EDUCATION AFTER THE PANDEMIC: REFORM AND RENATIONALISATION

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged A-Level, assessment, BBC Bitesize, coronavirus, Covid-19, data, digital technology, education, entertainment, exams, featured, GCSE, higher education, internet, jeremy corbyn, Labour, Lenin, lockdown, mental health, National Education Service, NHS, online counselling, online education, pandemic, policy, politics, primary education, privatisation, schools, secondary education, student mental health, teachers assessment, tony blair, Youtube, zoom.

By Howard Green

Tony Blair, upon his election into government in 1997, famously declared that his top three priorities were “Education, education and education”. At the other end of the century, Vladimir Lenin proclaimed that education that didn’t teach about life and politics was indeed a “hypocrisy”. Education has been a central focus of politics for over a hundred years, and today is no different. As the Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted conventional ways of learning for many, the modern British educational system needs short term and long term reform if it is to adapt to the issues of the 21st century. With the advent of Zoom lessons and online assessments, now is the time to explore the full potential of digital technology as the new frontier of education.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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UEA CLOSES COUNSELLING PROGRAMME

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Anthony Gormley, art, Community, counselling, course closures, crisis, cuts, education, fossil free, local services, Masters, mental health, mental health services, NHS, norfolk, norwich, postgraduate, rent, reputation, Richard Andrews, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, student accommodation, student life, student mental health, Student Support Services, students, UEA, UEA library, work placements.

On the 25th of April, Professor Richard Andrews, the head of the School of Education and Life Long Learning (EDU) at UEA, announced the closure of the university’s counselling programme. This means that all courses surrounding the subject of counselling, including a PG diploma and an MA, will no longer be taught at UEA as of the beginning of the 2018 academic year. Andrews described this as a ‘difficult decision’ resulting from ‘low demand for the course’. This closure is especially significant, not only to UEA but to the wider Norwich and Norfolk area.

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ENOUGH PESSIMISM ABOUT HE – A RESPONSE TO JIM DICKINSON

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academics, ceo, consumerism, customer service, direct action, fee rises, fossil free, government, higher education, House of Lords, ideology, Jim Dickinson, marketisation, national student survey, NSS Boycott, pessimism, politics, power, respect, student activism, student life, student mental health, student movement, student satisfaction, students, students' unions, teaching, tef, The Guardian, Tories, tuition fees, UEA, UEA SU, universities, university management, Vice Chancellors, writing.

by Lewis Martin

In a recent article for the Guardian, UEA SU CEO Jim Dickinson wrote about universities’ failure to produce anything satisfactory for its students, as well as the lack of transparency around how tuition fees are spent. Helpful though it is to point out the issues faced by the student movement, Dickinson fails to offer any type of remedy for them at any point, suggesting that cynical resignation is the only possible response.

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“A VERY DIFFERENT TYPE OF POLITICS” – RESPONSE TO NUS CONFERENCE DAY 1

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #NUSNC17, access, anti racism, anti-sexism, attainment gap, Brighton, campaigning, deportation, direct action, far right, Free Education, HE bill, international students, Liber8 Education, liberated curriculum, liberation, malia bouattia, marketisation, migrant rights, nss, NSS Boycott, NUS, NUS conference, nus elections, NUS Trans Officer, oppression, politics, racism, Sally Hunt, sexism, Sorana Vieru, student activism, student debt, student mental health, student politics, students, suicide, trade unions, trans students, tuition fees, UCU, women's rights.

by Cherry Somersby

Content warning: Article mentions suicide.

The political transition we have seen in NUS over the last 12 months would have been unthinkable this time last year. The student movement has risen to the growing need for radical action this year, building groundbreaking, vital campaigns, presenting a powerful response to the many crises modern students face.

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