Other kinds of "impact" REF 2014

David Willetts speech-at UUK conference today was interesting for many reasons. The biggest 'impact' for me was where he was talking about what will be REF'able and how research will be assessed for the Research Excellence Framework 2014.
The most surprising thing was that you could include unpublished work and journal impact factors would have no relevance!

Free universities?

In the age of increasing fees and sale of Higher Education , there has been another university set up that will offer courses for free as reported by the BBC ....

The Sale of UK Higher Education

News has come about regarding the sale of the Charitable College of Law  to a private equity firm, who now has degree awarding powers....

University A Levels

In the news at the moment is a story around universities, specifically 'Russell Group' elite universities  being given control over A-Levels, by the Education Secretary  Michael Gove ...

Teaching Exchange

Uclan  PRF and LDU  is hosting a Teaching Exchange, on Wed 13th June 12-3pm
The teaching exchange is open to anyone who teaches at Uclan or partner colleges and who is interested in developing their teaching skills...

Teaching in Higher Education: A beginners guide

It can be daunting starting off as a new lecturer in HE, there is so much to know and plan before you get near a classroom.
The key starting point for all lecturers  is...

Sitting on the shelf: Do we really need to disseminate our research?

Most research ends up sitting on the shelf in a library or behind some publishing companies pay wall.  Even with  the current rise in open access, hardly anyone outside of a university ever hears about our research.  Do we really need to disseminate our research to the wider public? And if we do how do we break it down so they can understand it? With the current pressures on academics is it worth our time to condense, simplify and disseminate our research to the lay person?....

Teaching that matters new million+ report

Teaching That Matters new million+ report is released today on how the modern universities are leading a teaching revolution...

Challenges facing Higher Education

The HE Guardian has come up with this great infographic detailing the research they did on the challenges facing HE today. The changes in the sector section indicated that most people think things are getting worse and that the coalition government has no coherent set of policies to see HE through this turbulent time.... but

The REF 2014 Update

HEFCE now has an updated page with the final criteria and working methods that the Research Excellence Framework (REF) panels will use when assessing research. REF panel criteria....

University funding for 2012-13

Here is the letter  from BIS. There is going to be a cut in teaching funding but research is mostly ok, with Willets saying "Our universities play a vital role building the skills and knowledge Britain needs to grow. That is why we have protected HEFCE funding for research " 
but it looks like he does not think teaching plays a role in the knowledge economy? We knew the teaching cuts were coming but the £830M drop is still staggering!

Figshare, a new tool for sharing data or a revolution in academic publishing?

What is figshare? well it seems to be a faster way of sharing your data, away from the ponderous route of normal journal publishing.

"figshare allows researchers to publish their data in a citable, searchable and sharable manner. The data can come in the form of individual figures, datasets or video files and users are encouraged to share their negative data and unpublished results too. All data is persistently stored online under the most liberal Creative Commons licence, waiving copyright where possible. This allows scientists to access and share the information from anywhere in the world with minimal friction."

It already boasts usage by prestigious universities, and uses the creative commons licence.  Could it be a useful way to share openly data including negative results, as it claims, we shall see, it seems to be mainly science based data at the moment but there are no restrictions on what you can upload so it has the potential to upload qualitative data and for performing arts staff to upload videos as well. So we shall see if it will be the ground breaking invention it claims to be. It could certainly come in useful!

HEA four year strategic plan for teaching

HEA focus on professionalisation of teaching continues in four-year strategic plan

Strategic priorities over the next four years include:

• to inspire and support effective practice in learning and teaching;
• to recognise, reward and accredit excellent teaching; 
• to influence policy, future thinking and change; 
• to develop an effective, sustainable organisation that is relevant to, and valued by, higher education.

All good intentions but lets wait and see how they are implemented. This should hopefully make lecturers lives better as well as the improving student experience. The main problem is too much work and little recognition. so as long as these concerns are reasonably addressed I am all for the new plan.  Staff should be valued for their excellent teaching in the same way that they can be venerated for excellent research, whether this new strategy will do enough, we shall see.

Open access learning courses.The top 400!

Open access learning really is taking off, from the Open University  to  MIT OpenCourseWare, the OCW consortium  iTunes U and universities even having their own YouTube channels. Its a wonder where to start or stop.  One website has collated a group of good courses (mostly american) that are sorted by subject. http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses, but my recommendation is have a look around the various options available to see what takes your fancy. The OCW has lots of choice, many universities all over the world take part, including MIT and the OU, the courses are available in many languages and it has a good search facility, so that would be my starting point and move on from there.
Happy new year!
Edit: MIT are expanding on their successful OpenCourseWare and creating a not for profit, free interactive elearning platform which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world.
You will not get a full degree but a official certificate from MIT instead. See link.

Free learning platform from Pearson and Google

A free learning management system from education giant Pearson and internet giant Google.
"OpenClass, a free LMS that combines standard course-management tools with advanced social networking and community-building, and an open architecture that allows instructors to import whatever material they want, from e-books to YouTube videos."


http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/pearson-and-google-jump-into-learning-management-systems/


The program will be available via Google apps for education which is becoming increasingly popular in schools and colleges, due its free and user friendly nature. It could potentially save universities and colleges a lot of money that currently goes towards expensive and not very user friendly VLE's
Another useful  tool for the 21st century learner!

UUK response to HE white paper: changes needed!

The Higher Education White Paper promises to put students at the heart of the system. Universities always have been and remain unequivocally committed to delivering this. What the white paper doesn't do is think through the process properly and its actions do not match its aims!

http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/ResponseToTheHigherEducationWhitePaper.pdf

White Paper fails to capture the full extent of the contribution  that universities make to society and to the economy. Too much focus is given to the Undergrad recruitment and teaching. This is a large part but by no means the only thing universities do, and should not be isolated from the rest of the universities activities!


"The excellence of the UK  university system, and the value it creates for the economy and for society,
is based not just on the exceptionally high quality of undergraduate  teaching, but on a range of factors, including:
a.  the inter-connection between teaching and research, and the fact  that all teaching in UK universities takes place within a research informed framework
b.  the contribution that universities make to their communities, to  citizenship, and to the wider social and public good
c.  the transformative impact that the university experience has on those who pass through the system"

The UUK has come up with a well thought out and reasonable response to the HE white paper. Lets just hope the Government listens!

The current impact agenda could consider the impact of inspirational teaching, not just research

"Some academics are unhappy with the focus of the research impact agenda and have questioned the new framework and criteria. John Parkinson writes that it could benefit from looking also at the potential of teaching to connect with and inspire students, rather than focusing solely on the impact of research."
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/07/27/the-current-impact-agenda-should-consider-the-impact-of-inspirational-teaching-not-just-research/


It is strange that in measuring the impact of universities, that teaching is not considered, since it is our primary activity!

The social value of universities

How do universities contribute to the wider community?  Well Uclan is one of the biggest employers in Preston, as well as being involved in community engagement projects! 
 Interesting article by Faiza Shaheen in the Impact of Social Sciences blog, 
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/05/billions-of-pounds-in-social-value/

Liverpool's free university

With the fee hike and general anger at the government, Plans are currently in motion for the establishment of a Free University of Liverpool (FUL). "This is explicitly framed as a protest against the government's tuition fees rise, but also evidences a longer-standing dissatisfaction with the current structure of higher education."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/31/liverpool-free-university-angry-government

what do you think? will it work? I am all for free access to education and learning to enrich your life rather than just for work. But you would need to get all sorts of courses running for it to work as a place of learning. If they offer courses part time so you can go around your job then it could work for people who are just interested in learning without the need for formalised qualifications, and I for one would welcome the opportunity. Education should not be for profit, it should be for the betterment of mankind. But with qualifications and training courses which need accreditation it is more understandable to charge for or subsidise these. I would rather my taxes were spent on education and training than war and obscene salaries/perks for government ministers and managers.

It's not how much you've got but what you do with it!

In higher education, it's not how much time you spend with students, but what you do with it that should count. the ongoing contact time debate! One size does not and should not fit all!

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=417089