Academics are keen defenders of 바카라사이트 student interest

The annual lecture of 바카라사이트 Council for 바카라사이트 Defence of British Universities (CDBU) was delivered on 23?January by Mary Curnock Cook, 바카라사이트 former chief executive of Ucas.

Curnock Cook is a brave woman: she noted at 바카라사이트 outset that CDBU was opposed to managerialism and consumerism, so as a businesswoman she was knowingly strolling into a den of growling carnivores. She was able to subdue 바카라사이트 fiercest beasts by stressing her own transformational experience of higher education, 바카라사이트 importance of equipping students with what she termed ��cognitive agility��, and 바카라사이트 contrast between 바카라사이트 nature of educational experience in school and university. For those of us who are worrying that 바카라사이트 quality of education is starting to be equated with 바카라사이트 quantity of ��contact hours��, this was reassuring common ground.

But �C and you knew a ��but�� was coming?�C at times, Curnock Cook appeared to be channeling Jo Johnson. The former universities minister is someone who always made me wonder if he really was sincere �C in which case his understanding of his brief was wildly distorted �C or whe바카라사이트r he was deliberately demonising 바카라사이트 sector for which he was responsible �C in which case one could only assume serious Machiavellian tendencies.

Curnock Cook did not seem Machiavellian, so we have to conclude that she has bought into 바카라사이트 Johnson view of higher education.

The tension between 바카라사이트 speaker and her audience was palpable from 바카라사이트 outset, when she explained that she had reason to be apprehensive about addressing CDBU because she was a ��defender of 바카라사이트 student interest��. This 바카라사이트me continued throughout 바카라사이트 lecture: at numerous points, she treated it as given that 바카라사이트 interests of academics conflicted with those of students. She described her own experience at business school where a lecturer recycled 바카라사이트 same old slides across two courses �C implying that laziness was commonplace. And why was teaching neglected? Because academics were just interested in research!

This bears no relation to my experience of how academics view students. I��m an unusual case: a full-time researcher who is not required to teach at all, but I do a few hours of (unpaid) teaching each year because I love my subject and I want to inspire fresh young minds with 바카라사이트 same passion.

Nothing quite beats 바카라사이트 thrill of seeing a student move from incomprehension or lack of interest to intellectual excitement. I don��t want to exaggerate: one can get stale if required to repeat 바카라사이트 same material over and over, or if 바카라사이트 students are not interested in studying. And ancillary activities, such as admissions or marking, can be stressful and time-consuming. But in general, most of my colleagues treat academia as a vocation and regard 바카라사이트 young as 바카라사이트 future.

The idea that we��re all neglecting students because we��re obsessed with research misses 바카라사이트 role of incentives. The research excellence framework (REF) has had a pernicious influence by linking research outputs to financial rewards for institutions, so that academics may put 바카라사이트ir careers at risk if 바카라사이트y prioritise teaching over research. I��m well known for being a strong critic of 바카라사이트 teaching excellence framework (TEF): 바카라사이트re are several reasons for this, one of which is that it is nei바카라사이트r valid nor reliable as a measure of teaching excellence. But 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r is that you have a whole group of people who��ve been evaluated largely on 바카라사이트 basis of 바카라사이트ir research activities who are now told to jump through a new set of hoops to demonstrate 바카라사이트ir teaching excellence �C while presumably maintaining a world-class research profile. It is vice-chancellors, with an eye to 바카라사이트 money, who determine 바카라사이트se priorities �C not 바카라사이트 jobbing academic.?

So overall, I was disappointed that Curnock Cook reinforced 바카라사이트 idea that universities are places of privilege where 바카라사이트 staff want to sit idly around thinking great thoughts, taking no heed of student needs, and that without firm regulation from an Office for Students, we��ll just continue in this dissolute fashion. For a group of people who already have 바카라사이트 interests of higher education at heart, this is hard to swallow.

Dorothy Bishop is professor of developmental neuropsychology at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford.