Quality after the Cuts?

1. Dr. Anna Feigenbaum Richmond the American International University in London anna.feigenbaum@richmond.ac.uk w/ MehitaIqani Quality after the Cuts?

2. What are your concerns about teaching quality in a post-cuts, tuition-hike HE climate? (In 140 characters or less) #QAAcuts

3. Quality Enhancement and Prospective Quality Assurance through Teaching Exchange Workshops in Media and Communications 2010-2011 Anna Feigenbaum (Richmond University) MehitaIqani (King’s College London)

4. Why TE Workshops?

5. Overview of TE Workshops

7. TE Workshop Hosts

8. Findings from Workshops Teaching Loads & Expectations Marketisation of Degrees Internationalisation

9. Teaching Loads & Expectations

10. 21.5:1 Based on full-time equivalents * All tertiary education: includes Type A 3+ year mainly theoretical degrees & advanced research programmes, and Type B shorter more practical courses Source: OECD Education at a Glance, series, Table D2.2

11. ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ “The tip is all that we see of the student. All the other bits we can't get in touch with. For example, one day I was talking in class to a student from India who had been a national speedway champion. Our eyes lit up, none of us knew anything about him until then. Only through having a space for encounter could he and others see all that he could be. That's the bit that is the magic.” “One of the major challenges is getting to know students. We teach best when we know students a bit better…it is now even harder as it’s difficult to get to know them.”

12. Increases in Team Teaching “There are so many methods in media and communications, that our methods modules is nearly always made of 16 different people teaching one method each, and the students don't get any overview of how the methods are used in different contexts to illuminate different things ...It’s a brutal way to teach – dropping in and teaching one method each.” “The more students we have, the more we will have to team teach, as it is a way to dilute the workload. It’s easy to parachute into a module when team teaching – but how can we work as an actual team?”

13. Marketisation of Degrees

14. Degrees for Sale “How can you fail someone who is paying £9,000 per year? … What if all of a sudden the courses that we teach cost three times as much, how will three times as much value be delivered? Should it be delivered?” “Students have to see in an obvious way that their learning experience will help their career or getting where they want to be.”

15. 26%

16. Vocationalisation “Our course is not vocational but some students seem determined to want it to be. This has been consistent across many institutions I’ve been part of. This seems particular to media studies (not necessarily other humanities disciplines like history).” “Underlying the rhetoric of the theory/practice divide are the political realities of what is going in the HE sector at the moment, i.e., massive public sector cuts. The value of critical thinking is being downplayed by the system as a whole, as industry does not want graduates with questioning attitudes.”

17. Internationalisation

18. Resourcing for Diversity “Most of our issues relate to international elements across things and the numbers that we have, the sheer volume. Our department is a cash cow.” “There is the difficulty of using international comparisons – rules, policies are very country specific so simple comparisons cannot exist. We need to do real research for real comparisons, but we are lacking time and resources.”

19. Modelling Classrooms for Diversity “Is there another way of thinking about how we model our teaching around diversity? Rather than including diverse needs and requirements of students, can we see diversity as a learning opportunity?” “We can structure the postgraduate classroom [to] … force people from different cultures and genders to work with each other. There is always discomfort and tension at first. To help ease this you can point out their similarities. We can talk about ‘othering’ in a real context, create an environment in which students can have personal transformations. “

20. Re-imagining Quality

21. Top-down QA & QE Controls “Does the administrative dog wag the education tail?” “Everything we teach is based on a programme specification that is measured against QAA and HEFCE achievements. With QAA coming in the next 24 months, we need to be able to track our module handbooks, which is what they will assess, which is why the university has a formula for them. But how much is this related to good teaching, rather than useful running of the university?”

22. Bottom-Up QA & QE Controls

23. What are your concerns about teaching quality in a post-cuts, tuition-hike HE climate? (In 140 characters or less) #QAAcuts

24. Dr. Anna Feigenbaum Richmond the American International University in London anna.feigenbaum@richmond.ac.uk w/ Dr.MehitaIqani Quality after the Cuts?