‘I am always curious as to how students might react to what I have been trying to do’ I was somewhat sceptical when student feedback forms were first introduced, back in the Jurassic days before email. Not many students could be bothered to collect a physical form and fill it in, and some of those […] … learn more→

When high school teachers in Camdenton, Missouri, read about how personal protective equipment for health care workers was in short supply due to the COVID-19 outbreak – and how anyone with a 3D printer could help fill the void – they sprung into action. The educators asked their fellow teachers at Camdenton Middle School, which had already secured 3D […] … learn more→

Being a part-time doctoral researcher is hard. Part-timers are generally already in work, professionals, “mature”, doing the doctorate to upgrade quals and/or further an interest. There’s a lot of part-time in my field of education, and in other areas like law, nursing, social work, business. Part-timers often self-fund. Getting the doctorate done part-time generally takes […] … learn more→

Given the unstoppable advance of COVID-19 and its worldwide expansion, one of the first measures fell directly on the classrooms. From one day to the next, the approximately 10 million students in Spain, according to data from the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training , stayed at home. And along with that educational lock, the first doubts arose, […] … learn more→

The loss of international students due to COVID-19 restrictions, and predicted second semester declines, will see universities lose between A$3 and 4.5 billion, according to Universities Australia. The higher education sector was dealt another blow this week when the government said universities wouldn’t get the increased access to the A$130bn JobKeeper fund for registered charities. Universities estimate more than 21,000 […] … learn more→

Deciding how to carry on with your PhD in a pandemic  is a classic ‘wicked problem’ with no right or wrong answer. No doubt there will be pros and cons both ways. While it is tempting, especially if you are on a paid scholarship, to stay in your program, delays you might face now might […] … learn more→

As the Covid-19 pandemic expands across the globe, the cancellation of academic conferences may not seem a top concern. But for those involved in organising or contributing to a conference it can be devastating to see their work wasted. In 2019 the Educational Developers’ Caucus in Canada changed the traditional face-to-face format of our annual […] … learn more→

When the UK government talks – as it often does – about its desire to crack down on what it terms “low quality courses”, it is really talking about courses with low graduate earnings. But a recent article in Times Higher Education suggested that a better alternative might be to introduce some form of national […] … learn more→

According to government figures, students from deprived backgrounds are 41 per cent less likely to attend the UK’s top universities, while apprentices are twice as likely to come from the most deprived backgrounds as university students. There are different ways of looking at these statistics. On the one hand, since the proliferation of apprenticeship schemes […] … learn more→

Probably the phrase “Stay at home” is one of the ones that we will have heard, repeated and read the most in recent days, referring to the quarantine period imposed by the Spanish authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This measure has beneficial preventive effects on health. However, due to precedents in other countries , adverse psychological outcomes […] … learn more→