As I said in the blog post, there seems to me to be some contradictions between the glowing account of the current state of teaching and student satisfaction in the UK HE sector, particularly in the early part of the report, and some of the more detailed accounts of particulars. For example, the mismatch between student expectation and what they experience on coming to university, the disappointment with the quality of learning infrastructure, the growing fragmentation of the student experience, the perception and reality of the under-rewarding of teaching compared with research, the lack of a career structure for staff wishing to specialise in teaching and contributing to the student experience, the leadership of some Deans and Heads that is inimical to good teaching, and so on. An, admittedly selective, reading of the report could produce a pretty dire picture. My experience indicates the reality is half way between the overly optimistic and the excessively bleak accounts with some evidence that things are moving in the right direction. I would say that a great deal of informal communications and conversations at conferences with colleagues from a wide variety of HE institutions also contradicts the rather rosy picture painted although it is based upon a lot of empirical data. The report seems to suggest that the HE sector is doing extremely well, and, as things stand, little needs improvement. However, it cautions that things are changing and there is a danger that complacency will be an obstacle to the changes we must make to accommodate these changes and preserve our current very high standards and reputation.
Part 1 is on responding to evolving student expectations and much of the rest of the report is made up of observations and recommendations on how to do this. The student population and its needs and expectations has become and is becoming increasingly diverse. There are a number of ways HEIs will have to respond to this. We will need to take into account what these changing expectations are. To some extent these will have to be shaped and managed as many students have mistaken and unrealistic expectations. This will mean a focus on induction and the early experience of incoming students, but it will also require more communication with the feeder schools to help them prepare their students. In particular they are unaware of the demands they will face in terms of workload, independent learning and accessing resources. In addition students expect high quality support, and easy and immediate access to resources and assistance. To meet these expectations HEIs must reaffirmed the importance of teaching, provided swifter turn around of assessed work, develop personalised learning environments to meet students' individual needs, develop a more flexible workforce (I gather this means a more adaptable and innovative work force rather than the rather unfortunate post-fordist connotations of the term), and develop more flexible ways of providing education. This in turn will mean the radical engagement of students in two related ways. "Students will have a major role to play in the enhancement of teaching and assessment". They will become "engaged collaborators rather than inferior partners in assessment, teaching, course planning and the improvement of quality". This goes beyond just collecting and acting on student feedback. It means "we should embed the student perspective in all aspects of teaching, quality enhancement and quality insurance." However, it should be noted that the report also points to the necessity of managing and shaping the student perspective - "higher education institutions have a substantial influence over .... their students' expectations" - so this will continue to have elements of a control and legitimising process. This is indeed rather more radical than my previous assumptions on what student engagement would mean with had a more restricted focus on learning as a collaborative process within a community of learners.
A crucial component of any strategy to meet these challenges and provide the flexibility and personalisation required is the use of technology. Here the most important issue is "to embed a culture among academics and HEIs that is consistent with students' views of ICT as a complement to rather than a replacement for face to face attention". Also important is the development and enhancing of student engagement. And a prerequisite to this is weaning them off the service, or transmission, model of education. Students need to be constructed as partners with opportunities to learn rather than customers with an entitlement to learning outcomes. This process will also have to deal with (unfounded) assumptions that 'better value' and higher quality education simply equates to more hours contact. Many students are poorly prepared to see and benefit from education as "an engaged partnership and shared responsibility between academics and students rather than a simple service model" As an aside, there is an interesting post on the
Education for Well-being blog that has a number of graphics of different learning models - traditional, networked and blended. This contrast between learning models chimes in with the distinction made in current debates on health and welfare issues between the top down 'professional gift model' and the emerging 'citizenship' model. These 2 models map quite well onto the service and personalised models of education provision and interestingly because of similar changes in the different ' service providers 'customers' and environments.
Engagement of students is crucial for a number of reasons. For students to meet the challenges of the future, as economic actors and as citizens, an educational experience of being in partnership with their HEI is of key importance. "There is abundant evidence that the most effective higher education environments are ones in which students are diligently involved as part of the community of learners. [....] Practically speaking this involves shaping student expectations of their role as responsible partners....".
The elements and issues raised here of most concern to my project are: assessing and managing student expectations, providing flexible and personalised learning opportunities, and recruiting students as participants in a learning community that encompasses academic and research staff, undergraduates and postgraduates.