Monthly Archives: January 2013

Time to start blogging again….

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Tine to start blogging again – I read so much stuff, internal and external, that I need a place to keep my my thoughts and the comments of colleagues – for the moment, this seems like the best place to do that.

My main work this year will be about:

  • improving student experience
  • improving undergraduate retention rates
  • understanding league tables, and the factors that go to make them up
  • developing models of the performance of the academic portfolio

So – any posts here are likely to be about those 4 main areas, plus any little gems I pick up published elsewhere.

MOOCs – the battle lines are being drawn

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MOOCs are hitting the HE news, and flooding my Twitter stream again.


Inevitably there are two camps – the pros and the antis.


A quick summary – US universities working with Udacity, Coursera and others have already entered the MOOC arena. Until recently statements were being made about major investors not knowing who to go to in the UK to do the same. It’s still expected to be big though.


This has now been dealt with, with the formation of FutureLearn, where Elite institutions will team up with the Open University to offer free internet courses to rival US programmes Coursera and edX.


Now the arguments can start – what is the benefit of engaging with MOOCs?

What is the likely income stream or financial model for universities?

Is this development going to bring to an end University education as we know it?


On the one side we have Clay Shirky – who prophesies that this is the Napster moment for universities.


Rebutting him are the likes of David Kerohan and Patrick McGhee

BME Attainment Gap

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An article in the Higher, entitled “Mind, don’t dismiss, the BME attainment gap” refers to the difference in attainment by different groups of students.


Some really frightening stats here:


 “Figures released this week by the Equality Challenge Unit show that 69.5 per cent of UK-domiciled white students achieved a first or a 2:1 in 2010-11, compared with 51.1 per cent of BME students.

The gap was even wider for black students, with only 40.3 per cent scoring a first or a 2:1, according to Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report 2012, published on 20 November.”

Worryingly, this is reflected across many UK HEIs, and I know that the stats for Staffordshire University show similarly worrying trends.

I think it’s time to identify what we can do to tackle this.