Comments for Registrarism

Comment on More Guns on Campuses by Crime Data in the USA | Registrarism

Crime Data in the USA | Registrarism — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:51:29 +0000

[…] It always surprises me that there is such a strict federal requirement on crime reporting at US universities. Given the potentially negative consequences though it is perhaps hardly surprising that there are occasional errors in classification. And the crimes on US campuses do tend to be significantly worse than those here, especially given the availability of guns at some institutions (as noted in this previous post). […]

Comment on Eight minutes to choose a degree course by Richard

Richard — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:07:16 +0000

Agreed

Comment on Eight minutes to choose a degree course by Martin

Martin — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:59:42 +0000

I was about to make a comment along the lines of Robert’s first point.

Unistats won’t usually be the very first place prospective students start looking for information. When they do visit, comparisons can be made relatively quickly. This may be an exercise in confirmation bias, whether or not that’s a good thing.

Eight minutes may not sound like much, but when you know what you want to look up, the Unistats site isn’t that difficult to navigate. Comparisons are quick to make too.

In addition, have average visits under a minute or so been excluded? I assume many people will make at least one brief visit in order to bookmark or get a vague idea before visiting again to make proper use of the site. It all makes a difference to the averages.

Comment on Eight minutes to choose a degree course by Cal

Cal — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:24:13 +0000

I would query the value of the site, as they say in the report “This would be consistent with a substantial proportion of use by professionals or employees during their working day (whereas other potential users might be able and expected to use the site more uniformly over the week). We infer that a substantial proportion of usage to date has been by careers professionals, others in advisory roles and HE staff, but expect that this balance will change with increasing maturity of the site.” So much of the traffic may not be the target audience of students. For me if it’s not being used by students it has failed in it’s purpose, my understanding is KIS is meant to give students the tools to make an informed choice.
The report focused on users who have visited the site and they found it useful, that is good, but by their nature that is a group who have self selected to visit a comparison site they will like comparisons. The key question about the value of KIS is: “Does the bulk prospective student population want to use this kind of thing?” That question appears to be unanswered in the report (with hints saying no).
I know from our experience in Newcastle that there has been a heavy burden in aggregating the data and producing it in the desired format. We likely found this easier than others, in that the data was to hand and we have preexisting tools and services to help us, many of our peers will have found it much more onerous. The data format changes this year will again add to the workload associated with KIS.
The question for KIS is how much has it cost the sector (i would suggest lots) and what has the benefit been to the target audience (unproven and likely to be low in my view).

Comment on Eight minutes to choose a degree course by Robert O'Toole

Robert O'Toole — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:19:29 +0000

I agree, it looks suspicious. Possible explanations for the 8 minute average:

1. The site is used to simply confirm judgements made elsewhere through various socially mediated or autonomous deliberative processes (see Archer’s recent study of undergraduates in The Reflexive Imperative in Late Modernity for an account of the variations in student decision making process);
2. Users find the course choice experience so overwhelming that they just run away in confusion/despair/terror.

My guess is that there are many reasons, but Unistats probably is not playing as central a role in decision making as its usage stats at first suggest. More research needed!

Comment on Unistats and KIS – just too much information? by Eight minutes to choose a degree course | Registrarism

Eight minutes to choose a degree course | Registrarism — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:57:14 +0000

[…] very gratifying for Unistats fans. But as an earlier post noted there really is no shortage of information on HE opportunities. The most worrying element of this […]

Comment on Hobbit talk by Franz Brehme

Franz Brehme — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:16:37 +0000

Dear Paul, here goes the link to our Tolkien page. Kind regards! http://tolkienbrasil.com/noticias/diversas/discurso-em-homenagem-a-j-r-r-tolkien-quando-recebeu-o-titulo-de-doutor-em-letras/

Comment on Hobbit talk by Franz Brehme

Franz Brehme — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:09:58 +0000

Thank you, Paul!

Comment on Hobbit talk by Paul

Paul — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:25:26 +0000

Happy that you do this translation. Please do credit the University of Nottingham. The speech was published in the University of Nottingham Gazette in May 1970 on the occasion of a congregation for the award of honorary degrees which took place on 2 May 1970

Comment on Hobbit talk by Franz Brehme

Franz Brehme — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:20:38 +0000

Dear Sirs, I’m a brazilian lawyer and some friends have started a website called TOLKIENBRASIL.COM
We would like to ask you if we are allowed to translate this “post” to our brazilian portuguese and if you know the exact issue and year of the original publication of this amazing speech.