EDUCATION IN ADULTHOOD – BEYOND TUITION FEES #10

Posted on June 26, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Access to Higher Education, adult education, apprenticeships, Beyond Tuition Fees, casualisation, childcare, colleges, corbyn, distance learning, evening classes, featured, further education, higher education, Labour, Labour Party Manifesto, learning, living grants, National Education Service, Open University, phD, postgraduate, schools, tuition fees, universities.

By Dan Davison

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.

Being a PhD student is an oft-frustrating experience. As well as bearing the brunt of rife casualisation in the education sector, at times I find myself longing for release into the ‘real world’, having been a student for so long. Despite these frustrations, I have recently come to appreciate how much I have learned in my years as a postgraduate. Not just what I was taught on my Master’s and PhD courses, but also what I’ve gained from my access to university resources, including library collections and online databases, and the opportunity associate with other educated people from different walks of life. In terms of both scholarship and life experience, I have learned far more in my postgraduate mid-twenties than I ever did from my undergraduate years.Continue Reading

EXAMS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED – HERE’S WHY

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged A-levels, assessment, campaigning, capitalism, casual employment, ChildLine, commodification, consumerism, counselling, education, employment, exam abolition, exams, featured, further education, GCSEs, higher education, hourly-paid tutors, knowledge, marketisation, May '68, mental health, mental health services, national curriculum, NSPCC, Paris '68, phD, postgraduate, postgraduate tutors, revision, schools, skills, stress, student activism, student mental health, teachers, UCL, UCU, undergraduate, universities, university drop outs, workforce, zero hours contracts.

By Dan Davison

Examinations are woven into the fabric of student life. From the ‘Key Stage’ National Curriculum assessments I sat in childhood through to the tests I took as a Master’s student, every stage of my education has known the familiar cycle of revision, testing, marking and grading. It was not until I became a precariously employed university tutor that I realised how dangerously uncritical we are of that cycle. By this point it seems so natural to make people sit exams at various points in their lives that it scarcely occurs to the public consciousness that students and teachers might be better off without such a regimented approach to learning.

NO, YOU’RE NOT A FRAUD – IMPOSTER SYNDROME IN HE

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic staff, academics, acceptance, confidence, expectations, higher education, honesty, imperfection, imposter syndrome, job roles, knowledge, learning, lecturers, lessons, media, mental health, money, phD, psychology, reputation, students, teaching, undergraduate, universities.

by Alex Powell

Recently I’ve started teaching as part of my PhD, and through doing so I‘ve been learning a few things myself. The most striking thing I have noticed is how skewed and extreme expectations are for people in various academic roles. Why do we assume that a lecturer in any given subject should know everything there is to know about that subject off the top of their head?

SHIFTING THE SPOTLIGHT IN THE VC PAY DEBATE

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic staff, BAME, BAME academics, diversity, George Holmes, government, HESA, homogeneity, ivory tower, jo johnson, Louise Richardson, media, overpaid, Oxford University, pay, phD, research, researchers, salaries, Southampton University, standard of living, student activism, student life, underpaid, VC salaries, Vice Chancellors, wage gap, wages, women, women academics.

by Robyn Banks

Throughout the summer the debate around vice chancellor pay has continued to play out. Government and media figures have joined students in their long standing expression of outrage at absurd rates of pay, whilst the VCs themselves have come out to defended their salaries, some with a remarkable lack of self-awareness. Oxford VC Louise Richardson recently joined the fray with this startlingly uncaring remark: “My own salary is £350,000. That’s a very high salary compared to our academics who I think are, junior academics especially, very lowly paid.”

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).

A CALL FOR THE DEMOCRATISATION OF POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, advertising, deadlines, democratisation, doctorate, Economic and Social Research Council, equal opportunities, higher education, inequality, information, masters degrees, nepotism, phD, PhD application, postgraduate, postgraduate loans, research, research councils, research funding, student loans, students, universities.

By Alex Powell

New postgraduate loans have made extended higher education more accessible. While the situation is far from perfect, and access to further higher education remains restricted for many, new possibilities have been opened up. However, if students are to make the best of these opportunities, they need guidance.

BORDERLINES – OH, I DON’T MEAN YOU

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Borderlines, Inter|national and tagged bicultural, biculturalism, Borderlines, Glasgow, Govanhill, green card, HE, higher education, housing, ILR, immigrant communities, immigration, landlords, marriage, migrant, migration, phD, UKBA, UKBF, university, US.

Borderlines is a collection of thought pieces, some creative, some direct accounts, some memoirs, all true. Borderlines collects stories from people who are not fleeing from one country to another, but rather chose to move, or were made to do so by a series of non-threatening circumstances. In these stories there is anger, hope, disappointment, joy, fear, optimism. They are all different, and yet all striking in their approach to the subject matter.

Borderlines aims to show the reality of migration, and how we are all, in our own way, migrants.Continue Reading

WHY I TEACH (THE HUMANITIES)

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged arts, children, comics, education, humanities, ideas, norwich, people, phD, poetry, research, students, teach, teaching, translation, UEA, university, writing.

by Alex Valente

This is not another defence of the Humanities as a subject worthy of study, funding, support.
This is not a defence of creative writing as a subject worthy of teaching, practising, support.
This is not a way to convince myself that teaching English Literature at a higher education institution in the UK is a career worth pursuing. Though maybe it is, maybe it is all of those.
This is not, in any way, a researched piece. The editors have allowed me to voice my thoughts on the matter because I wanted to say something about it.

phD

EDUCATION IN ADULTHOOD – BEYOND TUITION FEES #10

EXAMS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED – HERE’S WHY

NO, YOU’RE NOT A FRAUD – IMPOSTER SYNDROME IN HE

SHIFTING THE SPOTLIGHT IN THE VC PAY DEBATE

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

BORDERLINES – OH, I DON’T MEAN YOU

WHY I TEACH (THE HUMANITIES)

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