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A really interesting introduction to the usefulness of subject benchmarks

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A really interesting introduction to the usefulness of subject benchmarks

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What does it mean to have a degree in, say, economics?

It sounds like an easy question. It means you've studied economics, passed enough assignments in the subject to get the credits you needed, and a university (or other organisation with the right to award a degree) has deemed you worthy to call yourself an economics graduate.

But scratch the surface, and it's a little more complicated than that. How far can a programme stretch the boundaries of a subject area before others in a subject community and a profession start to question its inclusion? How can two universities - autonomous though they may be - offer two degrees with content so different, but with the same title?

Defining expectations

With the current spotlight on the increase in first and upper second class, it's also clear that there is a public appetite for universities to better explain what and how students are learning, and to be able to compare programmes from different institutions with confidence. We can and should embrace innovation and difference. But a shared starting point with a few fundamentals helps to create a sense of identity for a subject, and better tells its story beyond the corridors of the faculty building.

This is where the subject benchmark statements can play a role. They are perhaps QAA's best kept secret. A suite of over 80 documents, from Accounting to Youth and Community Work, previously tucked away within Part A of the old Quality Code, they lay out the nature of often quite technical subjects in an easy to understand way for both academics and quality staff. They offer a vital touchstone to providers looking to construct new programmes, and to people looking to benchmark what they currently offer against norms agreed by UK-wide subject communities and professional bodies.

Critically, especially given the aforementioned scrutiny universities are under for so-called grade inflation (perceived or otherwise), they show the minimum expectations of the knowledge and skills a student needs in order to graduate. They are key in supporting how academics and professional staff design, review and validate degree courses. They are also critical touch points for professional, statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRBs) when setting their content and outcomes requirements. That's probably why, hidden as they may have been to the wider public consciousness, they're by far the most frequently downloaded of all the QAA's documents

Expecting definitions

At QAA, we're embarking on a project to review and, if needed, update the subject benchmark statements. Although it's only been two years after the last review of most of the statements, after the work to produce the fully revised Quality Code in 2018, reviewing the information that supports the Code is a logical next step. There's also a wide range of styles, both in visual and voice terms, across the statements. So, reviewing, revising and generally making sure the family of statements are fit for the future is no small task.

Subject benchmark statements have always been led by the sector, and that will remain a key feature of our approach. We will continue to appoint Chairs for review groups, but then the Chair will select group members with our input, rather than the other way around. We'll still seek members from PSRBs, employers and industry, and collaborate closely with the groups once they're up and running. Student involvement will be extended, with a former student sitting on the group rather than providing written comments on a draft.

In the short term we will be making some minor changes through a quicker process, where the previous chairs of review groups will check updated references to the new Quality Code and advice and guidance documents. This should be completed before the end of 2019.

Members rules

We're embarking on this project as QAA introduces a new funding model for our non-regulatory work. In England, our work with the Office for Students to quality assess regulated higher education providers is tightly defined. Income from our designated quality body fee will not cross subsidise other areas of our work. Instead, our collaborative work to support the enhancement of higher education beyond a regulatory minimum will be wholly member funded.

In this context, our proposed new membership model will allow us to continue to maintain and review subject benchmark statements on behalf of the subject communities that shape them. But it presents a dilemma that did not previously exist. Now that subject benchmarks - and indeed other QAA-published guidance - are to be wholly funded by our member universities and colleges, is it right to have them on public display for the benefit of organisations that haven't contributed to, or paid for, their development? Public statements about the shape of a degree in a given subject might help to improve public trust in our universities - but is that financially sustainable, or does it do a disservice to the universities and colleges with whom we collaborate?

We're asking QAA members what they think by way of a survey, and we hope to confirm exactly how we will publish subject benchmark statements later in the summer. In a changed regulatory and financial environment, as HESA's Paul Clark reflected when he wrote for Wonkhe recently, it's important that we seek the views of our membership on the work that we do on their behalf.

It's an important debate, but, irrespective of the outcome, there's a lot to get through. The work to get the subject benchmark statements up to date will continue at a pace. So sit tight - if you're an academic you may get a call from one of our friendly Chairs asking you to help shape the identity of an entire subject area.

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QAA subject benchmarks, or why the subject of a course defines the course of a subject | Wonkhe | Comment

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What does it mean to have a degree in, say, economics? It sounds like an easy question. It means you've studied economics, passed enough assignments in the subject to get the credits you needed, and a university (or other organisation with the right to award a degree) has deemed you worthy to call yourself an economics graduate.

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Students as Partners—Good for Students, Good for Staff: A Study
on the Impact of Partnership Working and How This Translates to
Improved Student-Staff Engagement

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Students as Partners—Good for Students, Good for Staff: A Study
on the Impact of Partnership Working and How This Translates to
Improved Student-Staff Engagement

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Hisham AbouGrad

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Students as Partners-Good for Students_Good for Staff-Curran-2017

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Students as Partners: Reflections on a Conceptual
Model

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Students as Partners: Reflections on a Conceptual
Model

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Followed by Student Response by Lianne van Dam
Hisham AbouGrad

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Students as partners_Reflections on a conceptual model-Healey-2016

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Students as Partners as the Future of Student Engagement

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Students as Partners as the Future of Student Engagement

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Hisham AbouGrad

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Students as Partners as the Future of Student Engagement-Matthews-2016

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A CRITIQUE OF JOHN BIGGS DEEP and SURFACE approaches to learning model.:

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A CRITIQUE OF JOHN BIGGS DEEP and SURFACE approaches to learning model.:

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You all wrote about John Biggs on Module One Here is a critique of his work - worth a look and respond when you can.
This paper is a critical analysis of Biggs’s deep and surface approaches to learning model, which is prominent in the higher education and tertiary learning fields. The paper reflects on the model’s origins and the contextual pressures of the educational landscape extant at that time. It is argued that these pressures have led to a demonstrable lack of serious critique of the model, which has truncated the model’s development, leaving it underdeveloped. There are significant problems with the model in the areas of supporting evidence, imprecise conceptualisation, ambiguous language, circularity, and a lack of definition of the underlying structure of deep and surface approaches to learning. Keywords: deep approaches to learning; surface approaches to learning; higher education; John Biggs

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Doing what he does best, making scholarship accessible a look at the growing practice of 'capturing' lectures and the advantages or otherwise of doing so
Cheryl

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Here's a first draft of my little opinion piece on this. Many thanks to those who Tweeted comments this morning - some of which I've included verbatim. More feedback really appreciated please. Lecture-Capture-w.docx (440 downloads)
Since posting this, I am really grateful to several people for detailed comments on how lecture capture can be used well by students, including Matt Cornock at the University of York who draws attention to research he is doing there with students,
please see https://elearningyork.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/research-update-lecture-capture-at-york/ which is causing me to adjust my own take on the topic, and see the benefits which can be achieved by lecture capture.

Posted on

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Lecture Capture versus Lecture Napture? - Phil Race

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Here's a first draft of my little opinion piece on this. Many thanks to those who Tweeted comments this morning - some of which I've included verbatim. More feedback really appreciated please. Since posting this, I am really grateful to several people for detailed comments on how lecture capture can be used well by students, including ...

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How innovative curriculum design – might form the foundation of the civic university. 

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How innovative curriculum design – might form the foundation of the civic university. 

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This article discusses the idea of a 'civic university' which the PGCHEP examined in the February workshops.  This may be something you would like to consider as part of your Module Design exercise and/or the Change to Practice assignment.
Cheryl

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There was a spirited ripple of university announcements and strategic tweets this week, as 31 UK universities signed up to an important - and promising - pledge to act as a properly "civic university". The intriguing #trulycivic hashtag trended for at least 18 minutes, as universities signalled their pride and commitment as "civic promissories", reaffirming their institutions' role as "anchor institutions", "regional skills developers" and "investors in local communities".

This flurry of senior-quilled commitments signals the publication of an impressive 78-page report from the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission, led by Lord Kerslake: Truly Civic: Strengthening the connection between universities and their places. Over the past year, UK HEIs were invited to feed in submissions on their current and future status as a civic university, answering crystal-ball-shattering questions such as, "How would you measure the success of a civic university on a 100-year timescale?".

There was a strong temptation to offer visionary scenarios of AI-navigated knowledge excellence framework hoverpods transporting enterprise nuggets to grateful local industries, but many universities submitted rigorous and thoughtful documents, now distilled usefully by the commission's report.

As part of the Civic University Agreement, signed up to by respective VCs, there are promises to engage in collaborative and co-produced research, effective knowledge transfer, and innovation activities that have a defined impact on the region.

In a welcome transition, the language of the pledge moves quickly from the well-intentioned but earnest claims to "understand local communities", to harder-edged commitments of "evidence-based" partnerships and measurable impacts on economic and cultural development. A (hopefully benign) metrics of civic engagement is foreshadowed in the promise to be "clear about what we do and how we measure it, so we can say with confidence what we have achieved - and how we might do better in the future".

There's a politicised nuance to the agreement, too: a direct challenge to the prevailing habit of measuring the value of higher education in private terms: personal return on tuition fees, individual learning gain and graduate income. Instead the Civic University Agreement approves a public measure of higher education's impact in supporting "the educational, economic and societal interests of our communities and our places".

So far, so civic. What is surprising, perhaps, is that within the wording of the agreement, and in the varied recommendations of the UPP report, there's scant mention of the way that a changed approach to student learning - and more specifically innovative curriculum design - might form the foundation of the civic university. True, there is plenty of welcome space dedicated to the need for educational partnerships, diversity and liaison with FE colleges.

There's much less, though, on the future shape and remit of university curricula themselves; on how we might design co-curricular opportunities that oblige students to work in a public-facing and public-spirited way. In other words, there is little (apart from references to work-based learning and volunteering) on how we might embed civic learning into the university curriculum.

We need to design programmes, and assessment types, that ensure students work - consistently, reflectively and critically - with local employers, communities, and third sector organisations, producing ideas and outputs that have societal legacy beyond the academy.

Tellingly, all nine uses of the word "curriculum" in the UPP report appear in relation to how universities might transform and support the secondary school curriculum. In this pattern, there's a whiff of the old model of a university's civic engagement: "We're experts, let us show you how to do better". This is a shame because it goes against the whole spirit and most of the content of the Kerslake report, with its welcome emphasis on reciprocal rather than hierarchical partnerships.

To understand what a civic university might look like we need a sustained analysis of what a truly "civic curriculum" (a phrase absent from the UPP report) might be, and the type of educator that we need to design and support it.

Pleasingly, the sector is awash with excellent examples of such thinking and practice. It's no coincidence that Lord Kerslake's adopted city of Sheffield offers good examples. The University of Sheffield's Engaged Curriculum (led by Brendan Stone) offers one of the most mature and sensitive commitments to civic learning, and both universities in that city seem enmeshed in its life and infrastructure.

At Keele University, we champion regional collaboration under the banner of "The New Keele Deal", investing in programme design that foregrounds entrepreneurial and cultural collaboration. Our Institute for Innovation & Teaching Excellence, inspired by PVC Helen O'Sullivan's core commitment to social learning, aims to embed this external-facing, dialogic learning in each faculty, with academic developers, employability consultants and learning technologists forging civic links and conversations. We are realistic, however, about the challenges. It takes a very big shift to blend rigorous conventions of academic study with employer co-design and interaction with civic audiences.

Elsewhere, the civic commitment of universities is increasingly well-defined. The University of Lincoln has recently re-articulated its identity as "A new civic university", and Staffordshire University defines its new strategic mission rigorously and inclusively as a "connected university". In the capital, UCL and LSE compete to realise the ambitions of Dilly Fung's influential Connected Curriculum scholarship, and, in 2017, the University of Leeds dedicated a two-day conference to "Exploring the civic curriculum".

No shortage of strategic inspiration and civic pedagogy, then, so let's not miss this opportunity. To earn the hashtag #trulycivic and return on their pledge, universities can certainly pay attention to enterprise, to co-produced and impactful research, and also to glass-fronted innovation incubators. But let's not forget the collective power of students as agents of civic engagement, and let's be sure, as part of our promise, to design curricula that help them on their way.
Rafe Hallett is director of the Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence and associate professor of history at Keele University.

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#TrulyCivic? Don't forget the curriculum

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There was a spirited ripple of university announcements and strategic tweets this week, as 31 UK universities signed up to an important - and promising - pledge to act as a properly "civic university".

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Can personalised text messages and peer mentor outreach increase participation amongst low-income group?

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Can personalised text messages and peer mentor outreach increase participation amongst low-income group?

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Olushola Fashola

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Summer nudging: Can personalized text messages and peer mentor outreach increase college going among low-income high school graduates?

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Several recent low-cost interventions demonstrate that simplifying information about college and financial aid and helping students access professiona...

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Intellectuals or technicians? The urgent role of theory in educational studies

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Intellectuals or technicians? The urgent role of theory in educational studies

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Phil Pilkington ponders some big questions ...  - What role does the university play in wider society? As a civic institution should the university be using its (potentially respected and legitimated) voice to advocate for their local community?

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There are a number of ways in which universities interact with their local communities. Some are negative - like the fallout from the studentification which have made the lives of local and long-term residents unpleasant, and their homes and streets blighted.

Some are positive - the 'anchoring' of universities to the community provides stability and sustainability in cities where de-industrialisation has otherwise 'de-purposed' cities. There is also the threat of "market exit", which could endanger a local economy with the loss of jobs and the student pound multiplier effect.

Community involvement is often characterised by student volunteering - with schools, environmental groups and the disabled enough. We could quantify commitments to calm the disaffected, the left behind local residents who loathe the growth of universities in their small towns and cities. At £10 per hour per volunteer, some universities contribute £1 million per annum to the local community. But this would be a crude measure.

Community volunteering may not the strategic purpose of universities, but the interaction of students can be important and transformative. It won't replace the loss of funding to local government and community organisations, and ironically it is reductions in central government grant funding that make it more difficult for local organisations to absorb and deploy volunteers. But the narratives of students returning from placement in the community are of a profound change - for both the student and the local population.

Alienation

These cases are highly revealing about how alienated some communities are from (higher) education. In one example, a female language student was placed in a local school with years 7 and 8. None of the pupils had had any contact with anybody who had attended university other than a teacher. Once there was a realisation that university students liked the same music and wore the same make up as them, they were no longer mutually alien creatures. Education might not be uncool.

In another case a male student was on placement for a semester in an inner city primary school; the headteacher's revealing comment in feedback to the volunteer organisers was that the student was the only adult male the children had any contact with - there were no male teachers in the school, and no adult males in the children's homes. The point is that the 'outcomes' were unintended (one to assist in teaching French, the other to teach geography) and unrelated to plans, inputs, outputs or any other management algorithm. Being within an organic set of relations can be more profound.

Settlement history

An earlier version of this type of university community commitment is interesting, highly significant in the social history of the UK and probably little known now. There was a collection of university students and staff living in the poorest parts of late Victorian and Edwardian cities. The purpose of these settlements - literally housed within the worst slums in the country - was for the young-ish gentlemen and ladies to experience and understand the lives of the poorest. The poor and their slums were terra incognito until the Victorian (and evangelical) reformers began their researches, and the most vulgar version of this interest was a form of "penny to the pauper" tourism which gave us the term 'Slumming It'. But the earnest reformers lived and worked in the slums to understand and explain what was happening to contradict the common refrains of 'workshy', 'drunks', 'feckless' - eerily familiar terms in the age of poverty-porn reality.

What the inhabitants of the settlements found was a need to describe the social reality - the unknown and the frightening, threatening slums - which led to Fabian contributions to the Lloyd George/Churchill Insurance Acts, and to the purposing of the LSE. Their descriptions of poverty, housing conditions, and more gave a picture of what needed to be done, and the continuing description and analysis of the community that surrounded the universities was a feature of their function and purpose. It was this physical and ethical embeddedness in the communities that was the special feature of the settlement movement. It was not a parachuting exercise; placements in the houses would last for at least year and sometimes several years - and that close relationship of the lived experience beyond the Fabian data gathering enabled the cadre of 'settlers' to make remarkable contributions to changing the social and political dispensation of post 1945 UK.

Tone, voice and class

Perhaps there is still a need for narratives and descriptions. What has emerged from the Grenfell fire is the absence of listening, noticing or acting on the claims by the residents before the fire. The complexities of corporate responsibilities of the many contractors involved in the 'refurbishments' and the dismissal of the tenants' organisation's claims on poor safety needed not only a strong advocacy voice, but also an ability to bring to account a range of agencies through paralegal and political means. The suggestion is not that the case made by the tenants was incoherent - there is a subtler issue of soft power and status of elites within our society. The ear of the ruling dispensation (local or otherwise) is susceptible to 'tone' perhaps more than empirical and legal rigour, and there is still a deceptiveness about tone, voice and class which has been continued by some elements of universities which can obscure questions of evidence and civil rights. Universities have the access, and the right pitch of voice, to be noticed and be brave to be advocates for those who live around the universities.

George Lansbury (founder of the Daily Herald and leader of the Labour Party in the 1930s) was sceptical of the motives of the university gentry in the rookeries, but he was won over and changed his opinion of them from 'prigs' to a 'good in society' by their work in supporting the Jewish refugees arriving in the East End of London in their escape from the Russian pogroms in the 1900s. The needs and delineations of social problems 120 years on are not much different from the Edwardian era - from gin to crack and prescribed drug addiction; from Russia to Afghanistan; from slum terraces to the vertical slums. When Kings or UCL consider their civic engagement they have the challenges of 150 languages spoken, of subsistence existence amongst great wealth, of suspicion of motives and a disempowered local government no longer able to listen to all the voices.

This commitment to a new form of settlement would not enhance the Teaching Excellence Framework outcomes or improve the financial stability of the university; and would require considerable intelligence of the local conditions. But initiatives proposed in the wake of the Civic University Commission by PVCs leading community and public engagement could make a difference that is more than quantifiable volunteering - a real partnership where both parties win or lose together. And if there is a small lesson to this aspect of the university as a civic institution (with its other functions of teaching and research) it is that the function of social mobility may be subsumed to the need for social equity.

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Narratives on higher education: slumming it on civic engagement | Wonkhe | Analysis

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There are a number of ways in which universities interact with their local communities. Some are negative - like the fallout from the studentification which have made the lives of local and long-term residents unpleasant, and their homes and streets blighted.

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A review of research on the impact of professional learning

communities on teaching practice and student learning

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A review of research on the impact of professional learning

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Action Research in Teaching & Learning- practical guide conducting pedagogical resarch

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The Effects of Guided Reflection on Education 

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The Effects of Guided Reflection on Education 

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From Chandika Bhatta

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The Effects of Guided Reflection on Educational Leadership Practice.....

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From Chandika Bhatta

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Action research and reflective practice towards a holistic view

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From Chandika Bhatta

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The Level 3 Retention Summit Action Plan - Examples that might be useful for your Change to Practice assessment and Module Design activity.

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The Level 3 Retention Summit Action Plan - Examples that might be useful for your Change to Practice assessment and Module Design activity.

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Copy of Retention Summit Proposed Initiativesxlsx

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Thanks Chandika for these useful files...

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Thanks Chandika for these useful files...

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First up...change in practice...

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A review of research on the impact of professional learning in teaching

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Moving away from preconceived notions about good student experience and embracing the views of students about what they really want will help HEIs improve this area of practice. 

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Moving away from preconceived notions about good student experience and embracing the views of students about what they really want will help HEIs improve this area of practice. 

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"The 'student experience' is one of those compound concepts that has begun to take on a life of its own, relatively removed from reality".

So began a 2006 contribution from the late David Watson to the Higher Education Academy's "exchange" magazine. Watson - one of the foremost academic leaders of his generation - thought the concept had rather lost its way. It was under pressure, he argued, because it was no longer a singular thing, and had been appropriated by all sorts of sector actors - politicians "complaining about what students get", the funding councils "especially in the context of the National Student Survey", and by institutions "in their prospectuses".

In the article he suggested six propositions for debate, a proper consideration of which would avoid "a rather patronising, nostalgic evocation of what we (of a certain age) think we most fruitfully received at their stage in life". Like so much of his work, it deserves a fresh reading.

Proposition one: this is an extraordinarily successful generation of higher education students, and we should be celebrating (rather than carping about) their success

Watson's opening question focused on student and graduate performance in areas like retention and employability. Today, the press is still full of tales of their laziness and despite studies demonstrating that students work harder than ever, the import of the grade inflation trope from A levels to higher education has denigrated their achievements even further.

When we do talk about success, it is often institutional. Marketing and regulation stresses the role of the provider as producer. But as he pointed out, outcomes are achievements - not just a measure of what institutions do them. Perhaps we should stress this more.

Proposition two: at their best, and given the chance, students know what they want to do, and their instincts are sound

Back in 2006, there was concern that providers had faced difficulty in adjusting to the popularity and unpopularity of some courses, with Watson highlighting that many institutions had chosen to enter a field (like sports science) after the market had peaked. His plea for more choice - in subject, mode of study and institution type - is one that has concerned every universities minister since, as ever more creative levers (like last week's two-year degrees approval) are pulled to fight the seeming tide of homogeneity.

Ironically, the lifting of the undergraduate numbers cap was supposed to enable better responses to demand, but it has also muddied the picture. Has the huge rise in social sciences and business studies (see last week's UCAS figures) really been about responding to demand, or about expanding cheap-to-run provision that enables profitable cross-subsidy?

Proposition three: we need to be particularly careful about "skills", on the way into and on the way out of university

Watson identified an interesting trap: his generation's attempt to impose "the portfolio career" on a generation whose journey towards a stable single occupation or employer may be slightly longer or more complex, "but in fact has the same destination". This is a cliche that holds on the first slide of many a student experience conference powerpoint, yet MORI research last year suggests he was right then and would be right now. Ironically, it is in the new "middle stage" of 21-30 that there is lots of career-hopping and experimentation, yet we persist in regulating and evaluating providers on their graduate job outcomes over a tiny window of time.

He also identified "nostalgic and ideologically loaded" analysis of what both new and graduating students do, but almost no focus on what they "screenagers" do. "It won't be long before we are no longer talking about ICT as if it's something 'over there'. It will be an integral and embedded aspect of all subjects", he argued. Yet to many academics and institutions, students' resourcefulness and interconnectedness on entry still feels like a surprise.

Proposition four: credentialism counts, and students know it

Look at the growth in early re-registration for postgraduate and post-experience courses", he said. "In the knowledge economy you need an increasing level of qualification to stay in the same place".

He was probably right, but he might not have predicted that the indebtedness of the lucky 50%, along with the populism of those preying on the poverty of everyone else, would cause such universal yet unjustified suspicion about more education.

Proposition five: students now invariably work for money, and not just in response to changes in fees and student support

"They want to sustain lifestyles", he said. "We should certainly be tracking all of the current studies about student debt, but also those about debt and debt propensity in the wider society - where we often don't see debt aversion, rather debt joy".

The willingness of students - and now their institutions - was (and remains) a puzzle for those raised to save up. But the attitudinal disconnect means that we have stored up - as students, as a sector and as a society - a problem for the future that few properly understand.

Proposition six: students care

We forget now, but back in the 90s the low levels of youth participation in formal politics, the managerialism of relatively centrist parties and theories about the rampant individualism of "Thatcher's children" all created a mild panic about student apathy.

But Watson wasn't convinced. "Some smarter students' unions have spotted this. What does get them going is concern about the environment, and their obligations to their friends. Students are also ahead of us in international perspectives". Perhaps the problem now is not that they don't have "politics", it's that their political outlook appears to be at diametric odds with one side of a rancorous, all-consuming split. What we don't know is how to fix it.

Understanding, not just measuring students

So what did he want to change? He was keen to avoid "brittle, litigation averse" concepts of customer care. He suggested taking note of what students wanted their additional fee income spent on: books, IT and security. He wanted us to cling to "notions like joy, fun, and even mercy, alongside accountability and the relentless march of uniform 'good practice'". And he wanted to avoid falling into the trap of replacing one homogeneous image of the undergraduate population: "the Oakeshottian finishing school", with another: "the screenage generation".

But perhaps his most vivid and valuable observation was in the introduction. Watson was never satisfied with just understanding students' satisfaction - he wanted an understanding of their lives.

Young people in Western societies now relate horizontally... more effectively to their friends, to the internet... than they do to 'authority', to their families, and especially to political structures".

Predicting that expansion would result in traditional types of "screening" for resilience falling away, he argued that the sector would need strategies for supporting a student body that more closely resembled wider society. "There are certain characteristics of this population that we are less well equipped to deal with than others (and than we should be). One of these is mental health".

He was right, of course. So why has it taken us thirteen years to get to a stage where a charity (Student Minds) is consulting on a voluntary charter on what has now become a student mental health crisis?

I am principally arguing for a consultative, and research-based, approach to what students really want and need, and not just a rather patronising, nostalgic evocation of what we (of a certain age) think we most fruitfully received at their stage in life".

It is never too late to heed David Watson's words.

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Whatever happened to the student experience? | Wonkhe | Analysis

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"The 'student experience' is one of those compound concepts that has begun to take on a life of its own, relatively removed from reality". So began a 2006 contribution from the late David Watson to the Higher Education Academy's "exchange" magazine.

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A really good site to look at and join in on weekly conversations

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A really good site to look at and join in on weekly conversations

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Tweets by LTHEchat

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HULT Research Report Barclays JST Inclusive Training

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HULT Research Report Barclays JST Inclusive Training

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http://hnews.hult.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Hult_Research_Report_Braclays_JST_Inclusive_Training.pdf

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Thinking differently: Researching Neurodiversity in the workplace

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We are all unique. Everybody experiences the world differently, and these differences are inherent in our neurology - in the ways our brains are wired to process and respond to information. Neurodiversity refers to the many different types of neurological differences in people with dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism, and ADHD among others, where people quite literally think differently. Currently, there is a lack of attention and research regarding what neurologically accessible executive education could look like. Hult Research at Ashridge Executive Education aims to fill this gap with research investigating neurodiverse people's experiences of management development.

Often neurological differences affect the brain's information processing and functioning. For example, adults with dyslexia might have difficulties planning and prioritizing their workload but also have enhanced creative thinking and problem-solving skills. People on the autism spectrum may struggle to read the facial expressions of colleagues at networking events but read complex JavaScript very easily. Those with dyspraxia might pay excellent attention to detail, but face difficulties with their sense of direction.

What is important to remember is that neurodivergence effects people in ways which are unique to that individual, for instance ADHD can manifest as problems with short term memory for some, but by no means all.

Some employers are already starting to recognize the value of neurodiversity

Right now, there are a small but growing number of experts discussing the benefits of "thinking differently" who try to persuade businesses to recognize the value that neurodiverse people can bring as employees. For example, Forbes published a piece which highlights the "superpowers" of ADHD including the ability to focus for extended periods, multitasking, and keeping calm under pressure, all of these skills are valuable for busy working executives. CIPD's report valuably presents the evidence and argument for businesses to amend their strategy and process to include those with neurodiverse characteristics.

This is a message that businesses are getting on board with. As part of the drive for more diverse and inclusive workplaces which has developed over the past two decades, a number of organizations are now taking notice and beginning amend their recruiting practices to make them more suitable for people who think differently. For example, Harvard and others mention that SAP, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Ford, and EY have begun to target neurodiverse talent and others including Deloitte, Dell, IBM, and JPMorgan Chase are scoping their strategies.

However, there is a lot more evidence of positive intention than there is of practical action. So far there are no details describing hands-on action that businesses have taken to attract and retain the neurodiverse, and we are yet to learn of any positive outcomes.

Therefore this research seeks to identify those businesses who have taken action towards including neurodiversity into their inclusion strategies, to collect examples of best practice, common challenges and the impact of the changes they have made. By gathering insight into those businesses who are role modeling the inclusion of neurodiversity, we can highlight not only why businesses should follow this example, but HOW they can do this in practice. Most importantly, we can establish whether this business change in tact actually improves the working lives of those who think differently.

How can Executive Education support this move towards inclusivity?

Creating more inclusive and accessible workplaces which cater for diverse ways of thinking and experiencing is not only a business responsibility. Executive education also has a role to play in improving the career progression of neurodiverse people. As businesses start to focus on attracting and retaining people with neurodiversity, it is important for businesses schools to understand how to best prepare and develop neurodiverse managers who work in these organizations.

Primary and secondary education have worked on making education more accessible for a number of years. Since the understanding of dyslexia and other learning differences became more widespread, schools and universities now have provisions for those who don't learn so well through things like reading, writing, sitting still and listening for long periods of time and memorizing and recalling vast amounts of information. Things like assistive technology, voice recognition software and extra exam time help make education a little more accessible (though there is still work to be done).

Management education, however, has paid less attention to learning differences and the ways they can tailor teaching and content to a wider range of learners. There has been a focus on "learning styles" (REF) and how these might be important to consider, but neurological differences in brain functioning have never been a focus. What neurodiverse employees want and need from leadership or management development programmes is likely to look different from the ideals of the neurotypical. For instance notions of leadership which have highly emotional elements and emphasize interpersonal relationships might be difficult for people whose social skills and communication are affected by autism. Experiential learning techniques and role-playing which are popular executive development tools, might not benefit someone who processes sensory information differently. Since executive education is designed for the 'typical' brain, those with atypical brains are forced to learn in ways that are unnatural to them, resulting in them having to work hard to compromise their natural skills and tendencies.

To fill this gap our research investigates neurodiverse people's experiences of management development. Through speaking with those who have been through some kind of leadership/executive development programme or course. We will ask them to lead us in identifying positive changes or additions to exec ed teaching and format which will facilitate new practices which complement and benefit from diverse ways of thinking. This will shine a light on how executive education can become an environment where rare minds can thrive rather than compromise.

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Thinking differently: Researching neurodiversity in the workplace Hult Blog

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Ashridge Executive Education is researching the much-neglected area of neurodiversity in the workplace. How do conditions like dyslexia and ADHD affect people's performance? How can employers make sure they make the most of neurodiverse employees potential? And what questions should the research be addressing?

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OFS Participation and performance measures

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OFS Participation and performance measures

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This article shows some interesting data on the gaps in attainment between the most and least represented groups, particularly with higher-tariff providers

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Participation performance measures - Office for Students