Maddalaine’s article was commissioned by the British Council for its Going Global publication, Building Nations, Connecting Cultures published in May 2017. Find out more about this publication here. Introduction The concept of the ‘anchor university’ is now well established in the UK. Many universities, particularly those with an explicitly civic mission, recognize themselves as anchor institutions […]
If there’s anything guaranteed to get a politician to squirm, it’s asking whether they’re happy for the policies they’re advocating to be applied to their own children. Take outrage at Diane Abbott sending her son to private school, or the infamous scene of John Gummer forcing a burger on his daughter in a bid to […]
University Alliance submitted evidence to the House of Lords’ Economics of higher, further and technical education Inquiry. We do not recommend fundamental changes to system but there are some areas that need to be looked at again, such as restoring maintenance grants and considering changes to the student loan repayment regime. We also set out […]
The scale of capital investment made in the UK higher education estate over the last five years is staggering, with some £2.75bn spent in the 2014/15 financial year alone. This is expected to continue to increase in the immediate future as the sector anticipates the true impact of our leaving the European Union. A significant […]
Enterprise education, defined by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education as ‘the process of equipping students (or graduates) with an enhanced capacity to generate ideas and the skills to make them happen’,5 has been in existence in the UK for the past 40 years, and is becoming increasingly embedded in university curricula. The main […]
Although many Alliance universities only became universities in and after 1992, most grew out of institutions with a longer history. For example, the University of Huddersfield became a university in 1992, but its roots lie in the formation of the Young Men’s Mental Improvement Society in 1841, which, after merging with the Women’s Educational Institution, […]
From robots to animation, haptic technology to virtual reality, fashion design to curriculum design, our group of universities are transforming how students learn – and equally importantly, acquire the skills they need to thrive after graduation. Our Teaching Excellence Showcase at the British Academy last week illustrated Alliance universities’ distinctive model of professional and technical education, […]
Differential in-course progression, attainment and outcomes for different student groups are apparent across much of UK higher education. At Nottingham Trent University (NTU), the first systematic attempts to address this focused on interrogating centrally-held data to identify the scale of the issue and then sharing relevant reports with academic Schools and quality committees. The limitations […]
The education strategy at Coventry University has long been based on an enquiry-led approach to learning. The premise is that, whilst we all learn differently, most people learn best by being exposed to both theory and practice. Developing learning space, physical and intellectual, for practice can challenge the institution’s estate, the academic who moves from […]
Co-creation of education fosters a more democratic education system. It sits within a wider set of values about the role that education plays in society. Co-creation provides opportunities for students to develop their education on an equitable footing with academics and teachers; rather than merely to receive knowledge passively. To embed co-creation and meaningful student […]
