NATIONALISM AS A TOOL FOR PROGRESSION

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged cornish, cornwall, devolution, elitism, ethnostate, featured, independence, Kurd, land back, nationalism, onen hag oll, palestine, patriotism, refugee, refugees welcome, Rojava, Scotland, socialism, trespass, Wales.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

“Refugees Welcome” is a phrase commonly seen on placards at demonstrations held by the recently revitalised Cornish independence movement. Sometimes paired with other phrases such as “No More Second Homes”, “Fuck Yuppies” and “Tories Out”, the centrality of the statement “Refugees Welcome” at the forefront of the Cornish nationalism movement clearly flies in the face of conventionally liberal or left-wing wisdom, which automatically posits nationalism as right-wing and pernicious. We should instead recognise that “nationalism” doesn’t necessarily equate to ethno-nationalism, and that in parroting anti-nationalist rhetoric, we are likely regurgitating colonial propaganda. Anti-colonial movements fought for a collective nationalism defined by independence. Nationalism, then, cannot automatically be dismissed as a negative phenomenon.

LAST PICKINGS AND LOST GRADES FOR BTEC STUDENTS

Posted on August 22, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged A-levels, assessment, BTEC, class, classism, contextual offers, coronavirus, education, elitism, exam boards, exams, featured, GCSEs, grade moderation, Grenfell tower, Hampton Common, higher education, Highers, london, POLAR4, postcode lottery, Predicted grades, regional bias, school, Scotland, SEN, stereotyping, UCAS, working class.

by Kasper Hassett

After the government’s U-turn on GCSE and A-level moderation, widespread celebration has broken out among student and teaching communities alike. But, drowned out by the cheering, a yet unsolved problem remains: the injustice and uncertainty for those taking BTECs, who have been left behind in the race to secure places at chosen further and higher education institutions.

PREDICTED GRADES – THE POSTCODE LOTTERY

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged A-levels, assessment, class, contextual offers, coronavirus, education, elitism, exam boards, exams, featured, free school meals, GCSEs, grade moderation, Grenfell tower, Hampton Common, higher education, Highers, Kensington, london, POLAR4, postcode lottery, Predicted grades, regional bias, school, Scotland, SEN, stereotyping, UCAS, working class.

By Kasper Hassett

Last week, young people across Scotland reached the end of years of schooling and were presented with their final grades. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, these results were based not on a summer exam series, but on predicted grades from teachers and subsequent moderation by examining bodies. As many as a quarter of grades were lowered, hitting working-class pupils in poorer regions and schools the hardest. Further south, A level and GCSE students are still awaiting similarly-calculated results, due for release on the 13th and 20th of August respectively. But, with individual pupils’ futures at the mercy of wildly varying school averages, the most disadvantaged students are facing even more barriers to higher education.

NO PRAISE FOR ‘HYMN’

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Student and tagged animal welfare, art world, arts funding, capitalism, creativity, culture, Damien Hirst, elitism, ethics, featured, gentrification, hidden course costs, Houghton Hall, Hymn, market forces, Neil Powell, neoliberalism, NUA, rebellion, student artists, student debt, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, tuition fees.

By Laura Potts

In recent weeks, Damien Hirst’s anatomical sculpture Hymn (1999–2005) has been installed outside of my university, Norwich University of the Arts (NUA), where it will be on show until July 29th as part of his exhibition at Houghton Hall. Although the term ‘hymn’ refers to a form of praise, there are a number of reasons why neither Damien Hirst nor the institutions choosing to associate with his work should be praised.

FREEING EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #5

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academic staff, activism, apathy, Beyond Tuition Fees, borders, Community, consumerism, culture, diversity, economy, elitism, Free Education, government, higher education, individualism, international students, internationalism, jeremy corbyn, Labour, learning, lecturers, maintenance loans, marketisation, migration, politics, privatisation, solidarity, stress, student debt, tef, theresa may, Tories, tuition fees, UCU, UEA, USS strikes.

By Lotty Clare

It is a time of extraordinary potential for change in UK Higher Education. Labour’s promise to end tuition fees has defied the critics and united many behind Corbyn’s political project. But what will the implications for universities be if this comes to pass? And what can we do to leverage this progress? In this series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green are bringing together perspectives from across the sector to explore these questions.

We face many challenges as students in 2018. Painfully high tuition fees along with eye-watering maintenance loans means that lower income students will leave university with over £50,000 of debt. Bafflingly, Prime Minister Theresa May only recently came to the realisation that poorer students are getting deterred from going into higher education. By contrast, the Labour Party’s promises to scrap tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants are of course a welcome relief for many prospective students – UK national students that is. Labour have seemingly barely considered the possibility of doing the same for international students. At the University of East Anglia, non-EU international students pay about £14,800 annually, on top of having to prove that they have access to thousands of pounds for living costs. If education is a right, why are we privileging wealthier international students in this way? What would Britain look like if we abolished or at least dramatically reduced fees for international students?

GOING BACKWARDS – OXFORD AND THE UNIVERSITY CLASS PROBLEM

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged bias, black students, BME, class, David Lammy MP, discrimination, diversity, elitism, ender, equality, equity, ethnicity, government, Grenfell Tower disaster, higher education, Oxford, politics, prejudice, privatisation, prospective students, regional inequality, ruling class, solidarity, students, uk, universities, upper class.

by Laura Potts

I was shocked to see in recent news that Oxford university has been accused of ‘social apartheid’ after their student intake was analysed. This story joins the long standing and highly complicated debate around the wider concept of university equality and educational fairness, revealing some worrying patterns that have begun to emerge in recent years.

THE RIGHT ARE RUNNING SCARED – A RESPONSE TO TOM WELSH

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic work, academics, access, alternative facts, capitalists, career, Chris Hanretty, City AM, commentary, education, elitism, experts, free market, GE17, general election, graduates, HE policy, higher education, historians, hyperbole, hypocrisy, inequality, Institute of Economic Affairs, jeremy corbyn, King's College London, Labour, left wing, marketisation, Michael Gove, no platforming, Oxford University, policy, private universities, privatisation, research, right wing, safe spaces, sensationalism, socialism, student debt, Taxpayers' Alliance, The Telegraph, Times Higher Education, Tom Welsh, Tories, tuition fees, u-turn, UEA, uk, universities, voters.

by Robyn Banks

In the midst of right-wing confusion about Jeremy Corbyn’s continuing support amongst the young, following a supposed u-turn on his flagship policy to scrap student debt, Tom Welsh of the Telegraph has unveiled a new thesis: the left will continue its resurgence so long as too many go to university*. His argument is as ridiculous as the title makes it sound, and his article is full of claims that are absurd, patronising and completely unsupported.

WHO DESERVES TEF GOLD? AND DOES IT MATTER?

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged access, boycotts, elitism, equality, fairness, government, graduate employment, HE Act, HE bill, higher education, league tables, marketisation, national student survey, NSS Boycott, NUA, privatisation, profit, progress, reductionism, russell group, Sauder and Espeland, Sauder and Espeland boycott, student satisfaction, teaching, teaching standards, tef, TEF metrics, Tories, tuition fees, UEA.

by Laura Potts

Last week, the first set of Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) rankings were released for 2017. The TEF is fairly complicated and students are rarely informed of how it works, or the possible implications it holds for the future of education. In short, it is a framework of metrics or measures introduced by the Tory government, ostensibly to assess teaching in higher education institutions in England. These metrics categorise two areas: student satisfaction and graduate earnings / employability. A lot of the data comes from the National Student Survey that final year students are often pressured to take part in. This years’ rankings gave some unexpected results for some of the UK’s most prestigious institutes, with many not doing as well as expected – only 8 of the 21 elite Russell Group universities were awarded ‘Gold’. This suggests that we should be cautious about taking the TEF results as accurate representations of institutions.

WILL UEA DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR PHD ASSOCIATE TUTORS?

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic staff, access, access to employment, application processes, complaints, contracts, disrespect, diversity, elitism, employee feedback, employment rights, equality and diversity monitoring, hierarchy, higher education, hours, HR, male dominance, marking, mental health, nepotism, pay, phD, PhD Associate Tutors, postgraduate, postgraduate community, postgraduate tutors, recruitment, report, rights, shift covering, student employment, student mental health, students, support, temporary contracts, trade unions, training, UEA, UEA School of Arts Media and American Studies, UEA School of Chemistry, UEA School of International Development, UEA School of Politics Philosophy and Language and Communication Studies, UEA Student Experience Committee, UEA SU, unconscious bias, undergraduate teaching, unpaid work, white dominance.

by Maddie Colledge, UEA SU Postgraduate Education Officer

Following a steady drip of complaints to the SU in recent years, the Postgraduate Committee have this year steered me to focus my efforts on launching research into the experience of our PhD Associate Tutors (ATs). We already knew some of the issues that our ATs face and had brought them to the University’s attention, but in light of little change since then, it seemed a full review was needed. Following the publication of that review, I’d like to share our findings with you as well as our plans for the future (the full report can be found here).

ELITISM REFUSES TO DIE – THE UNIVERSITY FUNDING PROBLEM

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged arts, charity research funding, community colleges, Connecticut, Connecticut University System, conservatives, course closures, cuts, david richardson, education, elitism, employability, fossil free, Fossil Free UEA, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, Freddie DeBoer, government, higher education, higher education funding, humanities, inequality, Ivy League, marketisation, mental health, mental health services, pay inequality, people and planet, public funding, rent hikes, russell group, STEM, student accommodation, student activism, Student Support Services, tuition fees, UEA, uk, UK Funding Councils, UK Research Councils, university management, USA, wages, Yale.

by Robyn Banks

Last month, Freddie DeBoer wrote about the failure of the university system in the United States to equally fund different institutions across the country. Looking specifically at Connecticut, DeBoer shows how Yale, one of the prestigious Ivy League universities, fuels social inequality by receiving public funds as well as other sources for revenue whilst other, more accessible community colleges are “cut to the bone”.

elitism

NATIONALISM AS A TOOL FOR PROGRESSION

by Sarah Edgcumbe

LAST PICKINGS AND LOST GRADES FOR BTEC STUDENTS

by Kasper Hassett

PREDICTED GRADES – THE POSTCODE LOTTERY

By Kasper Hassett

NO PRAISE FOR ‘HYMN’

FREEING EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #5

GOING BACKWARDS – OXFORD AND THE UNIVERSITY CLASS PROBLEM

THE RIGHT ARE RUNNING SCARED – A RESPONSE TO TOM WELSH

WHO DESERVES TEF GOLD? AND DOES IT MATTER?

WILL UEA DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR PHD ASSOCIATE TUTORS?

ELITISM REFUSES TO DIE – THE UNIVERSITY FUNDING PROBLEM

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