0700 Get up in my hotel room in London to write yesterday's blog and to deal with e-mails from yesterday afternoon.
0800 Breakfast with my co-chair of the HEA network, and with the HEA organisers to discuss the network.
0845 Leave the hotel to travel by Underground to Imperial College.
0930 My 'senior academic woman mentee' (Prof Anne Peat) and I have a very good meeting with Professor Julia Buckingham, who is Pro-Rector for Education at Imperial - and a Sheffield graduate (in APS). We have a good discussion around women in academia. There is some good practice at Imperial that we can learn from.
1015 Taxi back to Congress House for the HEA PVC Network meeting that I am co-chairing.
1100 The meeting starts with me chairing the morning session on 'evidence-based enhancement', discussing the ways that we can use evidence such as the National Student Survey, and the two postgraduate surveys (taught and research) to infleucne our thinking on what needs improvement. The first speaker is on video link rather than present - which is unfortunate since there are many things in his presentation that people would wish to challenge. The other two speakers provide interesting materials for discussion and I have to cut the panel short before lunch. Lunch provides a good networking opportunity, and I have a long convesration with Adrian Smith - now of DBIS but formerly VC of Queen Mary in London, and recently chair of the review of postgraduate education - who is to be the afternoon speaker.
1400 Adrian Smith presents his take on his postgraduate review for DBIS, emphasising how little we actually know about who actually does postgraduate work.
1430 Anne Peat and I have to leave befroe the end of Adrian's talk (fortunately my co-chair is in charge this afternoon) to get a taxi to St Pancras for the 1455 train north. We ruminate on the role of PVC, and the diary commitments, en route.
1704 Arrival at Sheffield. Collect my car from the multistorey car park, and drive to the Ridge (Ranmoor Village) where an alumni and donor event is about to take place.
1745 Catch up with the Alumni team, and with the main person of the evening at Ranmoor - Richard Mayson who is to run a wine tasting event. I taught Richard when he was a student in my department (Geography) in the early 1980s, and he has since gone on to establish a position as Britain's permier writert on Portuguese wines (including port itself). He is a strong supporter of the University since he credits us with giving him his entry inot his future carre through supporting him financially to undertake his dissertation research in Portugal. at 1930 I introduce him to the group of donors assembled for the wine tasting, and then return to the University by car.
1900 The 2010 Students Union Awards. This is a 'first', involving the Union organising awards for teaching staff of the university to recognise the worth that students place on them. It has largely been organised by Holly Taylor, the Education Officer, who has put a huge amount of work in. She has asked me to make a speech and to present three of the awards. I find this a genuinely moving occasion, bringing together the students and the staff of the university to celebrate excellent teaching. Winners are enthusiastically cheered, and those who have been shortlisted bask in the glow of knowing that their work is appreciated. Winners are asked to make brief acceptance speeches, and several of them manage to encapsulate in a few words the joys of teaching, of supporting learners, and of believing in what we are trying to do as a university. Everyone has dressed up, and there is a genuinely celebratory feel in the air. This was a great event, with a tremendous sense of 'togetherness' involving everyone present. Earlier on today, at the HEA meeting, I had observed that in my view one of the crucial developments of the last few years the increasing sense of the engagement of students in their own learning - rather than 'us' teaching 'them' there is increasing evidence of 'them' (the students) setting their own learning goals and finding new ways of achieving them, and thus teaching 'us' en route. This evening reinforced that, showing how students can constructively engage with staff to let us know what works for them. Perhaps that is better than all the surveys that I heard discsused during my morning. It was good to end the day on a high.
2000 Leave for home. And later in the evening, catch up with e-mails, and write this blog.
0800 Breakfast with my co-chair of the HEA network, and with the HEA organisers to discuss the network.
0845 Leave the hotel to travel by Underground to Imperial College.
0930 My 'senior academic woman mentee' (Prof Anne Peat) and I have a very good meeting with Professor Julia Buckingham, who is Pro-Rector for Education at Imperial - and a Sheffield graduate (in APS). We have a good discussion around women in academia. There is some good practice at Imperial that we can learn from.
1015 Taxi back to Congress House for the HEA PVC Network meeting that I am co-chairing.
1100 The meeting starts with me chairing the morning session on 'evidence-based enhancement', discussing the ways that we can use evidence such as the National Student Survey, and the two postgraduate surveys (taught and research) to infleucne our thinking on what needs improvement. The first speaker is on video link rather than present - which is unfortunate since there are many things in his presentation that people would wish to challenge. The other two speakers provide interesting materials for discussion and I have to cut the panel short before lunch. Lunch provides a good networking opportunity, and I have a long convesration with Adrian Smith - now of DBIS but formerly VC of Queen Mary in London, and recently chair of the review of postgraduate education - who is to be the afternoon speaker.
1400 Adrian Smith presents his take on his postgraduate review for DBIS, emphasising how little we actually know about who actually does postgraduate work.
1430 Anne Peat and I have to leave befroe the end of Adrian's talk (fortunately my co-chair is in charge this afternoon) to get a taxi to St Pancras for the 1455 train north. We ruminate on the role of PVC, and the diary commitments, en route.
1704 Arrival at Sheffield. Collect my car from the multistorey car park, and drive to the Ridge (Ranmoor Village) where an alumni and donor event is about to take place.
1745 Catch up with the Alumni team, and with the main person of the evening at Ranmoor - Richard Mayson who is to run a wine tasting event. I taught Richard when he was a student in my department (Geography) in the early 1980s, and he has since gone on to establish a position as Britain's permier writert on Portuguese wines (including port itself). He is a strong supporter of the University since he credits us with giving him his entry inot his future carre through supporting him financially to undertake his dissertation research in Portugal. at 1930 I introduce him to the group of donors assembled for the wine tasting, and then return to the University by car.
1900 The 2010 Students Union Awards. This is a 'first', involving the Union organising awards for teaching staff of the university to recognise the worth that students place on them. It has largely been organised by Holly Taylor, the Education Officer, who has put a huge amount of work in. She has asked me to make a speech and to present three of the awards. I find this a genuinely moving occasion, bringing together the students and the staff of the university to celebrate excellent teaching. Winners are enthusiastically cheered, and those who have been shortlisted bask in the glow of knowing that their work is appreciated. Winners are asked to make brief acceptance speeches, and several of them manage to encapsulate in a few words the joys of teaching, of supporting learners, and of believing in what we are trying to do as a university. Everyone has dressed up, and there is a genuinely celebratory feel in the air. This was a great event, with a tremendous sense of 'togetherness' involving everyone present. Earlier on today, at the HEA meeting, I had observed that in my view one of the crucial developments of the last few years the increasing sense of the engagement of students in their own learning - rather than 'us' teaching 'them' there is increasing evidence of 'them' (the students) setting their own learning goals and finding new ways of achieving them, and thus teaching 'us' en route. This evening reinforced that, showing how students can constructively engage with staff to let us know what works for them. Perhaps that is better than all the surveys that I heard discsused during my morning. It was good to end the day on a high.
2000 Leave for home. And later in the evening, catch up with e-mails, and write this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment