Centred on Learning

Academic Case Studies on Learning Centre Development

Edward Oyston

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138723405
• eBook ISBN: 9781351756808
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

Thie title was first published in 2003. Computer technology and changing student needs have prompted universities to develop modern learning centres offering both virtual and physical learning space fit for all types of study and research. This book demonstrates with detailed case studies how the learning centre model has been introduced at four UK universities with different constraints and priorities: Sheffield Hallam, Leeds Metropolitan, Aberdeen and Lincoln. The authors start by outlining the national higher education context and other internal and external drivers for change, then explaining how these shaped their particular centre's development as they underwent radical change in role, organization, range and nature of service provision - particularly the use of IT in learning and teaching support. Highlighting the differences between the institutions, authors from the four learning centres analyse the implications of changes for staff - in terms of working practices, interdisciplinary skills and internal culture - and how problems were managed. They go on to describe how the needs of all types of students were considered and to what extent, from both student and staff perspectives, they were satisfied. A whole chapter is dedicated to the process of building new partnerships with academic staff and other university service providers - essential for operational convergence and integrated service provision. The following chapter focuses on the development of the physical environment and how the building itself is adapted to modern teaching and learning models. The book ends by outlining the evaluation process and suggested next steps for further improvement. Appendices include sample job descriptions and person specifications. Demands for greater efficiency and responsiveness to student needs have to be met in the context of institutional strategies and priorities. This book offers an insight into four universities' different experiences which will help those at the forefront of such.

1	The changing picture of higher education

Claire Abson

INTRODUCTION

The learning centre approach is a particular response to the changing teaching and learning landscape within higher education, which in turn is driven by wider educational and societal developments. Some higher education institutions have used the challenges and opportunities presented by these developments to rethink the role and purpose of their academic support services. This chapter examines the place of academic libraries in the learning landscape, so as to provide a starting point from which the remaining chapters will draw out the distinctive features of the learning centre concept as one approach to developing their role.

In the interests of clarity, the chapter will look first at the wider national and international developments that have changed the picture of higher education in the UK over the last two decades of the twentieth century. Precisely what these developments have meant for institutions and their students will add additional layers to this picture. The issues raised for academic libraries will complete a complex picture of change and development.

ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS

THE CHANGING EMPLOYMENT PROFILE

Changes in the employment picture in the UK over the last 20 or 30 years have undoubtedly had an impact that has been felt by higher education institutions. The general shift in the skills requirements of the workforce has gone some way towards creating demand for higher level qualifications. Increasing opportunities in the service sector, alongside declining manufacturing and industrial careers, have dictated an emphasis on ‘graduateness’ and the importance of graduate-level skills. This shift has increased opportunities in small and medium-sized enterprises for graduates. The difficulty in providing formal training programmes in smaller companies and organizations and the reliance on the individual, increasingly mean that new graduates need to ‘hit the ground running’. It is also the case that, as the Dearing Report points out,

the pace of change in the workplace will require people to re-equip themselves, as new knowledge and new skills are needed for economies to compete, survive and prosper. A lifelong career in one organization will become increasingly the exception (NCIHE, 1997, p. 9)

Definitions vary as to what constitutes these core skills that are so in demand, but Harvey and Mason (1996, p. 17) outline the five broad areas that emerged from their study as being of major importance to employers, namely:

• knowledge

• intellectual ability

• ability to work in a modern organization

• interpersonal skills

• communication skills.

Arguing that the graduate must be a ‘reflective practitioner’, they go on to state that, ‘the combination of reflection, transformation and the acquisition of the high-level skills of critique, analysis and interpretation, forms the basis of the reflective practitioner’ (ibid., 1996, p. 27). Many older students returning to education are doing so because they, or their employers, have identified the need to develop these skills and see higher education as the means to do this.

Working has also become more flexible for many people and can fit more easily around other areas of their lives. In research published in 2001, it was found that more than half of all workers either work away from the office or are employed for variable hours outside the standard 9 to 5. In addition, more than 20 per cent of employees work less than 30 hours per week, with many firms allowing staff to work some form of flexitime, and thus have some control over the hours in their working week (Behar, 2001, p. 1).

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS

In a general sense, technological developments have had a far-reaching impact on the population and this has been felt by higher education. In the UK 38 per cent of households now own a PC, almost triple the proportion for 1985. In addition, 45 per cent of adults have accessed the Internet at some stage, the majority (59 per cent) doing so from home (Social Trends, 2001, p. 233). Technological capabilities, such as Internet and email access, and developing mobile phone technologies have been key factors in the increasing numbers of people working from home, thus affording them greater flexibility with their time. Learning is much more accessible, and the means are there to generate an interest in knowledge and learning without necessarily leaving the home. It is arguable whether it is the accessibility of knowledge that has created the demand for flexible learning routes, or vice versa; but the demand is clearly there.

Equally, technological change has impacted on the workplace. Ability to use and exploit information technology is a highly valued skill, underpinning the five core skills areas outlined above. It is a key aspect of well-developed communication skills and forms an integral part of the modern organization, the adaptation to which is so prized by employers.

THE GOVERNMENT AGENDA FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Lifelong learning

Official encouragement for those considering returning to study has also been an important factor. The business of continuing learning through life was seized on by the new Labour administration in 1997 as a priority issue, culminating in the publication of the green paper, The Learning Age, in 1998. This consultation document outlined plans for making learning more accessible and more relevant, to encourage more people to remain in, or return to, education at all levels. It tackled adult learning at a basic level, focusing on literacy and numeracy skills, and at a more advanced level by providing an additional 500000 places on higher education courses by 2002. The expectation outlined in the green paper was that more than half of these additional places would be taken by mature students without traditional A-level or Scottish Higher qualifications.

The launch of the University for Industry (now LearnDirect) picked up the key issue of business and industry support for their employees in continuing their learning and development. The focus was on using, ‘modern communication technologies to link businesses and individuals to cost-effective, accessible and flexible education and training’ (The Learning Age, 1998). In other words, learning would happen when and how the individual wanted, possibly via a combination of different mediums and locations – physical and virtual, for example, TV, radio, a CD-ROM package, or in the workplace. The emphasis was on lifelong learning, which the paper defined as, ‘the continuous development of the skills, knowledge and understanding that are essential for employability and fulfilment’ (ibid.).

This ‘fulfilment’ element cannot be ignored. The issue of increased leisure time has already been noted; the Learning Age document firmly places this aspect on the government agenda alongside the more tangible economic aspect of enhanced employability for individuals.

The financial burden: funding for higher education

The shift of the cost of higher education away from the policy makers and the tax payer, and directly onto students and institutions, has had a huge impact on who is studying, what, why, and what their expectations of their period of study are. Levels of funding for institutions, relative to student numbers, have fallen dramatically since the late 1970s. Indeed, figures for funding per student show a 40 per cent drop since 1976 (NCIHE, 1997, p. 45). As a result, higher education institutions need to find alternative ways of raising revenue. These routes have included increasing research commitments, thus gaining access to research council funding, and development of postgraduate continuing professional development courses where there is a demand and where income generation is not limited by the capping of fees (as it is with undergraduate courses). In addition, the franchising of courses to overseas institutions has become increasingly common, raising questions over the quality of delivery, student attainment and student support.

There have been recent injections of targeted funding into higher education. Public money has been made available for much needed estates and infrastructure developments, for staffing (following the findings of the Bett Committee) and for other initiatives – for example, the development of teaching and learning strategies. However, there has been no real sign of sectoral funding to support additional student numbers. Universities UK (formerly the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals) has estimated that £10 billion will be needed to meet government expansion targets in the sector.

The then Education Secretary’s recent letter to the chairman of the Higher Education Funding Council for England highlights the key financial and other issues as viewed by the present government (Morris, 2001). The letter focuses on the need for educational bodies and institutions to collaborate on widening participation in higher education and to link in with local communities and local businesses to embed vocational skills ever more widely in higher education courses. It is noted that only one in five young people from lower socio-economic groups currently enter higher education, compared with half of young people from the middle classes. The announcement of 8000 New Opportunity Bursaries to be made available for students with particular pressures or from low-income backgrounds highlights this focus on wider participation and on student retention. The letter stresses the need to use access and hardship funds to support these same students to keep them in higher education.

The financial burden: student finances

The abolition of the student maintenance grant and the introduction of fee payment have clearly had an impact on young people entering higher education and their motivations for study when they do. Tuition fees were introduced in the 1998/99 academic year (although subsequently abolished in Scotland in 2000). The maintenance grant was gradually eroded from the mid-1980s onwards, before finally being abolished with effect from the 1999/2000 cycle. Applications for higher education courses remain high overall, but it is interesting to note that recent research at South Bank University found that six out of ten students from a sample of 2000 claimed to have friends who had been deterred from entering higher education because of the financial implications (Judd, 2000, p. 1).

Long-term financial reward and job satisfaction cannot be applied across the board as a motivation for study but the average 18-year-old, as well as the average mature student, is arguably more focused in this area than perhaps they may have been 15 or 20 years ago. The vast majority of students are now making a personal financial investment in their education and want to see a good return on that investment. This investment extends to the way in which they choose to study. Even where education doesn’t need to fit around other commitments, such as family responsibilities, many students now need to work to avoid carrying through an unmanageable amount of debt into their graduate careers.

A student hardship survey conducted by the National Union of Students in 1999 found that 41 per cent of full-time undergraduates had jobs during term-time, working an average of 13 hours per week (Watkins, 2001, p. 1). Full-time students are often not really full-time any more, and part-time students may not come on to campus more than once a week. Some may choose to study in their home town, or perhaps live at home and commute, further isolating themselves from their institution of study. These motivations have impacted on the ways in which courses are taught and supported.

The boundaries have changed and are continuing to change, and higher education institutions have had to respond to this. In some cases, this personal investment and these time pressures have made the student more focused in their studies. In others, the service demands they are making of their institution of study can be likened to the demands they might make of a service provider in the high street. There is an expectation that the institution will be flexible enough to respond to the conflicting demands on student time and personal resources.

The quality agenda

The quality of provision and standards of awards in higher education, and also how they are assessed are high on the national and institutional agendas. The introduction of Teaching Quality Assessment to the higher education sector in 1994, followed by a change to Subject Review in 1998, was met in a positive way by higher education institutions, who wished to see maximum points scored in all six aspects of academic subject provision:

• curriculum design, content and organization

• teaching, learning and assessment

• student progression and achievement

• student support and guidance

• learning resources

• quality management and enhancement.

The resulting cycle of external audits of subject provision has done much to change the nature and profile of academic work. One consequence of the requirement to provide evidence of quality and high standards in teaching and learning has been a substantial administrative load for academic staff. There is a clear need for assessment of the quality of provision, and the future of quality assessment in higher education is undecided at present, but the issue of who supports this is a key one. Paperwork and committee work, often driven by internal and external quality requirements, now take up an ever increasing proportion of staff time which can only impact on their teaching and research activity.

THE IMPACT ON HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR STUDENTS

Student numbers

It is clear from Table 1.1 that more students are staying on at school, or attending college, in order to gain a place in higher education.

The Dearing Report stated that, ‘forecasts suggest that, if current patterns of participation continue, more than half of today’s school leavers will experience Higher Education at some time in their lives’ (NCIHE, 1997, p. 18). A large number of these additional students are from less educationally-oriented backgrounds, where they will probably form the first generation of the family to go into higher education. Nonetheless, these increases alone cannot account for the dramatic rise since the mid-1980s. Table 1.1 illustrates the sharp rise in students in higher education during the 1990s, and crucially this rise has occurred not only on standard full-time courses but in part-time study as well. The relative proportions of full-time to part-time students has not altered significantly as of 1996, when part-time students made up 28 per cent of the total, the same proportion as they had in 1980 (Higher Education in the Learning Society, 1997). However, the fact that so many more people are choosing to study in this way is significant. As is evident from Table 1.1, in 1999/2000 there were more part-time students in the UK than there had been full-time students ten years before. This brings the issues highlighted in the Learning Age document into sharp focus. Many employers are releasing workers part-time for study...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 The changing picture of higher education
• 2 Organizational frameworks
• 3 The changing staff experience
• 4 The student experience
• 5 Building new partnerships: changing institutional relations
• 6 Building new environments: the physical space
• 7 New environments: the environment for learning
• 8 Looking over the horizon: a future perspective
• Appendices
• Index