April 2011
Contents
Countdown to Conference - Last chance for the Early Bird price
FACE seminars prior to the "Access Summit"
Workspace students have it covered!
FACE Chair speaks at AOC conference
What else is in the News? Other sources of education news online
Countdown to FACE 2011 - Last chance for the early bird price
“Lifelong Learning and Community Development”
Wednesday 29th June – Friday 1st July 2011
Register before 30th April to take advantage of the Early Bird reduction! Download Full details and registration form (pdf) Registration for the conference can be paid for by cheque or credit card/debit card.
Hosted by the Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning (CR&DALL) at the University of Glasgow, the keynote speakers for this year's event are:
Professor Andy Furlong, University of Glasgow
Professor Wendy Purcell, University of Plymouth
Professor Catherine Hoppers, University of South Africa
Professor Keith Popple, London South Bank University
The four key themes of the conference are:
1. Higher Education provision and its contribution to community development: contributions may be economic, social, health-related, environmental or cultural, or a combination of one or more of these. ‘Community’ in this context may vary from one small discrete group through to a whole region.
2. Aimhigher and its Legacy: whilst this is a particular concern in England, papers are invited also from other parts of the world where there are similar initiatives: these may take the form of reflective pieces from an external perspective.
3. The role of Qualifications Frameworks and Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) within community settings.
4. Universities and their regional and local role within contracting economies.
Be an early bird - Register Today
FACE seminars prior to the "Access Summit"
"Can universities still widen access?" was the absorbing title for the most recent seminar organised by FACE, this time in collaboration with the London WECAN Aimhigher partnership on the 25th March at the University of Westminster.
Two stimulating keynote contributions came from Professor Peter Bush, PVC at the University of Northampton and Tom Levison, Head of Widening Participation, University of Cambridge. These were followed by three excellent workshops led by Michael Hill, Director of Academic Development, Kingston University, Liz Marr, Director of the Centre for Widening Participation, Open University and Annette Hayton, Head of Widening Particpation, Goldsmiths University.
Taken together with the rich debate from delegate participants all this contributed to a great seminar. The issues arising from this and our other recent seminar at the University of Liverpool on 16th March will feed directly into the FACE Access Summit event that is currently in the planning stage for Autumn 2011.
If you would like to co-organise a seminar with FACE on issues around access and widening particpation to HE, then please contact the chair at j.storan@uel.ac.uk
Workspace students have it covered!
A hot piece of news via Pete Jones (chief editor of the conference proceedings for 2010) is that the cover for this forthcoming publication have now been received from the workspace graphic design project at the University of Technology Durban in South Africa. The book cover has been designed and produced by graduate students at workspace as part of their professional work experience.
FACE has developed close links with the workspace project and so it is a particular delight that the cover for our publication from last year's conference at Southampton Solent University (which, as usual, will be launched at this year's conference at the University of Glasgow) has been designed by them. So keep a special look out for the wonderful design work of some very talented workspace students.
FACE Chair speaks at AOC conference
FACE Chair John Storan represented FACE at the recent conference on higher education in further education institutions held by the Association of Colleges and entitled ‘New Landscape New opportunities’. In his contribution to the conference John highlighted in particular the emerging role that large corporations are beginning to have in giving financial support for access to HE projects as public funding decreases for such work.
Other speakers included David Willetts, Secretary of State for Education and Anthony McClaren, Head of QAA.
Other Notices
- The Guardian online has a list of university tuition fees 2012-2013 from those institutions who have so far announced their intended fees (subject to OFFA). Follow this link then scroll down their page to "data summary".
- Over half of final year students at 24 universities in England say they would not have gone to university if their tuition fees had been £9,000 - see High Flyers Research
SEEC Seminar - “An introduction to credit and credit frameworks”
10.30am – 3pm, June 2nd 2011
Clore Seminar Room, Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London, E1 7NT
The use of credit to define learning has become widespread with a wealth of reference points including the FHEQ, Dublin descriptors, the QCF, SEEC level descriptors. This session is designed to introduce credit and its uses in HE settings. This seminar is designed for staff working in HE, FE, Awarding Organisations, Sector Skills Councils, and Professional Associations who are new or relatively new to credit, credit frameworks and their uses.
Participants will gain an understanding of Credit and its definition;
UK and European frameworks for credit; The role of the SEEC descriptors;
The uses of credit;
Institutional policies and their variations;
Topical issues in credit and its use.
Facilitators: Mark Atlay is Director of Teaching and Learning at the University of Bedfordshire and is the current Chair of SEEC. He has twenty years experience of the use of credit and credit frameworks in HE. Angela Joyce is the Senior Manager for Policy and Strategy at the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA). She has worked in education all her working life, initially as a teacher and teacher educator, then for the Open College Network in Kent and Medway and the National Open College Network, moving to the Sector Skills Council, Lifelong Learning UK, in 2005, where she led on the development of the new professional standards and credit based qualifications for teachers in the FE sector in England.
SEEC Members/Member organisations £60.00
Non-members £95.00
To book a place for this event, please visit the SEEC website
What else is in the News?
For the latest UK Education headlines and stories go to the FACE News Feeds page where you'll find the online news feeds of several of the sources listed below gathered together on one page for easy access.
The Department of Education news page http://www.education.gov.uk/news
The Guardian http://education.guardian.co.uk
The Independent http://news.independent.co.uk/education
The BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/default.stm
The Times Higher Education http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk
This is the April 2011 eBulletin from FACE (the Forum for Access and Continuing Education), offered to practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and others with an interest in access, widening participation and lifelong learning. The eBulletin is sent to colleagues in the sector, members and non-members alike. If you would prefer not to receive it, please contact James.Tate@uwe.ac.uk and your details will be removed from the circulation list.
If you wish to respond to anything in this eBulletin or contribute to the May 2011 issue, please email Jim at James.Tate@uwe.ac.uk