Wonkhe: Subject TEF
My lastest Wonkhe article looks at the latest government updates on subject level TEF, the first major policy release since I was involved. You can read the full article here: An outsider’s view of subject level TEF
Wonkhe: A Hierarchy of Purposes in Higher Education
My latest Wonkhe article looks at the various purposes fulfilled by higher education and concludes that it’s time to make receiving a degree conditional upon passing a basic national test in Maths and English. Read the full article here: A hierarchy of purposes in higher education
A University Challenge Ranking
Many football fans have a complex system of which team to support in any given match, based on a wide variety of factors that may appear arbitrary and inpenetrable to the outsider, but internally to them makes complete sense. I have a similar system for determining which team to support in University Challenge. This entirely serious in every way and not at at all arbitrary ranking is as follows: – Christ’s College, Cambridge – Emmanuel College, Cambridge – Bath Spa…
A Satire on Academic Politics
Cornford’s ‘Microcosmographia Academica’ (1908) remains my favourite satire on academic politics. For those unfamiliar with it, it takes the form of being a guide to the young academic interested in gaining influence, and contains the warning, “…and may your soul (if you have a soul) find mercy!” Despite being a little dated in parts, it contains rich seams of pure gold, and is equally applicable to those in academia seeking to engage government as to those striving for position within…
Initial Hypothesis: The Game of Teaching Excellence
Download and print a fully playable game based on the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF). A card game for 2-5 players, lasting 30-40 minutes, Initial Hypothesis is a fast-paced game of skill and luck, in which each player seeks to secure a Gold TEF rating before their opponents do. Go for Gold at the helm of one of five renowned English institutions, including the Universities of Poppleton and Oxbridge. Collect a full set of TEF metrics – and…
A New University Ranking
Ranking universities by the proportion of entrants who go on to graduate jobs or further study. The higher education landscape is blessed with many detailed and accurate datasets. Many of the most commonly used sources of data, however, artificially flatter the sector’s performance. For example, the sector’s preferred measure of ‘non-continuation’ only looks at the proportion of students who don’t continue from the first to the second year – rather than, as one might expect, the proportion that complete (or…
Wonkhe: Value for Money for Whom?
Is going to university value for money? In my latest Wonkhe article I look at misalignments between the individual and the state when it comes to assessing value for money, examine the increasing prevalence of ‘signalling’ dominating over actual skills gains and discuss the need to transfer funding from failing academic courses to high quality technical and vocational alternatives. You can read the full article here: Working towards a sector taxonomy of value If you’ve not yet done so, there…