The reading room
The First Year Experience in Higher Education in the UK
'The first-year experience in higher education in the UK (Phase 1)' by Mantz Yorke and Bernard Longden (February 2007) (PDF 1.75 MB)
The first-year experience of higher education in the UK (Phase 2) by Mantz Yorke and Bernard Longden (January 2008) (PDF 1.75 MB)
Redefining the Doctorate
by Chris Park
Many commentators and observers believe that the time is right and the sector is ready for a national debate in the UK on the nature of the doctorate, given the multiple drivers for change, multiple agendas at work, and the multiple stakeholders with an interest in both the debate and the outcome. This discussion paper is designed to help frame and inform such a debate, which will not only bring together the major stakeholder groups in a shared conversation but also provide opportunities for members of the academic community to contribute to the discussion via a series of national workshops and meetings.
10 guides for the Inclusive Curriculum
Our colleagues in the Geography Discipline Network have produced a set of 10 guides for the Inclusive Curriculum, as part of their Inclusive Curriculum Project.
The ICP Guide series, whilst written primarily for those studying, teaching and supporting geography, earth and environmental sciences in higher education, contains a wealth of information and advice that will be of immense value to those working in other disciplines.
The ICP project focuses on the fundamental principle of inclusivity, whilst addressing the day-to-day practical realities of supporting students with a wide range of specific physical and mental difficulties. Hence although the series is written from a disciplinary perspective and some guide titles address particular areas of disability, the project provides guidance which offers transferable lessons for what is good practice throughout teaching and learning in higher education.
The full list of guides is:
1. Issues in developing an inclusive curriculum: examples from geography, earth and environmental sciences (Healey M, Jenkins A and Leach J)
2. To a degree: a guide for students with specific learning difficulties, long-term medical conditions or impairments (Clark G, Wareham T and Turner R)
3. Developing an inclusive curriculum for students with hearing impairments (Wareham T, Clark D, Turner R)
4. Developing an inclusive curriculum for students with mobility impairments (Milsom C, Anwar N and Thompson S)
5. Developing an inclusive curriculum for students with dyslexia and hidden disabilities (Waterfield J, West B and Chalkley B)
6. Developing an inclusive curriculum for visually disabled students (Shepherd I D H)
7. Developing an inclusive curriculum for a) students with mental health issues; b) students with Asperger Syndrome (Leach J and Birnie J)
8. Developing an inclusive curriculum: a guide for lecturers (Gravestock P)
9. Developing an inclusive curriculum: a guide for Heads of Department and Course Leaders (Harrison M)
10. Developing an inclusive curriculum: a guide for support staff (Roberts C)
Each of these guides can be downloaded/printed from the GDN site www2.glos.ac.uk/gdn/icp/index.htm
TASI: Advice on Digital Images
TASI, the Technical Advisory Service for Images, provides advice and guidance to the UK's Further and Higher Education community on the issues of creating digital images, delivering digital images to users, using digital images to support learning, teaching and research, and managing both small and large scale digitisation projects. They run training workshops, provide consultancy and their website www.tasi.ac.uk/ contains a range of advice documents.
TASI has released 6 new documents focusing on the use of images in VLEs.
The documents offer information for new and existing users of a VLE system. They cover the use of images in Blackboard, Moodle, Web CT and Bodington. Two further documents cover Hot Potatoes and Quandary, tools to make learning objects suitable for Web delivery or for inclusion within VLE courses. The new TASI documents uncover the potential for using images, and also give important advice on locating and preparing images for online use and on copyright.
The VLE documents are available from the middle of this page:
www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/using/using.html
Please note that these resources are also available in PDF format.
For further information about TASI and the services it offers, please contact Chris Brock chris.brock@bristol.ac.uk
Faith Guides for Higher Education
Our colleagues in the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophy and Religious Studies (PRS) have brought together a broad range of academics to author a series of Faith Guides for those working and studying in higher education. The first three - on Christianity, Islam and Sikhism - have recently been published and are available in either hard copy or on the web (see the links below), and more guides are planned.
There is often a lack of understanding as to what a religion is, and what it means to be a member (or not) of a specific faith group. Confusion can result in all walks of life and higher education is not exempt from this. Indeed, institutions are increasingly, and with varying degrees and different levels of success, seeking to respond to and understand specific faith requirements, as they relate (or not) to particular areas of higher education, in continually changing contexts.
This series of Faith Guides will not necessarily solve all the controversies or confusion, but may bring some answers to some of these basic questions, through providing individuals, departments, and institutions with resource information on issues relating to teaching people of faith in a higher education environment.
Please see the Cultural and Religious Diversity page on the PRS website for more information.
The guides may be downloaded freely in PDF format (links below) or purchased in hard copy from the PRS Subject Centre at cost price. Please contact Julie Closs at PRS: jules@prs.heacademy.ac.uk for further details.
The PRS website also has a database of links to information on all the world's faiths.
www.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/diversity/
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: some downloadable reports
Here are a few publications produced during 2007 that colleagues and students may find of interest and utility:
Arts Council England’s Arts Debate – discussion and conclusions publication
Summary & conclusions
The arts debate ran from October 2006 to September 2007. Findings from all stages of the research as well as those gathered through the open consultation have been incorporated into an overall summary entitled Public value and the arts in England: Discussion and conclusions of the arts debate. The summary report provides an account of how people think and feel about the arts in England and their priorities for public funding. It explains how the debate has provided a new framework for understanding the public value of the arts. Detailed results from every stage of the inquiry are available on the research & consultation page.
NESTA: Beginning at the beginning: The creativity gap
http://www.nesta.org.uk/beginning-at-the-beginning-the-creativity-gap/
“For the last 60 years the worlds and languages of culture and business have been uneasily counterpointed against each other: the arts constantly urged to be more 'businesslike'; industry and commerce told that their future lay in becoming more creative. Ever since Adorno first used the term 'culture industry' during World War II (polemically, in comparing mass industrial production with the new phenomenon of mass culture), these two worlds have been locked in an uneasy, constantly shifting embrace..."
This paper is part of NESTA’s series of ‘Provocations’. The full list of 'Provocations' is available at http://www.nesta.org.uk/provocations/
DCMS: Guide to Arts Funding in England
www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Publications/archive_2007/guideartsfunding_june07.htm
"The arts in England are funded through a wide variety of sources, which include earned income, Government subsidy, private donations and business sponsorship. Through this mixed economy, England occupies the middle ground between heavy dependence on the State - as in European countries such as France and Germany - and almost entire reliance on private investment, as in the USA. Funding the arts in this way can prove highly beneficial to artists and arts organisations as it reduces the risks that can arise from reliance on a single funding source, and ensures that they have greater artistic freedom and financial flexibility.
The purpose of this DCMS guide is to help artists and arts organisations navigate their way around the arts funding system and identify specific funding opportunities. It is particularly relevant to organisations that are using the arts to address areas of social policy such as disability, criminal justice, cultural diversity and health."
HEFCE Briefings and Updates
The various Council Briefings and updates that HEFCE produces frequently contain interesting and relevant information not only about what is happening currently in higher education but also indicating future trends.
They can be accessed at: www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/cbrief/2007/
The full list of all HEFCE’s 2007 publications is available at: www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2007/
The following is just a very small selection of published, downloadable reports that may be of interest/use to colleagues
Assessing students’ creativity: synthesis of higher education teacher views
Norman Jackson, The Higher Education Academy, June 2005
www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources.asp?process=full_record§ion=generic&id=560
Live Music in England and Wales - Full Report and Executive Summary
DCMS 2004
www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Publications/archive_2004/live_music_in_england_wales.htm
World Music in England
Arts Council of England, 2005
http://artscouncil.org.uk/publication_archive/world-music-in-england/
(available in full graphic or text only versions)