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.
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:
- No charge
- 1st written warning
- Last written warning
- 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.
