PRESUMED KNOWLEDGE AND IMPOSTER SYNDROME IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, accessibility, art, books, class, class privilege, cultural capital, cultural hegemony, curriculum, exclusion, featured, high culture, higher education, imposter syndrome, marginalisation, middle class, middle class students, museums, privilege, students, UEA, university, University Challenge, working class, working class students.

By Kasper Hassett

Last week, as I walked past my housemate’s room, I overheard her in an online meeting with her dissertation supervisor. ‘My uncle’s a lecturer in the same topic,’ she said, ‘so he can help me with that.’ At the time, I marvelled at how convenient that must be. But then, I started to think about how frequently I see this: middle class students aided by family or family friends in their studies, often receiving a great deal of support and extra resources. Are there any instances, I wondered, where I as a working class student have benefitted educationally from family connections?

UNISON’S FIGHT AGAINST PROPOSED UEA STAFF PAY FREEZE

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged academia, Community, featured, higher eduation, politics, Sportspark, trade unions, UCU, UEA, Unison, Unite, universities.

By Sean Meleady

Due to the impact of Covid-19, the University of East Anglia faces an expected £35 million shortfall. One too often neglected aspect of the crisis is the impact it has had on non-academic staff, with UEA having proposed a blanket pay freeze for all its 3,712 staff, alongside offering optional voluntary redundanciesand delaying incremental raises for long service.

HISTORY, SPOKEN – THE VALUE OF DIALECT

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged academia, accents, British accents, British dialects, class, commodification, dialect, discrimination, elocution, employment, Estuary, family history, featured, Glasgow, higher education, history, london, professionalism, pronunciation, racism, received pronunciation, social mobility, working class.

By Kasper Hassett

In my earliest years, my great-grandmother used to sit with me in her bungalow, a low-roofed gloomy building with carpets like moss, to tell me I was the ‘best boy in the wewd’. I believed her, of course – she made fantastic cheese on toast and gave me ice pops (‘lolly ices’ to her) out of love. She was family. I took her words as law; I would recite everything I heard her say back to my mother when I was dropped off at our flat. But, rather than approval, I was met with correction – not of the message, but the delivery.

ACADEMIC FREEDOM OR INSTITUTIONALISED TRANSPHOBIA?

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives, Student and tagged academia, academics, featured, gender, glinner, HE, identity, John Collins, letter, nb, Never OK, non-binary, response, rupert read, sex, Stonewall, student unions, SU, terf, trans, transphobes, transphobia, UEA.

By Robyn Banks

Once again, an array of academics have signed a letter complaining about the increased efforts by universities to recognise and support Trans* and Non-Binary students on their campuses. Their reasons for doing so aren’t worth exploring, as they are based on the same logic, or lack thereof, as many transphobes about the realities of gender, sex and identity. The problem we should focus on is that the academics who have signed this letter, and the ones before it, hide behind the claim of ‘Academic Freedom’ in order to try and justify their views.Continue Reading

THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL IS BULLYING STUDENTS INTO PAYING RENT

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, featured, libraries, poverty, profiteering, rent, student accommodation, UEA, universities, University of Liverpool, welfare, working class.

By Robyn Banks

In these days of marketisation and democratic collapse, it’s rare that a piece of news comes out from a university that is so fucked up it leaves me lost for words. But the University of Liverpool managed it, with the news that they’ve been handing down academic sanctions to students who cannot pay their rent.

BOOZING BY THE BOOK

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives, Student and tagged abstinence, academia, alcohol, alcohol consumption, book launch, conferences, drinks, education, exclusion, featured, free drink, inclusivity, Medieval Donut, networking, public events, publishing, publishing event, self image, seminars, SHARP, Society for the History of Authorship Reading and Publishing, university.

by Kelvin Smith

In more than fifty years I have rarely been to a publishing event (a book launch, company celebration, party of any kind) that did not focus on the availability and consumption of alcoholic drinks. Likewise, the academic world nearly always includes ‘drinks’ or ‘wine’ on the announcement of seminars, conferences and academic celebrations.

As someone who has a long history of enjoying alcohol and a more recent period of several years’ total abstention, I wonder if alcohol doesn’t have a significant bearing on the current debates on inclusivity in both publishing and in universities. Both publishers and academics are now exploring what it would mean to be more inclusive – of different classes, ethnicities, cultures, nationalities, languages, genders and political views. But I have yet to hear or read much about the role alcohol plays in limiting inclusion and acceptance. Perhaps it’s time to look at this.Continue Reading

REFLECTIONS FROM THE PICKET LINE

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #USSstrike, academia, academic staff, City University of London, education, featured, imposter syndrome, marketisation, media, media bias, pensions, picket line, postgraduate, postgraduate tutors, strike action, teaching, tuition fees, UCU, union ballot, universities, university staff, USS.

By Alex Powell

During the UCU strike over the proposed cuts to the USS pension scheme, I was on the picket line almost every day, rising early to join colleagues all over the country in standing outside university buildings and telling those who tried to enter what we were fighting for. Often, the media attempts to portray strikers as lazy, suggesting that they simply cannot be bothered to do their jobs. Other times strikers are represented as greedy, suggesting that they are already doing far better than the rest of the country and now they want more. I want to offer another perspective – direct from the picket line – charting how being on strike has strengthened my relationships with colleagues, raised morale among staff and made me a better teacher.

CHALLENGING MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE CAMPUS FREE SPEECH DEBATE

Posted on January 18, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, activism, campaigning, controversy, democracy, depoliticisation, featured, free speech, government, grassroots, hate speech, HE policy, higher education, jo johnson, marketisation, media, mental health, neoliberalism, no platforming, politics, power, protest, racism, representation, state, student welfare, students, students' unions, transphobia, universities, university finance.

by Bradley Allsop

Over the last 8 years, higher education in the UK has been subject to some of the largest and most invasive reforms in its history, guided by a deliberate, neoliberal project with the aim of crafting a marketised sector. This has set a new bar for invasive reforms that is now extending into the murky realms of the ‘free speech’ debate, with recently departed universities minister Jo Johnson proposing the illogical and frankly dangerous step of imposing fines on universities whose students’ unions fail to support free speech on campus.

40%

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged 40%, academia, degree, education, employment, first year, new year's resolution, pass mark, reading, skills, stress, students, teaching, undergraduate, university.

by Alex Powell

I’m sure you’ve all heard it at least once. ‘40% is all I need. It’s first year, it doesn’t really count for anything.’ It’s obvious, right? If the year doesn’t count towards your final degree classification, then you don’t really need to try. Right?

HIGHER EDUCATION’S EXPANSION PROBLEM

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic staff, academics, access, class sizes, confidence, consumerism, education, government, grades, higher education, higher education standards, profiteering, student as consumer, student numbers, students, tuition fees, uk, university growth, working class, working class students.

by Alex Powell

The number of students starting at UK universities has increased dramatically in recent years, despite a slight fall recorded this year, and is set to go on increasing as universities increase their intake. The government has heralded this as an example of the increasing availability of higher education to students coming from working class communities. However, we have to ask what impact the increase in student numbers is having on the quality of education provided by universities.

academia

PRESUMED KNOWLEDGE AND IMPOSTER SYNDROME IN HIGHER EDUCATION

By Kasper Hassett

UNISON’S FIGHT AGAINST PROPOSED UEA STAFF PAY FREEZE

By Sean Meleady

ACADEMIC FREEDOM OR INSTITUTIONALISED TRANSPHOBIA?

THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL IS BULLYING STUDENTS INTO PAYING RENT

BOOZING BY THE BOOK

REFLECTIONS FROM THE PICKET LINE

CHALLENGING MISCONCEPTIONS IN THE CAMPUS FREE SPEECH DEBATE

40%

HIGHER EDUCATION’S EXPANSION PROBLEM

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