New kind of excellence by Maddalaine Ansell, CEO, University Alliance - University Alliance Summit 2015
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New kind of excellence presentation by Maddalaine Ansell, CEO, University Alliance at University Alliance Summit 2015, Anticipation. Disruption. Excellence. 4 June 2015 University of South Wales
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New kind of excellence by Maddalaine Ansell, CEO, University Alliance - University Alliance Summit 2015
- 1. Making the difference. Maddalaine Ansell, Chief Executive University Alliance
- 2. Source: HESA HE Statistics for UK 2013/14 and HEBCI 2012/13 University Alliance – who we are 19 universities 430k students (19% total) 21% of all UG students on STEM courses 43% of all sandwich courses 89% Employed or in further study 6 mths after leaving 71% growth in 3* and 4* research from 2009- 2015 31% graduate start-up turnover and jobs
- 3. “Comprehensive communities organised to serve their wide range of students and the growing needs of industry” University Alliance – proud of our past “We are all polytechnics now” 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 1979-80 1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 Proportion of students entering directly into employment Polytechnics Universities (Toby Weaver, 1964) (Peter Scott, 2012)
- 4. University Alliance – Making the Difference. Strongly engaged with Industry & Professions Links and connections that count Leaders in cities and regions Committed to fostering local strategies for growth Internationally connected Proactive and receptive in the global marketplace Research with impact Research that makes the difference High Quality Teaching Preparing students for a career in industry and the professions Professional Passionate EngagedCommittedConnected
- 5. University Alliance – Making the difference. Strongly engaged with Industry & Professions Links and connections that count Leaders in cities and regions Committed to fostering local strategies for growth Internationally connected Proactive and receptive in the global marketplace Research with Impact Research that makes the difference High Quality Teaching Preparing students for a career in industry and the professions Professional Passionate Engaged Committed Connected
- 6. High quality teaching "...fostering quality teaching presents higher education institutions with a range of challenges at a time when the higher education sector is coming under pressure from many different directions." (Fabrice Hénard and Deborah Roseveare, OECD, 2012) Limnoria – the wood-eating gribble, University of Portsmouth Photo by PhD student Laura Michie
- 7. Wave tank, Plymouth University Research with Impact “We therefore wish you to continue selectively to fund world-leading and internationally excellent research wherever it is found.” (Rt Hon Vince Cable MP, grant letter to Hefce, 2015) 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 0 25,000 50,000 75,000 100,000 125,000 150,000 RAE 2008 REF 2014 % Change Research Power between '08 and '14 University Alliance Pre-92 Universities
- 8. Engaged with industry and the professions “It is important for us a a global business that we have universities of the calibre of the University of South Wales within the area to support our business and the whole of the Welsh economy” (Rhys Williams – GE Aviation)
- 9. Leaders in cities and regions “We need our education system to support every single young person with their individual needs, not just to pass exams, but to become rounded and grounded people who can get on outside the school gates.” John Cridland, CBI
- 10. (Joanna Newman – Judge of Time Higher International Collaboration Awards ) “This project was really impressive in its scale – transforming the lives of 90,000 subsistence farmers….truly an international collaboration” Internationally connected
- 11. Name Job title, University Alliance “We can shape our future, or let events shape it for us. And if we want to succeed, we can't fall back on the stale debates and old divides that won't move us forward." (Barack Obama, 2009) Looking to the future The Liverpool Telescope, Liverpool John Moores University
Editor's Notes
- You will see from the logos that we have some really excellent universities: Coventry was voted modern university of the year 2015 by the Sunday Times University League Table and has moved up 12 places to be 15th in the Guardian League Table LJMU was the highest climber in the same league table – moving up 22 places to 58th Huddersfield was one of the big winners in REF2014 – increasing its Research Power five fold and moving 25 places up the power rankings Students and staff from Kingston, Sheffield Hallam, Coventry and Teesside all won top prizes at the Student Nursing Times Awards Manchester Metropolitan won Education Provider of the Year (pre-registration) Plymouth University won three Green Gown Awards in November 2014 for Enterprise, Courses and Learning, and Food and Drink – cementing its reputation as one of the most sustainability minded institutions in the country.
- They were hugely successful in widening participation both in numbers and types of people accessing higher education – particularly women, students from ethnic minorities, mature students and those without traditional entry qualifications. There strong focus on the subjects employers wanted – often taught by people with industry experience – meant that a higher proportion of their graduates than those from universities entered employment, particularly in engineering and manufacturing. They were hugely successful – described by John McGregor the Conservative Secretary of State for Education as “one of the country’s major education success stories” in 1990 In 1992, the Conservative government passed the Further and Higher Education Act which removed the binary university/polytechnic system and made polytechnics into universities. But it could also be argued that universities had already been turned into polytechnics. They had been challenged to think about their own role in preparing people for the modern workplace and adapted their own curricula and teaching methods and increased their engagement with the businesses around them. We need to keep acting as innovators within the sector and keep challenging it to innovate and adapt.
- This case study comes from Portsmouth University. Professor John McGeehan is conducting research on gribbles – marine creatures that eat wood and cause damage to wooden structures underwater. He discovered that they produce an enzyme that digests wood and has identified applications in the biofuels industry. Like many researchers, he is hugely enthusiastic about his subject has passed on this enthusiasm to his team – which includes undergraduates, an Mphil and two PhD students (one co-funded by Diamond Light Source and one co-funded by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory). They are not only making new discoveries – but they are working with the biofuels industry so that they have immediate impact. It’s an Alliance university combining research excellence with high quality teaching with engagement with industry – and using all this to forge international connections. And in a way that makes a real impact. So what’s the challenge going forward? It is for us to get involved in the current thinking about demonstrating teaching excellence. Demonstrating learning gain. It’s an area that could really play to our strengths. And we need to demonstrate that the answer is not courses that only teach the limited knowledge and skills for a particular job – but courses that teach people not only how to learn but also how to discover, innovate and translate their learning to the real world.
- This is a picture of a new wave tank at Plymouth university. It is used both by students at Plymouth university and hired out to local businesses for their own R&D. It’s in high demand. If there isn’t a slot available for a business to use the wave pool from the slots reserved for business, the university will let them have a student slot – as long as they involve a PhD student at Plymouth in their R&D project This very frequently leads not only to a great university-business collaboration but to a long-term job for the student. So this is another example of an Alliance university combing research excellence with teaching and with engagement with industry and the professions. I’m now going to show a short video showcasing Alliance research excellence.
- This is a picture of engineering students at the University of South Wales. They have the opportunity to participate in an internship programme run by GE Aviation – a company that repairs aircraft engines for customers like Emirates, British Airways, Qatar and EasyJet. This is, of course, great for students – many of whom go on to find work with GE Aviation But it’s also great for the company – because it finds the skills it needs locally And for South Wales because it provides an option for skilled young people to find graduate work in the area – so they stay and bring up their families adding to the economic growth and vibrancy of the region.
- This is a picture of the Lincoln Engineering Hub – a partnership between University of Lincoln and Siemens Industrial Turbo-machinery Limited The vice-chancellor of Lincoln University sits on the Greater Lincolnshire Local Economic Partnership and helped formulate the growth strategy – the Strategic Economic Partnership - for the region – which included strengthening engineering capability. They are also helping to deliver this strategy – not only by creating a partnership with Siemens which provides state of the art engineering training – but also by investing in a new school of mathematics and physics – developed with industrial partners – which opened last year. Again an example of how our strengths in excellent teaching, engagement with industry and regional leadership combine to give us our particular character. This brings me onto the topic of widening participation: We don’t do widening participation because we can’t attract the brightest middle class students. We do it because it is the biggest contribution we can make to our cities and regions. And we do it really well because we understand that the many and not just the few must have the opportunity to develop the skills the economy needs. But the funding that supports this is under threat in the tough CSR. We must make the argument that, while universities contribute to economic growth in many ways, one of the most important is that their role in providing a skilled workforce to their regions. This has been described to me as “innovation on legs”. The Student Opportunity Fund is a really important source of income for supporting this activity – and we shouldn’t just give up on it.
- This is a picture of African cassava farmers. In November last year, Greenwich won the Times Higher International Collaboration Award for its work with five African countries to develop new cassava-based products (such as high quality flour and glue for the paper making industry) that would bring in more money for cassava farmers and create new jobs at different stages of the supply chain. It has also attracted significant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is an example of how an Alliance University has used its expertise in working with small and medium sized businesses and it’s understanding of supply chains to support five countries to develop a new industry. Alliance Universities have a whole range of international connections – they attract large numbers of international students and offer TNE; their researchers collaborate with peers all over the world; they attract inward investment to their regions.
- So let’s summarise the challenges: Research excellence must be funded wherever it is found – we must keep fighting this battle! We must champion teaching excellence and demonstrate that this is not separate from research excellence but that research enriches teaching. Nevertheless – we need to find a way to do this that fits in with government priorities around technical degrees/degree apprenticeships/vertical trusts. This should be possible because our ideas are right and we can demonstrate that it already works. Redefine the terms of the widening participation debate. It’s not about getting a few bright state school kids into the universities that top the league tables. Nor are universities that focus on widening participation doing it because they can’t attract middle class kids with great A-level results. Rather it’s offering kids from a wide range of backgrounds a world-class education experience – giving them good IAG so they choose the right course for them and supporting them through their university career and measuring it by their success once they leave. If we can do all of this, we will continue to be the institutions that really deliver excellence for our regions and the country.