Memorandum 41
Submission from York St John University
STUDENTS AND
UNIVERSITIES
Summary
1.1 Sustainable widened participation can
only be enhanced through key agencies working in close partnership
and developing local solutions to aspirations, achievement and
access.
1.2 Excellent teaching needs to be informed by
research and professional practice. Support for research must
not just focus on "blue skies" but also properly recognise
the contribution of action and near to market research in future
sustainable economic growth and social development. Global excellence
is important but there is also significant social and economic
value from research of local and regional relevance and excellence.
1.3 Quality systems for the honours degree are
robust. However, the degree can fail to represent the full range
of student achievement and the Higher Education Achievement Report
(HEAR) is an important proposal. Higher education must not be
purely instrumental but has a key role in personal and social
transformation, embedding lifelong learning and in advanced education
for global citizenship and democracy.
1.4 The quality of the student experience is
of primary importance in both achievement and retention. We welcome
the increasing recent emphasis on the "student voice"
in policy and practice development as represented, for example,
through the National Student Survey (NSS) and the National Student
Forum.
1.5 Higher education needs to be supported
to deliver more flexible and innovative provision to a more diverse
and dispersed student population. Both the employer engagement
agenda and increasing internationalisation requires funding models
and quality processes that support this vision.
ADMISSIONS
2.1 GuildHE Universities have a strong and
sustained commitment to widening participation and a record of
achievement.
2.2 York St John University hosts Aimhigher in
Yorkshire and Humber along with the lifelong learning partnership,
Higher York (York St John University, University of York, York
College, Askham Bryan College and the City of York Council) and
Learning City York, the education partnership of the City of York's
Sustainable Community Strategy.
2.3 Bringing together the key agencies addressing
widening participation and establishing transparent progression
routes across all institutions, providing higher education in
York and its immediate surroundings provides greatest benefit
for students from primary schools through to post-graduate level.
2.4 Our experience shows that, especially
for hard to reach students, it is important to integrate arrangements
to provide for local circumstances and to create local (and regional)
solutions, especially when confronted with extensive rural areas
and issues of "access poverty."
2.5 York St John University is actively
engaged with the Higher Education Academy's Special Interest Group
on widening participation and fully supports its work in establishing
and sharing best practice.
2.6 We also support the work of the Higher
Education Academy in developing a better understanding of new
students' expectations of higher education, embedding widening
participation and student diversity and its work on personal tutoring.
This work should contribute to enhancing the quality of the student
experience.
2.7 We fully support the move to increasing
transparency and fairness of the admissions process and the work
of GuildHE in shaping the Delivery Partnership.
THE BALANCE
BETWEEN TEACHING
AND RESEARCH
3.1 Excellent teaching needs to be informed
by research and professional practice.
3.2 Students want to study in an environment
where they can experience state of the art practice along with
the most current developments in theory. Such research and practice
informed teaching excites and inspires students.
3.3 There is no natural divide between teaching
and research. However, this research must also include action
research and near to market research and not just "blue skies"
research. Research quality is not just about global rankings but
also about regional excellence and its potential for social and
economic impact working with private, public and voluntary organisations.
3.4 Higher education must provide all students
with research skills and the confidence to think critically is
regularly cited as highly desirable by employers.
3.5 York St John University supports the
UK Professional Standards Framework developed by the Higher Education
Academy. It requires academics to demonstrate the incorporation
of scholarship, research and professional practice into their
teaching with a programme of accredited continuing professional
development.
3.6 There is a clear appetite for better
recognition of teaching. This is also strongly indicated by the
prevalence of accreditation and continuing professional development
for staff in higher education and by the Higher Education Academy's
system of Associates, Fellows, Senior Fellows and National Teaching
Fellowships. This provides an aspirational structure and a valuable
network for sharing good practice.
3.7 Formal training of HE teachers new-to-teaching
is a priority at York St John. Our HEA Accredited programme has
secured professional standards here in the UK. Importantly, it
is now an "expert product" to the research-led University
of Bahrain; and a contributor (via PMI II) to raising standards
in the developing world through a contract with four universities
in Kenya.
3.8 Individual universities need to provide
support for professional development and to recognise high quality
teaching. Teaching needs to be a clear and unambiguous route for
academic promotion.
3.9 Post-graduate students need to be provided
with teaching opportunities with the support and guidance of experienced
and successful university teachers.
DEGREE COMPLETION
AND CLASSIFICATION
4.1 York St John University believes there
is compelling evidence that the quality system is sound for universities
operating within the framework overseen by the Quality Assurance
Agency and the honours degree is an enduring and highly valued
qualification.
4.2 A preoccupation with the honours degree,
however, can fail to represent the full range of study opportunities
in the modern university and student achievement. The UUK/GuildHE
report "Beyond the Honours Degree Classification" sets
out the opportunity to recognise the breadth and depth of student
achievement through the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR).
York St John University supports the work with JISC and other
partners to develop student record systems and software required
to ensure its success.
4.3 We strongly believe that higher education
is not purely instrumental but has a key role in personal and
social transformation, embedding lifelong learning and securing
global citizenship for democracy.
4.4 York St John University supports a greater
emphasis on diversity as a contributing factor to excellence and
more vigorous critique of simplistic models of quality as evidenced
by many league tables.
4.5 We would also support the call for a
systematic debate, coordinated by DIUS, concerning what constitutes
excellence in student performance across disciplines.
4.6 We share the view that the National
Student Survey is now a vital tool for within the broader university
toolkit for student evaluation, assessing students' perceptions
of the quality of their experiences.
4.7 The quality of the student experience
is of primary importance at York St John University.
STUDENT SUPPORT
AND ENGAGEMENT
5.1 The increasing need is for higher education
to become a "joint venture" between students and institutions
to produce the best outcomes for both students and the economy.
5.2 With a significant demographic downturn approaching,
the student profile is changing. The employer engagement agenda
is also shifting the locus of higher education to the workplace
as much as the campus. The challenge for government is to put
in place funding models and quality systems that support this
vision.
5.3 Head of the National Audit Office, Tim
Burr, has stated "HEIs could tailor provision more closely
to people's circumstances, such as where they live and when they
can study. …more needs to be done to expand local and regional
higher education in geographical areas with little or no local
provision of higher education…" (Report on Widening
Participation in Higher Education National Audit Office June
2008)
5.4 Higher education will need to be supported
to deliver more flexible provision to a more diverse and dispersed
student population. Both the employer engagement agenda and increasing
internationalisation (of the curriculum and the student body)
will require innovative models of student financial and other
support.
December 2008
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