Box of delight

This blog was kindly contributed by Professor Randall Whittaker, Pro-Vice Chancellor Academic and Leeds Arts University. You can find Randall on Twitter @RandalWhittaker.

On Wednesday 21 April HEPI hosted the third webinar in a series with Advance HE on ‘How do we ensure equality in higher education in a pandemic?’. You can watch the recording here.

Over the years there have been numerous calls for action to abandon the divisive BAME term which have predictably not been heeded. I have previously argued that the homogenous term BAME is not only lazy but also problematic. Who exactly are you referring to when you use it? BAME has no nuance and the way it is being used impacts the lives of people of colour negatively; ‘BAME’ is being use to misrepresent the experience of Black and brown people and to mask inaction.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report published at the end of March this year, recommends that the term should be disaggregated. Although I support this recommendation it is concerning that in other parts of the report the Commission use disaggregation to explain differential outcomes between Black communities:

At over 200 pages and 50 recommendations, the Augar report does not disappoint as a meaty piece of policy work. It will take us some time to fully digest its many implications, the job of which we’ve started work on already and will involve the ideas and analysis of countless experts from inside and outside universities. I write this article having read it all the way through once, not having had sight of much of the underlying research or funding datasets. This is my hot take in which I am only able to cover a precious few specific aspects of the report – there’s a great deal more analysis to follow.

Friendships made in school play a special part in young people’s development. They are more than just moral support, friends help them learn key social skills, and serve as a source of social support. Close school friends also help young people develop a sense of importance, trust, acceptance and belonging within their school. Young people who are well appreciated and accepted by their friends are more likely to be happy and do well at school and more likely to develop positive friendships and relationships as adults. In fact, schools in the UK have been found to be the most important place for young people to make friends with others of their own age.

Jason Reynolds can empathize with kids who don’t like to read: He was 17 before he read a book cover to cover. It’s a fact he’s shared with thousands of kids in classrooms and auditoriums across the country, as a cautionary tale.

While the world changes at an unprecedented pace, education systems in most countries remain decades old, with today’s schools closely resembling those attended by our parents and grandparents. The changing job landscape, automation, and technology mean that students need to be prepared for jobs that might not yet exist, but most schools are struggling to stay up-to-date.

At Chicago's Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, Englewood Campus, 95% of the students enroll in college. Their graduating seniors have been accepted to a broad selection of schools, including Princeton, Georgetown, and Howard University.

In its 2019 manifesto, the Government pledged to strengthen universities’ and colleges’ civic role. Now, over a year on, it is right to ask how universities can prove their civic credentials and boost their ‘value-added’ to society in the process.

The advent of the Civic University Network and the ambition that universities around the country should create Civic University Agreements have clearly helped us to recognise the important role that universities play in civic engagement and the development of the communities in which they are based. Yet, little did we know that this role would be tested and challenged as much as it has been over the last year.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of the university as part of the local community has become more starkly and immediately obvious and has often come under scrutiny, not least during the ‘return to campus’ in the autumn, which raised tensions over students importing and spreading the virus.

On Sept. 5, 2017, Hurricane Irma hit landfall in the Caribbean island of Barbuda, wreaking indescribable havoc. Half of the population was left homeless as 95 percent of the buildings were destroyed.

Two days later, I listened as Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Barbuda, was interviewed by the BBC. Speaking in the restrained, stoic voice expected of a good leader in such circumstances, he made the blunt allegation: “This disaster was not a result of any wrongdoing on our part. We are literally victims of climate change.”

The black attainment gap is a long standing issue that the sector is still struggling to treat with the urgency that it deserves.

Now, in light of TEF and the grading of institutions, it appears that there is a missed opportunity to use the brutal publicity of an Olympic-style medal awarding system to punish those whose attainment gaps are starkest.

British universities are considering plans to open branches inside the European Union in an effort to soften the blow of Britain’s exit, as they struggle to navigate new challenges in regulation and funding.