Apologies for cross posting



> From: Patrick Ainley stop <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH INTO HIGHER EDUCATION
> STUDENT EXPERIENCE NETWORK
>  
> Convened by Prof. Patrick Ainley and Dr. Joyce Canaan
>  
> THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE – A CONVENIENT FICTION?
>  
> Society for Research into Higher Education
> 76 Portland Place, London W1
> Monday, June 6th 11.0 – 5.00
>  
> This day meeting was well attended by 50 people according to my list.  
> It began with a masterly introduction by Ken Roberts, Professor of 
> Sociology at the University of Liverpool, on The Sociology of Students 
> Today.  This drew together factors as diverse as fertility rates, 
> changes in class composition and the education and employment 
> experiences of successive cohorts of school leavers and others to 
> present a picture of HE students today.  Ken argued that, despite all 
> the changes, there was still an identifiable ‘student experience’ 
> across subjects of study and institutions in the UK.
>  
> In the afternoon, following discussion and clarification of Ken’s 
> paper over lunch, although Ron’s title indicated The Fragility of the 
> Student Experience, his philosophical interrogation of teaching and 
> learning also emphasised the common features of learning in HE.  Ron 
> is Professor of Higher Education at the University of London Institute 
> of Education and Chair of SRHE so we were privileged to share his 
> latest thinking on this issue.
>  
> However, both Ron and Ken, by emphasising the unitary nature of 
> student experience provided a contradiction with the title of the 
> meeting which, as Patrick explained in introduction, had been queried 
> by some members of the Network and which presented his and Joyce’s 
> question whether there was any longer – if there ever was – an 
> experience common to all HE students.  This and other issues provoked 
> engaged discussion following both presentations.
>  
> The theme suggested for the next Network Event during the Society for 
> Research into Higher Education’s Annual Conference in Edinburgh 
> 13-15th December will therefore explore this issue further with a Home 
> International comparison of the experiences and circumstances of 
> students in England, Scotland and Wales.   In terms of the impending 
> raising of fees in  England compared with the retention of the 
> ‘front-loaded’ £1250 in Scotland and in  Wales until 2007, student 
> experiences in these ‘national regions’ are increasingly divergent.  
> Academic speakers to this theme are being invited as well as from NUS 
> Scotland but contributions would also be welcomed, particularly as to 
> the various experience of overseas (including especially EU) students 
> in the three countries of the British mainland.  We are not able to 
> say yet when the Event will be timetabled at Conference but it will 
> hopefully be a full afternoon session that members of the Network will 
> be able to attend whether or not they are also signed on for the rest 
> of Conference.  So meanwhile, please consult the SRHE Website for 
> details and hopefully to attend the whole Conference as well as the 
> Network Event.
>  
> This suggestion for the next meeting was raised at tea but we are now 
> also able to announce that the Network Website is up and running, 
> thanks to the efforts of Mark Weyers.  Please visit it at 
> www.srhestudents.org.uk.  There should also be a link to and from 
> SRHE’s Homepage.  We have already put there the indications of Network 
> members’ research interests that were sent in after our first meeting 
> last year (in June 2004), along with records of all meetings since 
> then.  We would like to add to this listing, as well as place on the 
> site any papers given at Network meetings which contributors would 
> like to make available.  Please send these details + papers to me and 
> I will put them on the website – as soon as I have learnt how to do 
> this!  (Mark has explained it at least in principle but is, 
> unfortunately for me but not for him, moving on to greater things at 
> the University of Surrey from where he will continue his participation 
> in the Network.)
>  
> Joyce and I are also rationalising our contributions as she is 
> currently working to set up a parallel organisation with the SEN as a 
> British Sociological Association Study Group.  Meetings would be 
> coordinated to enable a dialogue between sociologists and 
> educationists studying HE with separate panels/ contributions to each 
> group’s annual conferences, beginning with BSA Conference in Easter 
> 2006 to be fronted by Ken.  Thereafter we will coordinate our efforts, 
> hopefully bringing sociological study into the SRHE and SRHE 
> perspectives into sociology.  Joyce and I are also working with the 
> Higher Education Academy’s Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and 
> Politics, the Head of whose Reinvention Centre at the University of 
> Warwick, Dr.Mike Neary, attended and spoke at the meeting.  With Mike, 
> we hope to get students researching their own experiences.  We would 
> also therefore seek to make similar links with Anthropology and 
> Politics subject associations.  We should also clarify our relations 
> with the British Educational Research Association whose Special 
> Interest Group on Higher Education sponsored our June 2005 meeting.  
> We could also seeks links with the British Psychological Association 
> given that so many psychologists are working on the student 
> experience, like Ben Bruneau who contributed to our  Sheffield 
> meeting.
>  
> Our plans for collaboration with subject associations resonate with 
> proposals for publication, in connection with which we can now 
> announce that Joyce and I are to jointly edit an SRHE/OUP series on 
> the student experience and so will be looking for chapters for edited 
> collections as well as single-authored contributions on different 
> aspects of the student experience.  The first of these might seek to 
> present the variety of work on students currently being undertaken 
> from various perspectives which have been presented at meetings of the 
> Network.
>  
> The Network should meet at least three times a year, once at the 
> December Annual Conference of SRHE wherever that is – this year in 
> Edinburgh, once in London at SRHE and once outside London.   You can 
> book into the next Network event at SRHE Conference between 13-15th 
> December, if not to the whole Conference, details and prices for which 
> are on SRHE website.  Maintaining reasonable and affordable prices 
> will be a priority for this as for other Network Events. 
>  
> Please also visit the Network Website and send your details and any 
> papers to me at this email address.  Membership of the Network is free 
> so please encourage your colleagues and students to join.
>  
> Patrick Ainley, 5/7/05.