs University College.

Skills development for the YouTube generation

The 2015 QAA Benchmark statement for Business and Management lists, in section 3.9, key practical, academic and transferable skills.  Such skills should be integrated into every UK Business and Management undergraduate degree programme that meets the standard.  HOW institutions set about meeting the standard is up to them.

Assessment often provides the opportunity to showcase key skills. Many degree programmes now sport group work, presentations, practical reports and posters as types of assessment.  But how will tomorrow's business graduates actually communicate?  How will they collaborate? How will they be expected to carry out their roles in a fast changing, time-poor business environment?

The answer, sadly is probably NOT: meeting with a team, producing a Powerpoint presentation, writing a detailed report or producing a poster.

Yes, these are all excellent ways of embedding academic skills such as research, analysis of data and communication of ideas.  However, they do not prepare students for a world where interviews and meetings are via Skype, videocast or telephone conference; where collaboration is virtual, global and across different timezones and where anyone who presents a Powerpoint to their boss is immediately taken outside and given a sound beating.

So, what should today's students (tomorrow's graduates) be doing - online collaboration, video production, and real-time and real - life case studies.  But, of course, that's quite beyond the skill-set of the lecturers and teachers delivering the curriculum - or is it?