January 2011
Contents
A series of FACE seminars in 2011 begins in March - Call for Workshops
News on this year's conference - Call for Papers and early bird registration
Speakers Corner Revisited - Report on 'Potential for HE' now available
Government Higher Education plans for 2011 - 2012
Vacancies in the Centre for Lifelong Learning at University of Glamorgan
What else is in the News? Other sources of education news online
FACE Seminars 2011 - Call for workshops
"Navigating the System: How Universities can
learn from Aimhigher to make outreach count"
Wednesday 16th March
The Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool
FACE is holding a series of seminars to inform the Access to Higher Education Summit event that will be taking place in May 2011. The Summit will provide the first real opportunity for a full debate about the changes and developments that are impacting so extensively on access to and participation in Higher Education.
A series of three seminars will be held focusing on different aspects of the changing shape of access to HE prior to the Summit in May. The outputs from each seminar will feed directly into the programme for the Summit and bring together practitioners, policy makers, funders, researchers and many others concerned with the future for Higher Education access.
Aimhigher Greater Merseyside will host the first seminar in the series, exploring how the impact and legacy of Aimhigher can inform the new landscape of Widening Participation.
"Aimhigher has assisted universities and schools to learn a lot about what works in raising the aspirations of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, but we now need to use this knowledge to make much faster progress on social mobility." (David Willets, 25 Nov 2010)
We would therefore like to invite workshops contributions that can inform and develop the debate around the issues of widening participation. We especially want to hear the voices of schools, Further Education colleges, Universities and the wider community about how Aimhigher has supported, developed and improved their understanding of the widening participation agenda. As we move into a new era, putting the emphasis on Higher Education institutions to deliver interventions that increase social mobility, it is vitally important to listen, hear and learn from successful and effective practice and build on this.
Workshops should last no longer than 45 minutes with a 15 minute presentation and 30 minutes for discussion.
Download details of this event
Deadline for submissions is Friday 28th January 2011.
For further information please contact Deirdre Lynskey at d.lynskey@liverpool.ac.uk or telephone 0151 794 5843.
News on this year's conference - FACE 2011 in Glasgow!
“Lifelong Learning and Community Development”
Wednesday 29th June – Friday 1st July 2011
Hosted by the Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning (CR&DALL) at the University of Glasgow.
Download Full details, registration and submissions forms (pdf)
Keynote Speakers
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
Call For Papers
FACE is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for its 2011 annual conference. We invite contributions in the form of papers and roundtable discussions. In both cases these may be research-based, practice-based, or a combination of both, but in all cases should exhibit good scholarship and be suitable for publication. A roundtable should consist of between 3 and 5 linked contributions, and will be allocated a longer slot for presentation equivalent to that for 4 papers. In the first instance, contributions should be submitted within one of the four broad themes of the conference.
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 Llearning (APL) within community settings.
4. Universities and their regional and local role within contracting economies.
Abstracts and Full Papers
Download Full details, registration and submissions forms (pdf)
Abstracts of up to 200 words (in the case of roundtables up to 1000 words) should be sent via the submission form by 28th March 2011. These should include the theme under which the abstract is submitted, names and designations of author(s) and the email of a primary contact. Those submitting will be informed whether the paper or roundtable has been accepted for presentation by 18th April 2011.
Full papers of no more than 4000 words should be submitted by 27th May 2011. These will be anonymously reviewed according to standard academic procedures and those accepted will appear in conference proceedings after the conference. If you would like to discuss potential submissions please contact CR&DALL at (0044) (0)141 330 1833 or at cradall@educ.gla.ac.uk
Registration
Bookings for the conference are available from Monday 24th January 2011
Download Full details, registration and submissions forms (pdf)
Registration for the conference can be paid for with cheque or credit card/debit card
Further details will be available on both the FACE and CR&DALL websites.
Speakers Corner Revisited - Report on 'Potential for HE' now available
"Who Might Benefit from Higher Education? Identifying Potential"
A year ago Steve Furness, Regional Manager of Aimhigher in the South West, contributed a Speakers Corner piece to the FACE eBulletin for December 2009 which mentioned a piece of research to be conducted on behalf of Aimhigher West into the question of how we should understand the concept of "having the potential to benefit from HE" and how this is put into practice by Aimhigher practitioners when selecting their cohort of Aimhigher participants.
Several readers of the FACE eBulletin contacted Steve to express their interest in reading the research report upon the completion of the research. This report is now available online at www.aimhighersw.ac.uk/research.html
Government HE plans for 2011 - 2012
Grant letter sets direction of travel but perhaps not destination
For FACE colleagues in England the grant letter to the HEFCE which arrived just before Christmas jointly from Vince Cable and David Willetts sets out what the government’s priorities are for 2011-12 including access and widening particpation to HE. To some extent the letter is a holding position as a White Paper is being prepared which will provide the detail.
Higher Education Funding for 2011 - 2012 and Beyond
There have been various reactions to this from FACE colleagues. Some have found it surprising that the government hadn’t thought out its plans for HE in such detail already after so many years in opposition in the same way that it has, say, for health. Other colleagues have commented on the fact that the top priority for targeted funding is to be supporting widening participation and fair access.
Perhaps the most directly relevant section of the letter for FACE is paragraph 6 which outlines the government’s approach and priorities for social mobiltity, fair access and widening participation which collectively are seen as a strategic objective for the HEFCE. Also worth noting is the legacy responsibility that is placed upon the HEFCE to manage the move away from Aimhigher towards what is describes as a new and improved approach to outreach.
John Storan, FACE Chair
Vacancies in the Centre for Lifelong Learning at University of Glamorgan
The Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Glamorgan has secured ESF funding to deliver a project called Digital Economy in the Heads of the Valleys (DEHOV) which is running under the Universities Heads of the Valleys Institute banner.
Glamorgan is currently recruiting 3 staff and is re-advertising the posts – details of these posts can be found at:
Employer Engagement Lecturers/Trainers *2: http://inform.glam.ac.uk/jobs/details/886/
Curriculum Coordinator: http://inform.glam.ac.uk/jobs/details/885/
Applications should be submitted by January 28th 2011.
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 January 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 February 2011 issue, please email Jim at James.Tate@uwe.ac.uk