It's me!
Hello!
Welcome to the new Education@Manchester blog, which aims to do what it says on the tin and give you news, updates and opinions from me, your elected representative, on a broad range of issues concerning your education here at the University of Manchester. I’m Kate Little, the Academic Affairs Officer at the Students’ Union, and my full-time job is to represent all students at the University on anything education-related. Drop me an email at academic@umsu.manchester.ac.uk.
First, a slap on the wrist for your Academic Affairs Officer…
Dental School podcast...something to get your teeth into
Throughout the past year, I’ve sat on innumerable review panels looking in detail at what Schools within the University of Manchester are doing for their students. Some recommendations I’ve made have been very specific to the School I’m scrutinising at the time, but others seem to have a much broader application. One recommendation I’ve made in nearly every review meeting in the last year has been the importance of communicating with students. I’ve often pointed well-meaning staff in the direction of Nick Grey, the former Head of Dentistry (now moving on and up to better things as Associate Dean in his Faculty), whose use of technology to communicate with dental students has been groundbreaking within the University. (You can check out his blog here: Dick & Nick’s podcast is especially good).
So for a year I’ve been advising assorted academics about the benefits of blogging, whilst not actually doing so myself. Naughty Kate. I’ve decided to practice what I preach, put my money where my mouth is, walk the talk and pile on the cliches by starting what I hope will be an informative, thought-provoking and (dare I say it) even occasionally entertaining regular blog about education at the University of Manchester.
So what’s going to be in it, then?
Well, I can’t predict the future: what’s in this blog entirely depends upon what happens over the next year. I hope to cover issues specifically relevant to students at the University of Manchester, possibly with spotlights on certain Schools or certin topics, e.g. feedback, guidance on appeals, academic advisers, contact time, etc. This year is, however, a crucial one for higher education nationally: where and how the new coalition government places its cuts will impact directly on students; applications to university are at their highest level to date, and how this is dealt with will be of great concern to many students; and of course Lord Browne’s review of tuition fees and university funding is due to report in autumn 2010 so you can expect a fair amount of coverage of that sort of thing. I’ll try and keep a healthy mix of national and local topics, and try even harder not to bore you with the details of my three-hour committee meetings and 80-page reports to read!
And some food for thought…
John Stuart Mill, liberal legend
This article in the New Statesman takes a good look at the purpose of higher education and quotes one of my liberal heroes, John Stuart Mill (yes, I’m a political philosophy geek). In England we’ve never much gone for the idea of a “broad liberal education”: we’ve stuck with mostly single subject courses, often leading into a specific career. This notion of a very subject-specific education ties in well with the increasing emphasis upon education for employability’s sake, as outlined by (Dark) Lord Mandelson in Higher Ambitions, but could be said to ignore the original purpose of higher education as outlined by Schwarz (2003) – that of “making Britain a more open, more just and fairer place to live”. In order to achieve this, it would seem that everybody should study a little philosophy, a drop of ethics, a pinch of social theory, a touch of economics, a bit of history – in order to put their own subject in the context of the world in which they live.
Our soon-to-be-retired Vice Chancellor, Alan Gilbert, endorsed this view of higher education as more than simply a means to an end and wanted to introduce some elements of a broad liberal education into every Manchester degree. Sadly, ill health prevented him from pursuing this concept, but I’m sure the topic will be raised again. To chuck in my own two cents, I’m aware that over 50% of university applicants cite improving their employability as the main factor behind applying (NUS/HSBC Student Experience Report 2008) so HE must be seen at least in part as instrumental to getting a better job; however I do feel that the original purpose of ensuring a fair, just and open society should be given more credence than it currently is. Let’s hope that the Liberal Democrats in the new coalition remember their liberal roots when looking at how to fund higher education.
Oh, and p.s.: my housemate said this was too long not to include a lolcat. Have a topical, higher education related one, and remember:
If you wish to follow this blog, enter your email address in the box on the right and click “Sign me up!”.
Education@Manchester 