HE Scotland's Friday Round-Up (21/08/2009)

Notable stories appearing on the HE Scotland Twitter feed in the last seven days included...

In policy and funding news:

• This week's big story was Thursday's A-level results. In response to increased demand for places and the 27th annual rise in the proportion of students achieving A grades, The Guardian's headline warned 50,000 A-level students to miss out on place at university. Meanwhile, the Russell Group called for additional funding claiming the high demand had "demolished" the persistent myth that tuition fees would put students off higher education and Million+ stated there was 'a serious mismatch between demand for places and supply'. UCU also took the opportunity to comment and lamented the government's failed widening participation agenda.
• Earlier in the week, it was graduate employment which made the news as HESA released annual figures on graduate destinations. The Sunday Times focused on Robert Gordon and Edinburgh Napier universities' high graduate employment rates and The Sun similarly focused on Oxbridge's less impressive performance compared to newer universities. The Guardian, however, took its lead from HESA and chose to report that women graduates were more likely to be working than their male peers.
• There were questions as to whether the pressure for places combined with the widening participation agenda had led to some trying to cheat the system, with The Telegraph claiming students were lying about their family backgrounds to win university places and The University of Edinburgh mentioned in a similar article in The Mail.
• Elsewhere The Times ran a story about universities' use of Twitter; the Scottish Funding Council announced additional funding for its voucher scheme to encourage universities to work with SMEs; a BBC report covered findings suggesting university sites did not meet the requirements of disabled students; the University of Dundee played a leading role in encouraging the V&A to commit to an outpost in the city; and the University of Aberdeen opened a new £28m sports facility in collaboration with the City Council.

In student news:

• Debt was a focus with the Publication of the Push Student Debt Survey.The Herald reported that Scottish students rack up £2,000 of debt for every year of study and The BBC reported that new students face a total debt of £23,000. The UCU ttok the finding as an opportunity to comment on an anticipated rise in fees south of the border and claimed any such increase was about as popular as the poll tax.
• NUS released figures from their 2009 Student Experience Research revealing hidden course costs. The report's findings were covered by The Guardian which led with the fact that maths and computer science were the costliest degrees.
• In the face of the gloom over money, there was, at least, some more positive news to be found in the Push survey, with The BBC reporting that one in five graduates in the UK have settled down with someone they met at university, and The Scotsman noting the important role that a network of student friends can play in graduates' careers.
• Students at the University of the Highland and Islands Millennium Institute began a series of historic graduation ceremonies, with The BBC and covering the news in brief.
• In student sports news, Robert Gordon University equestrians represented Great Britain in France and the University of Edinburgh announced the equivalent of signing up Chris Hoy for the cycling team when it revealed that Scottish captain & GB Olympian, Graham Moodie, would become the player-coach of its men's hockey team.

In research news:

• The Scottish Government announced funding for the Scottish European Green Energy Centre to be based at the University of Aberdeen, with the story being picked up by The Herald.
• The Herald also covered Scottish researchers' role in contributing to the development of programmes for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch.
• After last week's news about stress ageing sheep, the University of Edinburgh turned its attention to deer, announcing that stags' descent into old age occurs much more quickly than that of does and inspired the headline "In a rut: old age is taking it toll on Scotland’s amorous stags".
• However, this week's most media friendly story was that of a Harry Potter inspired St Andrews University physicist's funding for research in the 'tantalising' field of invisibility. Unsurprisingly this was covered widely, including pieces by The BBC, The Telegraph, and an Express story on 'The Professor of Magic'.
• Meanwhile staff at the University of Aberdeen might have wanted access to Professor Leonhardt's technology as the visit of HRH, The Countess of Wessex, to meet sight saving researchers at the University's medical school was overshadowed when the royal guest became stuck in a lift.

As usual, we finish with the the best sector media release title of the week. This from the University of Edinburgh gets an honourable mention :

• Monarch of the Glen slips quickly into old age, suggests University of Edinburgh study

But the University of St Andrews carries off the crown for the sheer bravado of the following:

• 'Invisibility' two years away

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Mandelson - universities 'are not factories for producing workers'

When Lord Mandelson made his first major speech on the topic of higher education at Birkbeck University on Monday, commentary understandably focused on hints that the limit on the cap on the level of tuition fees English universities can charge might be raised. Whilst the UCU suggested higher fees would be less popular than the poll tax, The Herald asked what such a move might mean for Scotland and reported the Scottish Government's continued line against fees.

Away from the headlines and in the context of the economic downturn, Mandelson said some interesting things about the role of Universities in relation to jobs and the economy:

I need to be clear that I do not believe that the function of a university is limited to – or even primarily about - economic outcomes. They are not factories for producing workers. Defining the skills that directly underwrite many skilled jobs in the UK is not the same as defining useful and necessary knowledge.

Despite his other responsibility - for business - he chose to emphasise this partial disconnect between universities and private sector employers and look for the positive within this. He went on to say:

The case for a higher education system that invests in everything from classics to quantum physics is a compelling one.

I say this not just because the utility in knowledge is often impossible to predict. It is because knowledge is an end in itself. Because historical awareness and critical thinking are part of the inventory of a rounded human being.

But also because character and economic competitiveness are actually rather hard to disentangle. If the modern economy is built on specialisms, it is also built on a raft of soft skills such as intellectual confidence, logical thinking, communication and working and collaborating in teams.

This is a considerably more subtle and more complex view of graduates' role in supporting economic growth than some others have attempted. It is not only more credible than the notion that all a degree should provide is a set of specialist skills which three, four, or five years later exactly match an employer's list of expectations, it is also a canny political move. It seems Mandelson is seeking to identify a narrative which in which business and higher education can perhaps agree more fully on the nature of their relationship than has necessarily always been the case hitherto. If by doing so he can avoid conflict between two potentially adversarial elements of of his sprawling ministerial portfolio, he will strengthen his already considerable departmental hand in the face of coming spending cuts.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, the narrative about students, graduates and jobs has been less theoretical and struck a more practical note. The discussion moved on from recent positive news that students graduating from Scottish universities last year had more success finding jobs than their counterparts exiting English institutions. The focus instead turned to current students and to an NUS Scotland survey suggesting a lack of vacation employment opportunities and the Union's concern about the potential impact on indebtedness and, as a consequence, drop-out rates.

At the weekend The Observer had outlined some alternatives this year's graduates might turn to whilst the job market remains poor and the Westminster government announced more substantive help in an effort to address potentially significant levels of unemployment amongst young people, including recent graduates. Time and the publiation of employment statistics will tell but, at present, it seems even if universities were to be regarded as 'factories for producing workers' the demand for such workers may be limited in the short term.

Jobs, Cats, Bats, & Robotic Monsters of the Deep: The Friday Round-Up (17/07/2009)

Notable stories appearing on the HE Scotland Twitter feed in the last seven days included:

In policy and funding news:

• The results of the annual Business & Community Interaction Survey were released with related commentary from the SFC, HEFCE and an interesting summary of Scottish HEIs' performance from the Scottish Government. HE Scotland's blog post on the results comments on the Scottish sector's strong relative performance and the backdrop of expected changes to SFC knowledge exchange funding
• UCU claimed job cuts at Stirling and Strathclyde universities threatened the Scottish HE sector's "proud reputation as a global leader in higher education." Responding in a BBC report, the Scottish Government pointed to its "£5.24bn investment in universities and colleges over three years"
• Exhortations calling for the UK higher education sector to model itself more closely on the US and develop an equivalent of the Ivy League featured in The Herald and the THE
• Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an announcement of additional places for University entry in 2009, but did not provide figures, nor clarify whether this would be a UK-wide measure. UCU gave a qualified welcome to the news - expect further developments and commentary on what this may mean for Scotland as details emerge over the coming days

In student news:

• HESA published performance indicators relating to graduate employment which indicated a rise in the number unemployed six months after graduation. UCU and the Russell Group commented on the figures in an article in The Times, whilst a piece in The Scotsman looked to the positive, noting that the employment figures for several Scottish universities were better than Oxbridge
• A former welsh youth international footballer made an immediate impact at Stirling, whilst one-time University of Edinburgh midfielder, Jamie Redman, turned professional with Arbroath and a Heriot-Watt graduate took her first UK title winning the 5,000 metres at the Aviva World Trials and UK Championships
• Abertay University launched ten new bursaries to commemorate its fifteenth anniversary
• In what was surely the headline writer's gift of the last seven days, students in Heriot-Watt's "Team Nessie" recorded a sub-aquatic robotic triumph at 'SAUC-E 2009'

In research news:

There were significant medical breakthroughs reported in relation to e-coli genetics (University of Dundee), a link between a low IQ and heart disease (Glasgow & Edinburgh universities), the relationship between obesity and complications during pregnancy (University of Edinburgh) and the DNA 'Swiss army knife' (University of Dundee).

When it wasn't the medics, it was the vets, with animals featuring prominently. More specifically, cats and bats both featured in research stories with Scottish links:

• A University of Edinburgh graduate's research into cats' plaintive appeals to their owners' parental instincts made national headlines
• News of two Aberdeen University researchers' experiments with radar to prevent bats meeting an unhappy ending on the blades of wind turbines was released on Thursday

Finally, the inaugural HE Scotland award for the best sector media release title of the last seven days saw a dead heat between the University of Glasgow and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama:

• Glasgow academics organise medieval roundtable event (Glasgow)
• T Time for Professor Phil (RSAMD)

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Follow HE Scotland on Twitter to keep pace with Scottish higher education news as it happens, or to register for e-mail alerts about future editions of the Friday Round-Up, simply e-mail "Subscribe" to HEScotland@gmail.com - your details will NOT be shared with third parties.