Patrick Smith and I had taught in H E throughout the period of rapid expansion and, while we welcomed the increased access, we felt that it had been accompanied by several serious troubles. These included difficulties caused by chronic underfunding, the ending of student grants and their replacement by loans and tuition fees. Along side these we identified the increase in bureaucracy; the spread of managerialism; the reduction of trust in professionals and the growth of a culture of audit; the turn towards a market ethos; the change in the student's status to that of a customer and the deterioration of their experience of H E. We came to criticise the commodification of education and the misuse of modular degrees. Finally we looked at broader issues including the casualisation of the teaching profession and the division of the universities into research institutions and teaching factories.
So, the book tries to deal with a wide range of big issues, but all are focused on the nature and quality of education offered to our young people, and the need to cater for an enormously more diverse intake of students.
Friday, 30 July 2010
Why the book?
Welcome to the Blog for 'The trouble with higher education.'
The book came about as a result of our thinking about a number of classroom-related issues which troubled us, not least the restrictive use of learning outcomes. However we soon realised that our concerns with learning outcomes were reflected in a number of larger, more significant issues which currently affect learning and teaching in higher education. As classroom practitioners we were only partially aware of these larger issues, but as our concerns grew, so too did our appreciation of the significance of trends and how they were affecting our classroom practices.
It was never our intention to be destructive or negative - we are not against change and regulation per se, rather our intentions centred on how current trends and systems influence what happens in classrooms. Good teaching we agreed was concerned with placing the students at the centre of classroom activities and attempting to respond to their learning needs, however we had become aware that aspects of university management were increasingly affecting what we did in our classrooms. It was, we felt, time to pull out some of these issues and systems and subject them to critical scrutiny.
The book came about as a result of our thinking about a number of classroom-related issues which troubled us, not least the restrictive use of learning outcomes. However we soon realised that our concerns with learning outcomes were reflected in a number of larger, more significant issues which currently affect learning and teaching in higher education. As classroom practitioners we were only partially aware of these larger issues, but as our concerns grew, so too did our appreciation of the significance of trends and how they were affecting our classroom practices.
It was never our intention to be destructive or negative - we are not against change and regulation per se, rather our intentions centred on how current trends and systems influence what happens in classrooms. Good teaching we agreed was concerned with placing the students at the centre of classroom activities and attempting to respond to their learning needs, however we had become aware that aspects of university management were increasingly affecting what we did in our classrooms. It was, we felt, time to pull out some of these issues and systems and subject them to critical scrutiny.
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