Guest lecture 9

Our final guest lecturer was taken by David Warner the vice chancellor at Swansea Metropolitan. He gave a lecture on the framework and background of higher education in Britain. He discussed ideas of what higher education is and the perceptions we have of higher eduction. There are two main ideas on what higher education is:

The level of work and qualification that you do

Who pays you 

We also looked at the idea of university being for developing transferrable skills, not just for subject knowledge. 

We were also shown a brief history of the development of universities:

• Middle ages- First university

• 1918, 22 uni's
• 1980, 47 uni's
• 1992, over 100 uni's
• 2004, New legislation 

We also looked the the diversity of universities in the Uk:

 

• Chartered university
• Statutory universities
• Higher education institutions
• Higher ed in further ed
• Growth of the private sector

• The situation in Wales

We also discussed the other possible purposes of higher education:

• Teaching and learning

• To contribute to an economically successful and culturally diverse nation

• To advance knowledge and understanding through scholarship and research

• To contribute to regional prosperity both through technology transfer and direct contribution

• Social justice 

We then looked at the current trends in higher education:

 

• Elite to mass system

• Female student increase

• Postgraduate fluctuations

• Part-time decrease

• Growth of international students

• Balance of funding  

 I found David to be a good last lecturer and I enjoyed lecture, again he did not use the assistance of slideshows and he spoke very well. I enjoyed hearing about the development of higher education as I knew nothing of the history of it.

Guest lecture 8

This guest lecture was taken by Jane Davidson, the former minister of education. She gave a lecture on The Learning Country document and the changes in the cirriculum. Jane was a writer of the learning country and is the developer of most of the ideas. The learning country is a paving document and was a document which paved the way for the current cirriculum. Jane discussed some of the key changes which were made to the education system before the foundation phase:

1983-Margret Thatcher introduced the curriculum, SAT's introduced

1997-Labour government, National curriculum too restrictive

1999-National assembly in Wales, pre 16 and post 16 committees set up   

Education policy was not different in Wales to England

 

Jane became minister in 2000 and felt that education is the route out of poverty

"Wales should become internationally renowned as a learning country." Learning country 

 One of the key ideas of the learning country is lifelong learning and it focuses a lot on post 16 education. 

The learning country developed a lot of the ideas we see in the foundation phase today:

Arrangements for exchanging information between primary and secondary schools- visits

Lower class sizes- 30 or below

Breakfast clubs  

The foundation phase is now coming under review as a cirriculum but it still hasn't been around very long, however the startegy has now finished testing

I found this lecture useful as I did not really know how the foundation phase was developed as a cirriculum, I also found Jane to be a good speaker without the use of a slideshow.

Guest lecture 6

This lecutre was taken by Nick Bennet who is the priciple of gower college. He gave a lecure on further education in Wales. We looked at the 1988 education act and what further education facilities came under it:

• Colleges

• School sixth forms

• Adult education institutions

• Private providers
• Voluntary sector

Further education is funded by the Welsh Goverment's department for education and skills. We then went on to discuss what it is for:

 

• Underpin social justice
• Support the economy

• Teaching and learning
• Equal opportunities
• Innovation
• Welsh medium
• Progression
• Flexible
• Tailored
• Local

Nick Bennet gave figures on current college stats:

184,730 learners (2009/10)

95% from Wales

5,000 different qualifications in Wales

66% of learners are in FE colleges

Twice as many in college than schools

68% of FE students are over 19

20% are full time

We also looked over the Welsh Govenment programme of 2011 for further education:

 

• Encourage further mergers of FE colleges
• Reform the governance of FE in Wales
• Work with FE providers to establish a new strategy
• Maintain commitment to provide financial support to students from low income households
• Ensure that borrowing for the cost of tuition fees for students resident in wales remains unchanged
• Establish a single strategic planning and funding body for HE
• Embed the university of the head of the valleys
• Establish jobs growth Wales, offering employment or training for young people
• Increase apprenticeship opportunities
• Introduce a successor to the skill build programme
• Evaluate current post 16 basic skills activity and define policy to influence future delivery

Strategic priorities

1. Raise standards
2. Deliver high quality opportunities
3. Improve economic and social well-being
4. See the Welsh language thrive

Performance will be our driver, with continued focus on improving performance and quality across the board and at entry level

Guest lecture 5

This lecture was taken by Mike Day who is a cabinet member in education. He gave a lecture on educational policy. The points he covered were:

• What
• Why 
• Where
• Who
• How

Educational policy reflects:

• Political options
• Socio-economic objectives 
• Tradition and values
• Over a long timescale
• Fundamental choices

Who:

Politicians or practitioners

Where:

UK level

Welsh government

Local authority

School and governing body level

Here are some policies made at school and governing body level:

• Uniforms

• Start and finish times

• Raft of policies on personal and social education, Child protection, Charging, Equal opportunities, SEN etc.
• School improvement plan 

Here are examples of policies made by the Welsh Government:

 

• Welsh medium
• Foundation phase

• No SAT's

• No academies
• HE Tuition fees
• Pupil deprivation grant

Mike Day also discussed the idea of policy borrowing:

  

• A policy borrowing approach searches international policies to fit into our own

• Tailored national policy

Here are some key principles of policies:

 

• Stakeholder engagement

• Coherence
• Flexibility
• Objectivity

• Cost effectiveness

• Resourced

I think that the topic of this lecture was important as educational policy is of course a key part of looking at education itself.

 

ICT project- Anime scrapbook

 So I've been thinking about how I can include my blog with my scrapbook. In the scrapbook I was going to have a character on some of the pages explaning the page and my feelings. But instead I've decided to have this as th blog part. So my project topic is anime and manga. Manga artists like to have a little or 'chibi' character to talk about their feelings behind the manga and give a personal message, so heres my little character mochi! She's going to tell all about my project and the ideas and facts behind the pages. There are also some bunny drawings in the actual scrapbook so keep a look out!

What is education? Guest lecture 7

Today we had a lecture on collaboration vs. competition in education from Olvive Hopker who is head of planning and development in our university. She talked to us about why the governbment is pushing for more collaberation of education settings. It covers:

• Higher education
• Local education authorities
• Further education/ 6th forms
• Schools

She also spoke to us about current collaboration happening in universities:

• External examinar
• Validation panel membership
• Research projects
• Library access
• Purchasing
• ICT
• Academic development
• Quality and standards assurance

She then moved onto the benefits of collaboration:

• Shared experise and knowledge
• Greater efficiency
• Cost saving
• Greater effectiveness
• Enhance reputation
• Value of 'external eye'
• Collaboration groupings flexible

And the benefits of competition:

• Promotes efforts to do better
• Provides choice of alternative products/services

She also moved on to speak about the benefits of small and large universities and they change with collaboration.
I found this lecture useful as I didn't know much about collaboration of education settings and what it means. However there wasn't much discussion and it was hard to take in.

What is education? Guest lecture 4

We had another lecture with Steve Gullick where we had a recap of some the things we had discussed in the previous lecture and discussed some other points about govenors. He spoke to us more about the role of goveners and how their responsibilities are different from the head teachers. The goveners deal with long term issues while the head teacher is responsible for the day to day running of the school. He also told us that schools all need a govener in charge of special educational needs in the school who will work with the school senco. Steve also spoke about the staff dispinary commitee which all schools have. It usually consisits of three members who will give four possible verdicts when discipling staff:

1. No charge
2. 1st written warning
3. Last written warning
4. Dismissal

We also discussed the issue concerning training for govenors. It is not compulsory and we discussed our views on this, Steve expressed that it should be compulsory.
I enjoyed having recap lecture as it made me understand more about govenors and we had good discussion and feedback during this lecture on our own views.