Best of SI

For the last month and a half staff and students in the Middlesex Philosophy department have been waging a campaign against its closure. As a hugely successful department, its mandated closure by the university's administration (background here) placed those involved at the forefront of the fight against marketization within British higher educ ...

This interesting video is one of seven. Here are links for the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh videos in the series.

Another Middlesex Philosophy Video | The Sociological Imagination

Universities Minister David Willetts at Oxford Brookes giving his first keynote speech on education to an audience of university vice-chancellors:

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has received a revised grant letter from the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, that says specific funding for 10,000 students starting university this year will be axed from 2011-12, on top of a previously announced drop in funding. UCU have argued that ...

There's a worrying story in the Times Higher Education this week relating to the government's willingness to consider private companies taking over public universities. David Willetts has apparently come under intense pressure from BBP (and other private education providers) to begin an opening up of the university system to private corporation ...

There's a round up of the days activity on the United for Education campaign's website. Overall it seems to have been covered by a really pleasing range of media outlets. For instance see here and here. As further cuts gradually take effect on a day-to-day level, it's really important that this campaign continues to receive attention and suppor ...

In a recent speech David Willetts has confirmed that the REF will be delayed by one-year in order to "figure out whether there is a method of assessing impact which is sound and which is acceptable to the academic community". While it's difficult to know how much of this decision can be said to ensue from protest against the 'impact a ...

Recent reports suggest that up to a quarter of a million could miss out on UK university places after a 12% rise on last year's record number of applications. Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union, has responded to the release of this data: Today’s figures make frightening reading. Other countries are increasing ...

A fascinating article by Nigel Thift, Vice Chancellor of Warwick University, about the ongoing tension which the university system must resolve: Budgets. There is not enough money to go round every institution that wants to be a University of the old school but only a few brave institutions are willing to strike out in new directions. ...

One of the very paradoxes of the tuition fees and education cuts’ odyssey that has heated the political debate over the past few months lies in the way in which political leaders seem to be utterly shocked by the anger and uproar that their measures have generated throughout the public. Following the sharp analysis of Les Back, such incompre ...

In this podcast Steve Fuller talks about the future of the university. At a time of crisis in the university, the discussion explores how academia has arrived at its present juncture and where it might go from here. It contextualises the present predicament in terms of the wider intellectual, cultural, political and economic factors which under ...

There is speculation that increasing pressure on limited university places, in tandem with rising tuition fees, may be making the prospect of studying in other western European countries and even the US more attractive to British students. Representatives from British and American universities alike believe that the threat of higher fees and t ...

Thousands of young people who were unable to secure a place at university last year have re-applied for degree courses for the coming academic year. The knock-on effect of the shortage of university places in 2010 is now going to have profound impact on the 2011 university application and admissions process as this article states. In the run ...

While some Kent students continued their sit-ins over the holiday break and others are planning further demonstrations to protest the proposed tuition fee rises, the government decided that English universities are to face a 6% cut to their teaching budgets before teaching incomes are set to increase in 2012 from those raised tuition fees. I ...

A number of universities across the UK are considering awarding students who display “corporate” skills and job market experience extra marks towards their degrees. This potential accreditation comes as no surprise considering the continued call for university degrees to be more vocationally based and focused on the skills students will need in ...

Below is a public letter of support written by Bulgarian students on 19 December 2010 (reposted from http://studentskiglas.org/?p=328 ) To the British students, fighting against tuition fees raises: Dear friends, We have been following the current situation in the UK with great interest and we sincerely admire your unity and purposefulness ...

Anja: Let me begin by posing three questions. Firstly, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that modes of labour are appropriating cognitive, communicational and affective skills. What does this mean to you for the political potential of academic and collaborative work? Secondly, given that there are massive cuts being proposed to the educati ...

The UK Campaign for the Public University is open to all. It is a broad-based campaign with no party or other political affiliation. It has been initiated by a group of university teachers and graduate students seeking to defend and promote the idea of the university as a public good. We believe that the public university is essential both for ...

An insightful analysis of the (economic!) benefits of open access in the publishing of academic research: read the article by Adam Stevenson on arstechnica.com here Further reading: * The JISC Report (jisc.ac.uk) * The Academic Publishing Industry Report (stm-assoc.org) * The RIN Report (rin.ac.uk)

In the aftermath of the recent students protest and the consequent wave of occupations in University campuses across the country, it is interesting to assess what could be done to change and ameliorate the UK higher education system from within, and not only from without. In this sense, the role of academics could be crucial in reforming and re ...

What is at stake in the British government's spending review announced some weeks ago, is not a question of so-called 'cuts', how massive they will be and whom will be most affected; that is a merely technical problem which takes for granted the nature and scope of the real problem. Nor is it only a question, absolutely unacceptable as this is, ...

As the coalition government prepares to publish its response to Lord Browne’s review, anticipation builds over the likelihood that students may face fees upwards of £9000 per year. The fee rises are intended to compensate for the public funding which has been withdrawn from universities as per the most recent Spending Review.  Aaron Porter, ...

It is official: Sociology is a ‘low-cost’, ‘non-priority’ discipline, the government says. It is now clear that the cuts on higher education included in the Comprehensive Spending Review are going to hit harder the disciplines that have been put under these headings (i.e. arts, humanities and social science). In short, if the government prop ...

Inequalities: a new blog, and a call for contributors We are pleased to introduce INEQUALITIES, a new online forum dedicated to cross-national research and debate around different kinds of inequality. [https://inequalitiesblog.wordpress.com/]. The blog will be updated three times a week (Mon/Wed/Fri) with a mixture of articles, shorter post ...

RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms | The Sociological Imagination

In the aftermath of Lord Browne’s review on higher education, we are all left wondering the overall impact it will have on higher education in England. Some commentators suggest that Lord Browne’s recommendations will led to a tiered higher education system where elite universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and Kings could charge up to £12 ...

Writing a doctoral thesis can often turn into a solitary affair, perceived by everybody (sometimes even by the author) as a terribly complicated and neverending excercise.  This project offers a fun way of bringing PhD theses from various disciplines - from molecular biology to childhood pshychology -  out into the light of day.  Perhaps you kn ...

The Guardian, Friday 22 October 2010 The Browne report on higher education funding and student finance is wide of the mark in every respect (Universities: Shock at big cuts in teaching budgets, 21 October). The proposal to scrap the present tuition fee limit of £3,290 in favour of potentially unlimited fees set by universities themselves wil ...

Over the past few months, Tory-LibDem Higher Education policies have been under the spotlight, mainly due to the controversial issue of students’ fees. However, there are also other, less apparent, aspects implicit in the political plans of the coalition which could have a huge impact on Universities. One of these concerns immigration. By April ...