SEDA Seminar supported by the Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES), Institute of Education, University of London

The Framework for Higher Education and the Review of Institutional Audit: Implications for the educational development community

10.00 Welcome and aims10.10 The BIS perspective: Stephen Marston, Director General, Universities and Skills

11.00 Learning in Universities: Professor Lewis Elton

11.15 Coffee11.45 Student Engagement: James Wisdom

1.00 Lunch

1.45 QA/QE Implications: Julie Hall

3.00 Tea

3.15 Employer Engagement: James Wisdom & Julie Hall

4.00 Departure

Aims:

To consider the 2009 debate about HE, in:

Students and Universities (Select Committee Report)HMG’s Response to the Select CommitteeHigher Ambitions (BIS)Skills for Growth (BIS)Thematic Enquiry into concerns (QAA)Teaching, Quality and the Student Experience (HEFCE)

To help SEDA members respond in their institutions to issues of:

Student engagementEmployer engagementThe review of Institutional Audit (and other parts of the QAA infrastructure)

Perhaps to help SEDA respond as an organisation to the QAA Review.

Student engagement:

•That the introduction of tuition fees had not resulted in visible and measurable improvement of the student experience.

•That a HEPI report had shown a wide variation in class contact hours within the same subject.

•That students knew far too little about the course they were taking – timetables, assessment processes, learning outcomes, access to tutors etc.

•That the presentation of more detailed, standardised information about the course experience would enable students to make informed choices and put pressure on institutions to deliver a better service.

The NUS Response –

Rethinking the values of HE: consumption, partnership, community?(On QAA web site)

Consideration and rejection of the student as consumer

Consideration of Alistair McCulloch’s ideas of the student as “co-producers”

And of Frank Coffield’s ideas of the development of “communities of practice” in learning

An educational developer might focus on:

•An informed dialogue about learning outcomes

•Active engagement with assessment criteria

•Exercises to understand notions of standards

•The development in sophistication of students’ conceptions of learning

•Use of the Assist questionnaire to focus on levels of learning

•Recognition of the significant characteristics of module and programme design

Accepting that institutions will be expected to publish more details about modules, programmes and the student experience ….

How might SEDA members work with their colleagues at all levels in their institution to ensure that this initiative does genuinely improve the quality of the the student experience and of student learning?

QA/QE Implications

HE framework informed by the August 09 Select Committee report which had 2 key questions:

Have standards fallen?

Are the current measures for safeguarding and measuring standards adequate? (not developing or enhancing!)

According to the report “much of the evidence was partial, incomplete and anecdotal”.It’s recommendations went on to cover:

•How to compare standards across the sector (‘It is absurd and disreputable to justify academic standards with a market mechanism.’)

•Reporting on the quality of teaching and processes for responding to ‘shortcomings’

•The training of external examiners

•Changes to institutional audit

•Reforming the QAA

In addition the HE framework highlights:•the link between courses which fail to meet high standards and funding•contested funding based on evidence of strategic expertise•‘Universities already need to be rigorous in withdrawing from activities of lower priority and value..’+ we now have cuts announced: Reductions will target areas that do not support student participation through educational programmes (Cuts to HE Academy? JISC?)

Browne Review autumn 2010 – possible lifting of tuition fee cap and reduction in unit of resource provided per student (for those who lift fees above a threshold level?)

Issues: •The data that might be used to assess quality

•The place of professional development for academic staff  and its use as evidence of quality

•The public identification of ‘shortcomings’ in teaching quality

•Enhancing practice in a culture of evidencing quality through data – an opportunity or a challenge?

•Supporting and developing external examiners to create a national pool of trained staff

•The role of educational development units and individual developers

•A joint task of university staff and students or imposed from an external body?

•The implications of a regime where funds are diverted from courses ‘which fail to meet high standards’

•The role of students in QA and QE

•Is this the end of peer review?

Questions:

What are the implications for the work of educational developers of a quality process which has as its focus the comparability of academic standards?

(Do we come bearing gifts, clipboards or calculators?)

How should SEDA respond to the “Future arrangements for quality assurance in England and Northern Ireland” consultation?

Employer engagement: Drawn from the Literature Review for the South West Higher Level Skills Project – HERDA South West.

Important strand of government policy, the scale and profitability of this market is uncertain, but ….

The employer engagement agenda requires a fundamentally different approach from the traditional market for HE, and HE has been relatively inflexible, but ….

Engagement may erode traditional academic autonomy (over primacy as sources of knowledge, over teaching, learning, curriculum design and assessment) but some of that is happening within the academy already …

Employer engagement implies a shift from producer-led education to consumer-led education, which may be happening already…

Employer engagement implies accurate and detailed understandings of the costs of education, to ensure profitability. Has the transparent costing approach provided this?

HE is already working with a process-driven curriculum, a learner-centred approach, self-directed learning, experiential learning, flexible delivery and evidence-based assessment, so …..

Question:

How could you help your institution meet the challenges of employer engagement?