Nurse it....don't milk it

In a recent Tripadvisor post based on a flight to Moscow I observed that the ONE small snack in a six hour period (I include here the pre-boarding wait, the flight and the expected delay in Moscow for visa clearance) was rather poor service for a flag carrier with a clear dominance in the UK to Moscow direct  scheduled route (other carriers include a delightful stop in either Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Paris or Schipol airports).  My advice to the airline was to nurse a dominant market position rather than milk it.

My advice to UK Universities fearing the approval of competitors in their most lucrative markets is just the same. Nurse the Business and Management sector, don't continue to milk it.

However well intentioned and focused History professors may be they sure aren't going to get the funding from commercial sources that becoming a private University or "alternative provider" requires.

So what should that mean in practice?

1. Universities need to reconsider the fee levels for undergraduate programmes. Why continue to charge a flat fee when the clear evidence persists that Businees Schools subsidise other subject areas?  Why should Business students pay for say, Drama students, to enjoy subsidised studies?

2. Staff Student ratios also need to be re-considered to be able to deliver the level of service and meet the expectations of Business students that relatively higher fees suggest.

3. Research Professors should be paid well in excess of standard Professorial rates of pay, regardless of their contribution to Business School revenues*

4. Business Schools should change their traditional model and actually deliver teaching that reflects what matters to business today - and in a way that responds to the needs of today's students.

Now, that's not too much to ask is it?

* point 3. excluded as this already appears to be happening.

"Of course I can ride a horse...I've read the book"

Quite what do undergraduate or Masters degrees actually equip young people for? They are certainly not shorthand for intelligence or life skills - just ask employers who have to "re-train" graduate entrants and get them to forget all of the silliness academics have filled their heads with.

So why not design a degree in Common Sense?

Foundation modules in the first year could include:

16CS101 Introduction to hard work

16CS102 Studies in finding stuff out

16CS110 Exploring what stuff actually means

16CS112 Communicating sensible ideas to a variety of audiences

16CS150 Peering outside the box

To be followed in subsequent years by degree level studies in:

16CS201 The 20% of stuff you really need to know

16CS210 Intermediate reality

16CS220 Boosting your CV by working

16CS301 Advanced explaining

16CS350 Planning to do something relevant

16CS360 Final project (making a difference to somebody else's life)

No, it wouldn't really work would it? No real basis in research. Very little academic research is about common sense.

"Out of Office" message

Summer is a time of year when many Universities appear deserted.
Undergraduates on traditional 3 or 4 year programmes have "gone down", whilst 1 year postgraduates disappear to London (or Edinburgh / Paris / Madrid / Rome) to "work on their dissertation".
University academics enjoy family holidays and lengthy "research" visits - except if they have been handed the role of "Admissions Tutor" as that will mean a fraught August and criticism for either undershooting or overshooting targets, keeping standards high or reducing them.  Administrators (on flexible / term time and partial contracts) are absent and professional staff, who find that there are no decision makers to interact with, take increasingly long lunches and early nights.
So, the ubiquitous "Out of Office" message gets pinged from multiple email accounts across the University to recipients across the globe.

MY OUT OF OFFICE DOOR NOTICE

Some "out of office" messages that have collected in my inbox are:

I AM ON HOLIDAY AND DEFINITELY NOT EVEN THINKING OF LOOKING AT EMAILS UNTIL I RETURN TO THE OFFICE.

I AM AWAY FROM THE OFFICE WITH INTERMITTENT / POOR ACCESS TO WIFI AND SO THERE MAY BE A VERY LENGTHY DELAY IN RESPONDING TO YOUR EMAIL

IF YOUR QUERY RELATES TO:
a) ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS, PLEASE CONTACT xxxxxx@xxxx.AC.UK
b) RESEARCH ISSUES, PLEASE CONTACT yyyyyyy@yyyy.AC.UK
c) CONSULTANCY WORK, PLEASE PHONE 07546 232452

I hope that you enjoy the 2.5 days we British call "Summer".

Lecture Capture-what's the problem?

In a short lived action research project this year I tested out the idea of Lecture Capture to support my teaching.

After gaining ethical clearance from the University Ethics Committee - since it was felt that the research might be upsetting for "vulnerable"  students - I set up my camera so that it pointed at the class of students for the entire lecture.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STOCKIMAGES AT FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

Following the lecture the footage was uploaded to the University VLE for access by all those registered on my module.  I repeated the experiment for four weeks until a complaint from the student representatives to the Dean resulted in the whole thing being shut down.

All was not lost, however, as I was able to download and analyse viewing statistics for the four weeks and benefit from a large amount of comment on my end of term feedback forms.

My findings were enlightening:

1. Students overwhelmingly felt it an intrusion into their "privacy" to be recorded during a lecture session.
2. Many  students felt that the images and sound recorded were of a low quality.
3. Only 5% of students viewed the video after the lecture, mainly to "sample" fellow students and make YouTube compilations of their various behaviours (sleeping, Facebooking friends, texting).
4. The resource required to "pixelate" 50% of the faces in each lecture (following requests to do so by students) was very, very costly.
5. Few students felt that their Learning was enhanced simply through Lecture Capture. Engagement in the class was far more important.
6. Most students reported that they understood why academics were reluctant to adopt Lecture Capture widely.

Since the action research project I have been approached separately by the Student Loans Company and the UK Visa Authorities for copies of the footage.  Unfortunately the footage was destroyed on instruction from my Dean.

Peer to Peer Student loans

Another in my series of HE learning from the banking world.  Today we explore Peer to Peer (P2P) lending and the rise of non-bank lenders, typically seeking a better return on their investment / savings than bank savings accounts can offer.

P2P lenders are not banks in the traditional sense as they do not offer true intermediation, by taking on the risk of loss from savers. However, they do try to match loan maturities, aggregate savings and are able to cover wide geographical areas via the Internet. They also provide reassurance to investors through use of credit scoring, due diligence reports in order to reduce perceived risk for the lenders and allow multiple lenders to bid for small trances of the loans to be funded thus spreading lending risk across a number of different borrowers.  Lenders can also sell their loan obligations on, if they can find a buyer.

But make no mistake.  If it all goes horribly wrong then it is not the P2P site that suffers loss - it is the individual lender.

So, Universities have students who require loans to study.  The terms and conditions of official student loans (and the quantum of funds provided) may not be to their liking and so they will seek other providers of finance.  International students who do not have access to educational loans may also benefit (and future EU students if the Brexit negotiations go against them).

Universities can be the (% fee taking) P2P platform, offering an academic due diligence report on each student or even bundling up loans of similar students into portfolios that can be "securitised" for additional liquidity needs.

Universities also have alumni.  many alumni have done well for themselves and may be able to risk part of their capital in a venture that not only offers a reward better than bank rate but also allows them the warm feeling of helping future graduates to fulfil their potential.  It will make a change for alumni to be offered a possible return on their "donation" to their old University.

The logic here is that graduates from "good", lets say AAA rated Universities, would be offered lower interest rates, whilst BBB Universities' students may not get loans at all.

What could possibly go wrong?