Higher ambitions…

New HE Framework

Follow up to earlier post on HE as food-labelling:

Lord Mandelson has launched Higher Ambitions. There’s a lot in here and much of it yet to be fully fleshed out. And the much trailed element on improved consumer information still requires some work:

All universities should publish a standard set of information setting out what students can expect in terms of the nature and quality of their programme.

This should set out how and what students will learn, what that knowledge will qualify them to do, whether they will have access to external expertise or experience, how much direct contact there will be with academic staff, what their own study responsibilities will be, what facilities they will have access to, and any opportunities for international experience. It should also offer information about what students on individual courses have done after graduation. The Unistats website will continue to bring together information in a comparable way so that students can make well-informed informed [sic] choices, based on an understanding of the nature of the teaching programme they can expect, and the long-term employment prospects it offers. We will invite HEFCE, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and UKCES to work with the sector and advise on how these goals should be achieved.

Hmmm. Should be an interesting consultation.

Higher education as food labelling

Food labelling for university courses

From the BBC website:

School leavers applying to English universities will get more data about courses under government plans to treat them more like consumers. A food labelling-style system will flag up teaching hours, career prospects and seminar frequency, says the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

On Tuesday, it will announce a new framework for higher education. The plan aims to set out priorities for universities ahead of a review of the way students fund their education. Tuition fees were introduced in 1998 and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson believes this entitles students to act more like consumers.

He has said government and industry must scrutinise and monitor courses on behalf of students, encouraging “a greater degree of competition between institutions” to drive improvement in courses. His department already publishes statistics on employability after six months and three-and-a-half years, but the latest plans would put information in one place. This could include graduates’ typical future earnings, contact hours with tutors, assessment methods and frequency of tests.

So instead of detailed descriptions of each course in prospectuses, via ucas, on university websites and the detail of league table subject comparisons, we are going to have something like this:

It really isn’t at all clear how this is going to be in any way an improvement or of real value to prospective students. Consolidating small pieces of information into one place in this way suggests that a much more superficial assessment of quality is the aim here. And how is it going to be decided what is red and what is green?

Let’s hope that the real proposals are a bit better than this implies.

Economist MBA league table

Full-time MBA ranking from The Economist.

The latest FT MBA league table has been published and it includes very strong representation from European Schools:

1 IESE Business School – University of Navarra Spain
2 IMD – International Institute for Management Development Switzerland
3 California at Berkeley, University of – Haas School of Business United States
4 Chicago, University of – Booth School of Business United States
5 Harvard Business School United States
6 Dartmouth College – Tuck School of Business United States
7 Stanford Graduate School of Business United States
8 London Business School Britain
9 Pennsylvania, University of – Wharton School United States
10 Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Belgium
11 Cambridge, University of – Judge Business School Britain
12 York University – Schulich School of Business Canada
13 New York University – Leonard N Stern School of Business United States
14 HEC School of Management, Paris France
15 Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management United States
16 IE Business School Spain
17 Melbourne Business School – University of Melbourne Australia
18 Cranfield School of Management Britain
19 Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT Sloan School of Management United States
20 Columbia Business School United States
21 Henley Business School Britain
22 Warwick Business School Britain
23 INSEAD France / Singapore
24 Virginia, University of – Darden Graduate School of Business Administration United States
25 Michigan, University of – Stephen M. Ross School of Business United States

The Economist methodology is a bit different from the mainstream league tables and includes a significant student and graduate survey component:

Business school rankings are not perfect. What makes a good MBA programme will vary for each individual. Our ethos is to look at business schools from the students’ perspective. Indeed, over the past 21 years we have asked close to 150,000 of them why they decided to sign up for an MBA. It is their responses that inform the criteria we measure and the weightings we apply.

Over that time, four factors have consistently emerged: to open new career opportunities and/or further current career; personal development and educational experience; to increase salary; the potential to network. The Economist ranks full-time programmes on their ability to deliver to students the things that they themselves cite as most important. It weights each element according to the average importance given to it by students surveyed over the past five years.

University of Nottingham: Graduate Trainee Programme

The first group of four Graduate Trainees are coming to the end of their year-long programme which has been extremely successful.

As the advert for the 2009-10 scheme describes it:

The University is delighted to announce the Nottingham Graduate Trainee Programme. This innovative programme, aimed exclusively at University of Nottingham graduates from any of the University campuses interested in developing a career in university administration. It offers an invaluable insight into this dynamic management activity whilst developing an understanding of:

* markets
* income streams
* resource allocation processes
* client bases including students, parents, employers, funding bodies and commercial partners.

The programme offers four trainees the opportunity to experience key components of university operation and build an understanding of the institution’s strategy. Trainees will spend 12 months undertaking a planned rotation of placements in different areas of the University, reporting to senior staff. Placements will be across central services and schools, and trainees may have the opportunity to experience activity at one of the University’s overseas campuses in Malaysia or China.

The evidence from the presentations by each of the trainees on their experiences and the results both for them and the University is extraordinarily positive. They have all done outstandingly well and all four have now secured other posts within Nottingham which really is excellent news.

Comments on some of the outcomes of the programme can be seen in a recent podcast:

Unemployed graduate sues College for failing to find her a job

Could it happen in the UK?

The Guardian reports that Trina Thompson, an unemployed graduate of Monroe College in New York, is suing the school for not working hard enough to find her a job:

Thompson claims Monroe College in New York’s Bronx borough should refund her $70,000 (£41,307) in tuition for a bachelor’s degree because she has been unable to find gainful employment since she graduated in April. She said the college promised career advice and job leads but has not followed through. “They have not tried hard enough to help me,” Thompson, who received a degree in information technology, wrote in her lawsuit.

All will no doubt be rich pickings for the lawyers.

The Mission Statement of the Centre for Career Development (CCD) here at the University of Nottingham is explicit about the fact that it is about helping students and graduates to help themselves. It reads as follows:

HELPING YOU DEVELOP YOUR CAREER
The Centre for Career Development exists to help students and graduates of the University of Nottingham to develop their careers by providing :

* careers advice & guidance
* access to part-time employment & work experience opportunities before you graduate
* information about opportunities for graduates
* graduate vacancies & contacts with employers who target the University of Nottingham
* programmes of awareness raising and skills development to enhance your employability

The CCD statement of service provided also makes it crystal clear that the Centre is not a recruitment agency. The same will be true at institutions across the UK.

Others in the HE system in the US have a different perspective to the disgruntled graduate (again from the Guardian report):

But many Americans who work in higher education are sceptical of Thompson’s claim. “I tell my students that the real goal of college is not to train you for a job,” commenter Larry C wrote on a message board of the Chronicle of Higher Education…. “If that is what you desire drop out right now and go down the street to the school of cosmetology.”

Although I would suspect “If you don’t like our service then try hairdressing” is unlikely to be adopted as a slogan by many university careers services on either side of the Atlantic.

(With thanks to John Horton for the prompt)

Mastering rhetoric

New MA in Rhetoric at the University of Central Lancashire

BBC News has a report on the new degree which, seems to be the first in the UK.

There are many similar courses in US universities and it is perhaps a bit surprising that no-one has pursued this idea before in this country. President Obama may have something to do with the sudden inspiration though:

“We want to promote the idea of considered debate rather than the soundbite,” says Dr Siebers. “Understanding rhetoric is important for citizens to be able to be function in a democracy,” he says.

At the moment, Barack Obama is the finest exponent of political rhetoric, says Dr Siebers. Wartime leader, Winston Churchill, was another great speech maker, he says. And in terms of written rhetoric, he says George Orwell was a “consummate user of rhetoric”.

It is also claimed that

the course will give students “a comprehensive understanding of the history, theory and current status of the field of rhetoric and will be able to apply rhetorical theory and skills in a critical and reflective manner”.

Handy. Should be a ticket to employability too: “the university says it will be useful for law, politics and teaching.”

(See also related post on the Beatles Masters degree)

“Top employers cut graduate jobs”

According to BBC Education, at least

But the survey quoted here reports a reduction in the number of vacancies compared to 2008 and a reduction against target:

There is further evidence of a tough graduate jobs market with a survey showing vacancies down 13.5% on 2008.
Research among the top 100 employers identified by graduates shows that the only area with significant growth was the armed forces – up 11%. As numbers of jobs have shrunk, firms have been getting more applicants for each – a third more than last year. High Fliers Research, which carried out the survey, said employers had cut recruitment targets by 28%. Employers have recruited 14,370 graduates to join their payrolls – against an original target of 19,951. Last year, there were 16,614 graduates recruited.

Yes, it is the most challenging time to be a graduate in the jobs market at the moment and it is going to be really tough for a lot of this year’s cohort, leaving university in the middle of the worst recession for generations. You have to feel a huge amount of sympathy. But the government is, to its credit, trying to mitigate some of the effects, at least in the short run, through internship opportunities etc.

However, if the general media reporting on this issue were to be believed, you would think that there were no graduate jobs available at all anywhere in the country. This simply is not the case, although the position is undoubtedly worse than in previous years, and the way this issue is reported doesn’t help.

The Guardian carries a similar report.

New internships for graduates this summer

Government launches ‘Graduate Talent Pool’ which is intended to boost opportunities for graduates.

A new dedicated website, which will match employers with suitable graduates will be launched over the summer, although interested organisations can register their interest in becoming part of the Graduate Talent Pool today online at www.dius.gov.uk/graduatetalentpool. Businesses that have already signed up to the Talent Pool include Network Rail, the Police Service, Marks and Spencer and Microsoft. During the current economic downturn the Government is looking to support graduates seeking work. The aim is for the ‘Graduate Talent Pool’ to support 5,000 internships, building on the 2,000 already achieved through HEFCE’s Economic Challenge Investment Fund and will sit alongside other additional graduate opportunities…

Meanwhile, the University of Nottingham has won a share of the Economic Challenge Investment Fund and with match funding from the University and local businesses this will:

provide £1m for the Centre for Career Development (CCD), the Institute of Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI) and the Graduate School to deliver the ‘Talent Builder’ project. The project will offer internships to graduates, post-graduates and unemployed professionals. It will also offer a recession proofing programme to strengthen current businesses and support new start-up companies.

So, although prospects are reported as being rather gloomy for graduates, substantial efforts are being made by DIUS and universities and these internship opportunities should make a difference.

Graduates preparing for work (where available)

From the BBC:

Students should get work experience to boost their chances of getting jobs in the downturn, the head of the CBI says. Richard Lambert says students must get skills and first-hand experience of work while still at university.

In launching the report with Universities UK on preparing graduates for the world of work, Lambert said competition for jobs in 2009 will be particularly intense. The report, ‘Future Fit’, also includes a survey of graduate recruiters and HE institutions. As the BBC says:

Of the 581 recruiters surveyed for the report, 78% rated employability skills, such as team working, as essential. And of the 80 higher education institutions which responded to the report’s survey, 91% thought it likely or highly likely their graduates would acquire five out of the seven desired employability skills while at university.

Those employability skills in full:

Self-management
Team working
Business and customer awareness
Problem solving
Communication and literacy
Application of numeracy
Application of information technology

But also an entrepreneurial approach and a ‘can do’ attitude are valued by employers. Without wishing at all to be cynical It is possible that we could have guessed the content of the list without the survey though. Moreover, universities are unlikely to suggest that their graduates aren’t, by and large, going to acquire these skills.

It’s an interesting report and highlights the value which students and their future employers can get from developing such skills further – especially when the learning is accredited. It also notes the difficulties for both universities and SMEs of pursuing this agenda with companies which are smaller.

Suspect the survey behind the report was undertaken before the economy fell off a cliff but it is helpful nevertheless and arguably even more relevant.