University of Northampton: Higher Education Challenges and the Information Environment
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Transcript of University of Northampton: Higher Education Challenges and the Information Environment
What Do You Consider To Be The Key Challenges Facing The HE Sector?
How Do You Feel The Development Of A Rich Online Proposition Can Add Value
To University Communications?
STEPHEN J. STOSE
Job presentation for the role of…
Senior Marketing Officer – Web & Digital Media
…at the University of Northampton
What Do You Cons ider To Be The Key Chal lenges Fac ing The HE Sector?
Part I
Ferdinand von Prondzynski
Principle and Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gorden University in Aberdeen
“Do students learn anything much at college?”
www.universitydiary.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/do-students-learn-anything-much-at-college/
“Students sometimes [see HE] solely as the route to
a formal qualification to establish their careers…
industry as a way of providing specialist and
sometimes quite narrow skills…
and governments as a way of keeping people off
the dole queues.
The educational character of education is sometimes
lost in all this and needs to be re-discovered.
[bold emphasis added]
Source: Guardian Higher Education Survey 2011
Part I
What Do You Consider To Be
The Key Challenges
Facing The HE Sector?
1. Fees and the commodification of HE
2. Education as community public good
3. The diversification of education and “business-oriented” services
4. Knowledge transfer and university-business collaboration
5. Teaching quality and teacher-researcher division of labour
6. Digital infrastructure and the digital literacy of staff and students
1.Fees and the commodification of higher education
Can classic economics in HE work?
Capping fees at 9,000 restricts market plasticity
Can government afford, given university fee average (7,500) higher than estimated
Price now a “proxy” for quality?
Repay, given post-graduation income-dependent?
Image source: R.J. Matson
1.Fees and the commodification of higher education
Incentive to work harder?
Fairness? Reduce minority/low-income students?
Marketing to “sell” educational product (business skill sets)?
Dis-incentive for potential academic stars/researchers?
Image source: R.J. Matson
*Leitch Review: Prosperity for all in the Global Economy - World Class Skills, (TSO, 2006)
2.Education as a community public good
David Cameron (2006)*:
“Improving our society’s sense of well-being is, I believe, the central political challenge of our times.
Early posturing…?
Thatcher and later the 2010 Browne Report suggest:
When not delivering clearly job-related skills, education is a mere “luxury” to “pleasure” or “entertain”…
“…the return [ROI] to graduates for studying will be on average around 400%”
[Lord Browne]
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5003314.stm
2.Education as a community public good
What is HE really for?
Education for “the good life” and “flourishing”
Wider benefits to society* Quality goods/services, innovation Public education & the arts Safe/clean streets & housing conditions Health and self-esteem Social cohesion and community Attracts more of same (markets the city/country)
U.S. Senator Patrick Moynihan:
The best way to create a great city is “to create a great university and wait 200 years.”
Difficult to measure “good life”
Easier to measure earning potential of degree course?
*HEFCE ‘The wider benefits of higher education’ and ‘Revisiting the benefits of higher education’ (www.hefce.ac.uk).
3.The diversification of education and “business-oriented” services
Conclusion: “Liberalise”? Integrate FE in HE?
Traditional “university experience” unavailable/irrelevant?
Measure ROI of course-skill sets
Can traditional research & “reading” culture adapt?
Evidence UK has overeducated workforce?*
Result in degree value inflation?
Leitch Review suggests by 2020 half job market will require graduate-level skills**
MA/MSc becoming the “new BA” to differentiate?
*See Chevalier, A. and Lindley, J. (2009) Over-education and the Skills of UK graduates Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 172.2 **Leitch Review: Prosperity for all in the Global Economy - World Class Skills, (TSO, 2006)
4.Knowledge transfer and university-business collaboration
“Student choice” Browne Review principle #2:
Misguide student perceptions? 8,000 student studying “forensic
science” 9,500 jobs (filled by chemists/biologists)
Are we marketing courses and orienting students appropriately?
Internships/professional experience opportunities?
Part-time study options/work-study options (FE)?
4.Knowledge transfer and university-business collaboration
2003 Lambert Review* Lack of business-university collaboration Coursework ≠ employer expectation Business: difficult to engage with
universities More recent surveys show ties improving
“Significant benefits of collaboration”‘National Employers Skills Survey 2007’; Learning and Skills Council, May 2008 (http://research.lsc.gov.uk).
Student innovation opportunities? Social enterprise HEIF (HE Innovation Funding) Student “spin-outs”
*‘Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration’; HM Treasury, December 2003 (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk).
5.Teaching quality and teacher-researcher division of labour
Will research suffer?
Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) incentives: Teaching minimised Publication record glorified
Good researchers = bad teachers ? Good teachers = bad researchers?
Professors as charismatic grant-writing networkers, teaching a distraction
Academics justify “economic impact” of research, academic freedom?
Will teaching suffer?
If fees go up, the expectations of 65% of students increase*
Will KIS (Key Information Sets) help guide expectation?
“Teaching to” new model, affect evaluations?
New technologies change teaching/contact hours
*Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning: Blue Skies: New thinking about the future of higher education)
6.Digital infrastructure and the digital literacy of staff and students
New generation grew up with Internet, expect excellent infrastructure
Staff digital literacy < student?
Blended learning (VLEs) creates new demands/stresses on staff?
Library adapt to workspace demands and new learning styles?
Improve student-staff interactions?
Obliterate personalized “university experience”
How Do You Fee l The Deve lopment Of A R ich Onl ine Propos i t ion Can Add Value To
Univers i ty Communicat ions?
Part II
Janet Beer
Vice-chancellor, Oxford-Brooks University
Report to JISC
Key Issues Facing UK HEIs: Staff quality, experience, skills and skill gaps
www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/committees/jlt/29/08b.pdf
“ICT systems clearly have the capacity to assist
the HE sector to improve staff skills, to make
administrative processes more user-friendly,
accessible and cheaper to run, and to support
the provision of flexible and rich teaching and
learning environments that meet student
expectations and improve learning outcome.
But doing it well…?
Part II
Times Higher Education. 18 February 2010
Frankensites?
Professors, departments, students and staff posting conflicting materials
Different technologies, redundancy, no central hub, branding inconsistency, etc.
Digital governance?
Web can build or damage reputation!!
Portfolio Communications*
League table of “cyber-coverage” or “buzz”
Oxford 79th
Sheffield Hallam & Southampton Solent top of charts
*http://portfolio-web.net/UniversitiesORA/main_page.html
Part II
How Do You Feel The Development Of A Rich Online Proposition Can
Add Value To University
Communications?
Branding and the information environment
Information interactions and communication
Branding and the information
environment
Branding and the information environment, for… Potential students Current students & staff University-business & alumni
Information interactions and communication Staff Student Staff Staff University Community
Branding and the information
environment
Website = brochure search – click – 10 sec – 30 sec – 1 min
user-friendly, interactive
Clean, simple, user-friendly, interactive, graphical
Best-practices (e.g., W3C)
Webmaster tools, SEO, keywords, <meta> tags, Google Analytics
Points of differentiation!
Branding matches corporate goals
Branding and the information
environment
Recruitment, retention, and life-long relationship
Student satisfaction promotes itself
Student imagination! Build image of “university town” experience”!
Course structure, modules within course
Professors/instructors photos & their interests
Costs & what skill-sets gained (KIS data helps)
Accommodation & Campus facilities (sports & student centres, pub, disco)
Portfolio Centre, social enterprise, arts & fashion
Mounts music scene, Derngate Theatre, Fishmarket
With new fees,value for money important!
£
Information interactions and communication
Branding and the information environment Potential students Current students & staff University-business & alumni
Information interactions and communication Staff Student Staff Staff University Community
Students
Staff
VLE Courseware (for all courses)
Reading lists, hand-in assignments, receive assessments etc.
Module student-student/student-instructor forums
Course module blogs (archived, standardised)
Syllabi of current/past course modules
Staff–student Q & A forums
University forms / processes
Information interactions and communication
Information interactions and communication
Staff Intranet Coordinated discussions Q & A forums (archived) Training manuals/tutorials Room booking, guest scheduling Directories (students, courses, instructors)
Project management software? OpenAtrium, Basecamp Centralised discussion/decision/feedback Case-tracking, to-do-lists, scheduling Resource allocation, cost estimate
Customer Relationship Management? “Customers” = students/alumni, donors,
faculty, business partners Integrates use across departments
*http://portfolio-web.net/UniversitiesORA/main_page.html
Staff
Staff
Information interactions and communication
Visible links (front page: large images as teasers!)
Events management/calendar visible to community
Showcase student, faculty and staff achievements
YouTube Channels Flickr Photo streams LinkedIn Profiles
News feeds/widgets and events, notices, emergencies Twitter feeds
Faculty & student blogs
University-community/business special relationships?
Social Media!!Facilitates two-way open conversations
University
Community
Information interactions and communication
The Conversation
Prism*
Social Media is a conversation!
“The art of
listening, learning and sharing”
*Solis, B. (2008). "Introducing The Conversation Prism." http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism/
Information interactions and communication
Challenges to using social media
effectively
Proper management can make or break!
Always monitor daily (content policing)
Tight coordinated governance
Let students manage? Positive and negative conversations about brand…
Consistent corporate branding
Facebook great for admissions
Web team to identify user-demand
Information interactions and communication
Social Media: Key Challenges
Jadu Research Report (2009):
An Investigation into the Challenges, Application and
Benefits of Social Media in Higher
Education Institutions
Impact and benefits of social media to date
Social Media: Key Challenges
Jadu Research Report (2009):
An Investigation into the Challenges, Application and
Benefits of Social Media in Higher
Education Institutions
Current challenges for HEIs in adopting social media
Rating Average
THE END
ANY QUESTIONS?
Thank You!
Jadu Research
Respondent Profile
60 unique responses were received from 44 HEIs across the UK, with 36 English Universities; 3 out of the 9 Welsh universities; 4 out of the 19 Scottish universities and an Irish university contributing.
Responses were received from respondents representing a wide range of departments and roles including - Web management, marketing, media and communications, learning and development, business, libraries and IT management and services.