Dear All

APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING

.. and apologies if you have received this already. Given the current interest within LearnHigher and on LDHEN (and elsewhere) about the inter-related issues of the ‘student experience’ and the nature/construction of student identities and practices, I asked permission to forward to you all the minutes below from the recent joint BSA/SRHE study group/network meeting, and the attachment from Lee Harvey on ‘consumerism’ and ‘choice’ in student learning..

MINUTES OF 31/10/06 JOINT DAY MEETING AT UCE BIRMINGHAM OF THE BRITISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION’S RESEARCHING STUDENTS STUDY GROUP AND THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH INTO HIGHER EDUCATION’S STUDENT EXPERIENCE NETWORK:

FEES:  FOCUSING ON THE 'F' WORD:

The meeting was well attended with 30 people from diverse positions within and outside HE—NUS, postgraduates, student financial support, learning support, and teachers and researchers .  We heard first from Esmee Hanna, PhD Student in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Leeds University, on What impact do increased fees have upon the political involvement of students and their related social responsibilities? Esmee argued, using data she collected from eight in-depth interviews with undergraduates, that ‘the fiscal has firmly become an integral part of the student experience of higher education’.  As HE has been restructured with an economic ideology, and as the individualism that is at the heart of this ideology has become more prevalent, there is now less keenness on the part of students to engage in the kind of politics that was in the forefront of the 60s generation of students. In addition, students have less time than the 60s generation for such activism as they spend much of their time outside class engaging in paid work—to pay the cost of rising tuition fees.  The students she interviewed did vote, and believed that politics had to do with the parliamentary process.  Some of them saw themselves as ‘socially responsible’, by which they meant that they had an obligation to respect others and treat them fairly—hardly the stuff of 60s radicalism.  Even those who did voluntary work in the community often did this less for altruistic reasons than because it looked good on their cv.  This talk led to a lively discussion which in part considered whether students were less politically involved than formerly, reflecting the wider depoliticisation of the society of which they are an increasing part, or whether it might be that we are at the beginning of a process of political activism as indicated by recent occupations and demonstrations in this country and elsewhere.

Wes Streeting, Vice President for Education at NUS, then addressed The Future of the HE Funding Debate emphasizing NUS’s continued opposition to all fees as well as to their anticipated decapping in 2010 in response to the 2009 review that would report after an election, just as the Dearing Report did in 1997.  Wes saw the present situation as transitional to either a reversal of the fees policy to reintroduce free public HE or, as the government intends, to a full market system.  At the same time, he recognised the concessions that had been gained of a return to (limited) grants and bursaries and a higher (but still too low) loan repayment threshold.  However, current funding arrangements, eg. for cross-border students, were too complicated and Wes indicted the gender bias in endebting women with children and on lower than average wages, despite government claims that HE was ‘free at the point of use’ because fees were no longer up-front.  Many potential applicants were ignorant of even this about fees, let alone grants and bursaries.  This was influencing their ‘choice’ with confusing presentation of information.  NUS were therefore demanding a national bursary system.  It was ‘still too early to say’ whether increased fees have put off adult and working-class students but certainly there had been a drop in admissions for the first time in 8 years, though not in Scotland.  Keep watching retention rates for further effects of the fee rise, as what was described as ‘the £1000 panic’ set in at the end of the first term.  Meanwhile, assuredly ‘Top-up fees will not fill the funding gap’.

In the discussion that followed, participants revealed how the system was not working on the ground.  ‘Nightmarishly complex’ form filling was most difficult for the students who needed grants the most, eg. single parents.  It was ‘intentional’ that there was no single source of information and some bursaries were and some were not administered through the Student Loan Company, described as well meaning but not necessarily very efficient.  Bursaries were shown to have improved retention at UWE.  A hierarchy of universities was seen as emerging to shadow schools with ‘private, grammar and state universities’.  Living at home or moving away to study were seen as crucial divisions in the student experience.

Following lunch, Prof. Claire Callender from London South Bank University reminded us of Funding part-time study: the forgotten students based on her on-line survey of 2500 part-timers in 25 UK HEIs for UUK, reported in full on their website.  Part-timers make up 40% of all HE students and growing.  20% of them are at the OU plus many in FE.  Nearly half of all p-ts have a degree already and 80% are 25+ and most white.  58% of post-grads are p-t.  By contrast, ‘The widening participation agenda is principally concerned with young, full-time students’ as the House of Commons Select Cttee on the Future of HE 5^th Rpt 02-03 had confirmed (HC 425-6, p.34).  Historically, p-t fees were pro-rata but support was now better than pre-Dearing.  However, only 21% of p-ts were eligible and their full fee costs were still not covered.  Claire recommended including p-ts in the 2009 review, re. Dearing’s recommendation to make choice between f-t/p-t, continuous/discontinuous study financially neutral.  Endorsement was also expected from the Leitch Report on the government’s adult skills strategy with its support for lifelong learning.

After tea, more discussion followed on the positive and negative effects of fees, felt to be ‘the most visible symbol of marketisation’ and leading to the misperception of students as consumers rather than producers of knowledge – hence the title of the next meeting in February to which Network/Group members were invited to bring undergraduates to speak for themselves about what they were making of their education.  This might encourage students to study students as the Group had previously tried to do through the BSA and C-SAP (the HEA Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics).  It was felt to be too soon to organize this meeting through the proffered use of Sussex Free University, which would also have clashed with the Postgraduate and Newer Researchers Conference on the first day of SRHE annual conference in Brighton on 11^th December.  There would however be a BSA Researching Students Study group meeting at BSA annual conference in April at the University of East London.  Further details of these and other activities to follow.  Also, powerpoints of the day’s presentations available from Joyce and should appear on the SEN part of the SRHE’s website soon.

Joyce and Patrick (Convenors BSA RSSG and SRHE SEN [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask]) 1/11/06

Please find attached an article by Prof Lee Harvey, Director of the Centre for Research and Evaluation at Sheffield Hallam University that appeared in the latest issue of the HEA’s ‘Academy Exchange’ Issue 4 Summer 2006 pp.14-15: What is the student experience anyway?

NETWORK MEMBERS MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN THESE MEETINGS:

BSA Youth Study Group: (Re) minding the Gap: Young People and
the Gap Year in contemporary society
University of Surrey
10th January 2007
10am-5pm

The Gap Year has been defined as a period of ‘time-out’ from education or employment. It has become a growing trend amongst some young people entering and leaving higher education, both in the UK and other contemporary Western societies. However, academics have been relatively slow to investigate this phenomenon; a factor that, in part, may be a reflection of the diversity of the contemporary Gap Year experience, in terms of its range of activities and potential locations. This one-day seminar is to bring together, for the first time, academics whose work addresses this phenomenon together with representatives from organisations involved in Gap Year provision.

Papers include:

Professor Sue Heath, Southampton University - “UK-Based Volunteering, Active Citizenship and the Gap Year”

Dr Kate Simpson, Newcastle University - “Knowing Me, Knowing You: Critical
Pedagogy, International Volunteering and the Gap Year”

Dr Andrew Jones, Birkbeck College, University of London - “Overseas
Volunteering, Gap Years and Development: Making Sense of the Debate”

Katya Williams, London Metropolitan University - “The Comprehensive Gap Year: White, Middle-Class Young People’s Reflections on Inner-City Schooling”

Helene Snee, University of Manchester - “The Online Gap Year: Blogs, Capital and Self-Improvement”

Novie Johan, University of Guelph - “Beyond a Year Away: Gap Year Travel as a Learning Experience”

Thomas Thurnell-Read, University of Warwick -  “The Good, the Bad and the
In/Authentic: Narrating Gap Year Experience”

Tara Duncan, Royal Geographic Society - “What’s the Point of a Gap Year?”

Attendance at the seminar is free. However, in order to facilitate planning if you are interested in attending please email Andy King at [log in to unmask] no later than 15th December 2006.

and

SCHOLARLY TEACHING LECTURE SERIES  
Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching - UCL

The new 'Scholarly Teaching Lecture Series', hosted by The Centre for the
Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) at UCL, are held once per
term and are open to all.  The talks provide briefings by prominent
researchers and will focus on how current research, applied to practice,
can improve student learning.

The first lecture will be held on November 7th from 3pm-5pm (Bentham
House SR1) by Professor Paul Black, Emeritus Professor of Education at
King's College, London. His talk, 'Assessment for Learning: improving
student learning by enhancing feedback', discusses the principles and
practices of formative assessment and how they can be effectively applied
to university teaching.

Further information is available at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/calt/academic-
development/scholarly_teaching_series.htm. The lecture is free and open to all but booking is essential.  Please contact Peter Phillips on 020 7679 1604 (ext. 41604) or email [log in to unmask]  Coffee/tea provided.

Dr. Mark A. J. Weyers B.A, B.Ed, M.Ed, Ed.D
Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching
University College London
1-19 Torrington Place
London WC1E 7HB

Tele: 020 7679 5941

End.