Farewell FDF

FDF (Foundation Degree Forward) is set to close at the end of July. Those involved in developing and delivering Foundation Degrees will be aware of the help, support, advice and encouragement provided by FDF over the years. The achievement of the target of 100,000 learners enrolled on Foundation Degrees demonstrates the success of the qualification and its ability to provide attractive learning opportunities to a wide range of people. FDF has done a great job in spearheading this development and, like many others, I 'd like to thank all those involved in the organisation for this.

Journal articles on placements and experiential learning

IPED – the International Political Education Database – is a new online bibliographic resource that lists peer-review journal articles relating to teaching, learning and assessment in politics, international relations, public administration and related fields. It includes a sub-section relating to ‘Service learning, Placement Learning and Internships’ and another to ‘experiential learning’, both of which should be of interest to readers of this blog.

Policing Conference

There is a call for paper for the 2011 Higher Education Forum for Learning and Development in Policing conference on “Police Learning: Professionalisation and Partnerships” scheduled for 6-7th September 2011 at The University of Northampton. The conference may be of particular interest to those exploring the implications of the recent Neyroud Review of Police Leadership and Training review Conference themes include:
• Inter professional education and multi-disciplinary policing practice
• Comparative policing: A UK-wide perspective
• Designing and delivering a new professional police service
• Professional policing : meanings, myths and opportunities
• Equality & diversity: In the context of HEI and Force partnerships
• Lessons from the front line. Student officers experience of HE and the relevance to policing practice

For further details on the conference and call for paper contact polcon2011@northampton.ac.uk

PSA Conference - London 2011

The Political Studies Association Annual Conference takes place in London next week. I will be chairing a panel on ‘Politics as a Professional Education’ which will include papers from Katherine Brown (Kings, London) on ‘A Learning Institution? The politics of Professional Military Education’ and Brid Quinn (Limerick) on ‘Reflection and research: reflection on research’. Other papers that are also of particular interest to those interested in work-based and experiential learning and the social sciences are Sarah Hale (Birkbeck, London) ‘Workplace Politics: Foundation Degrees in Local Government and the Public Sector’, David Bates (Canterbury Christchurch)‘Teaching Engagement’ and Annabel Kiernan (Manchester Met) ‘Connecting communities: Community Engagement and the Big Society at MMU’

New Journal

Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning is a new peer-reviewed journal of UVAC. In the first issue John Hayes MP, the Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, provides a welcoming comment and there are articles from authors based in Britain, Ireland and the United States that give the issue an international feel. The second issue is also available online and has another strong set of papers. I should declare an interest as I am a member of the editorial board, but can assure you that I would be promoting it even if I was not.

Citizenship and Politics

The latest issue of the Journal of Political Science Education (JPSE) is a special issue on Youth, citizenship and Political Science Education. Many of the articles raise issues that relate to experiential and work-based learning in the context of politics - but will also be of interest to others in the social sciences.

Higher Skills, Global Economy

As part of the Politics after Leitch project, we undertook some research into how the agenda for higher education related to broader changes in the global economy. Andrew Gunn (University of Leeds) and I developed this into an article entitled 'Higher skills and the knowledge economy: the challenge of offshoring', which I am pleased to say has just been published in the OECD's journal Higher Education Management and Policy. The paper considers the extent to which offshoring challenges some of the assumptions of policy makers and considers a number of strategies that might be pursued by higher education institutions.

Managing work-based learning

As noted in previous posts, successfully developing and managing work-based learning continues to be identified as a challenging area for higher education institutions. A recent publication by members of the PVC Employer Engagement Special Interest Group entitled University management of work-based learning provides a range of insights into how different institutions have addressed some of the challenges. The report is edited by Freda Tallantyre, published by the Higher Education Academy and well worth a read.