An update from Bedfordshire’s press office

Being a communications officer with writer’s block can be an absolute nightmare. For my first blog of 2018, I was really struggling to think of something to blog about, which is annoying when you make your living from writing!

So I have decided to fill you in on what I have been doing in recent weeks and write about some of the stories I’ve been working on.

I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely Mental Health Nursing student called Fern, who has been shortlisted for not one, but two awards in this year’s Student Nursing Times Awards, which is a huge achievement.

Congratulations to @uniofbeds student @Fern45075972 who has been shortlisted for two Student Nursing Times Awards! #SNTA @NursingTimes pic.twitter.com/535yfVtf3M

— UoB Press Office (@uobnews) February 27, 2018

While on a placement, Fern did a great deal of work on helping young people in CAMHS services transition into adult services. I worked for a mental health trust in a previous life so I’m very aware of how difficult this transition period can be. It’s fantastic to see that Fern has been a driving force for making things better for her service users.

You can read more about Fern here.

Bedfordshire students seem to be on a roll at the moment when it comes to awards. Students from the TV Production and Media Production courses have been shortlisted for accolades in this year’s Royal Television Society’s (RTS) East Student Awards.

We have had students shortlisted in five categories which is absolutely amazing, and testament to all their hard work, and to the dedication of their tutors. I’ll have everything crossed for 15 March when the students will find out if they have won anything.

If you get a chance, check out the students' work here.

I also got the chance to do something a bit different and go along to watch a live interview with Hollyoaks actor Duayne Boachie. Duayne was studying at the University when he got his big break into acting a few years ago and it was great to see him return and share insight into his career and offer tips and guidance to current students.

I have also been preparing for our graduation ceremonies taking place in March. I always enjoy covering these and this year I’m really keen to find some fantastic student success stories to share with the wider world – watch this space!

At our Luton campus today @Hollyoaks actor and former Beds student @DuayneBoa gave a masterclass to Media Performance students, here's a snippet of his Q&A pic.twitter.com/tKuaqckyW4

— uniofbeds (@uniofbeds) February 14, 2018

The Future of Higher Education

As part of my role, I work on policy related matters; such as a recent policy work has been a call for evidence by the government as to what the value for money a degree holds and the social and economic impact of international students or simply doing some research of how a prospective policy should be framed.

As for the topic of today, I would like to talk about the future of higher education.

How do we envision higher education by 2050?

Would we still have classrooms, physical establishment and lecturers?

Or

Our higher education will be delivered at home through a virtual reality set with no need for a physical establishment and instead of lecturers we have big data backed by research and facts.

Something like Google but instant and focused on our subject question with a tailored approach.

It makes me wonder!

I believe (optimistically) that affordable access to high quality higher education and education, in general, would be widened. This progressive change of being able to watch lectures/seminars of top universities from the comfort of your home is a great force for good and I hope it stays this way.

For instance, you could now learn various subjects from mathematics to quantum physics on MIT’s YouTube channel for free.

You could get a university degree through online learning without setting foot on the university’s campus and it’s cheaper too.

Or

Let’s flip the idea on its head and think in the opposite direction. What if we will have no higher education in 2050?

Instead we will have a hybrid form of apprenticeships with on the job learning, through online courses and a living wage pay from the age of 18.

The possibilities are endless.

What do you think would be the future of higher education?

Will we even have a higher education sector?

Only time will tell what might happen.

9 reasons unconditional offers are a BAD IDEA

In the last few years, a number of institutions of various shapes, sizes and repute have been dishing out unconditional offers on the basis of predicted grades. But is this good practice? Do students benefit?

For my money, the answers are usually a resounding 'no' to both questions.

1. Some applicants will receive an offer and think 'game over'. The foot will come off the gas and performance will slip (recent UCAS research show that those who receive unconditional offers are 23% more likely to miss their grades than those who didn't - see this chart borrowed from a 2016 UCAS research paper);
   
   
   
2. Employers look at A level grades (particularly for apprenticeships, graduate schemes etc), and will disadvantage those who have slipped as a result of the above;
3. Schools are put in a double bind of a) trying to re-engage unconditional offer holders and b) trying to mitigate against knock on effects to classmates and colleagues;
4. Schools may also 'play the system' and encourage enrolment at more 'prestigious' institutions if, for example, they predict grades which will see applicants accept a place at (for example) Poppleton rather than Poppleton Metropolitan;
   
   

   

   Sorry; I think, I might be in the wrong place

5. Students who may receive more support and fare better at Poppleton Met but who are lured to Poppleton, may end up at the 'wrong' uni and become disenfranchised and alienated from higher education altogether;
   
   
6. Similarly, course choice may be driven, not by passion for the course or research into the uni, course content, teaching etc., as by a decision based on flattery and an HEI's reputation and/or ability to promote itself;
7. Long term effects on many universities are likely to be damaging - "Lower tariff" institutions will lose income and "Higher tariff" will see a reduction in their league table scores after a few years of declining entry tariff points;
8. If the logical endgame of this process is the reduction in the number of departments, courses and institutions, there will be less choice in the market;
9. The enthusiasm for unconditionally offering to students evidently regarded as little more than three years' worth of fees (or at least one, if things do inevitably go belly up) is - to my mind - indefensible. And another sign the HE system is on a trajectory where, however much students are said to be at the centre of the system, they're not. Market is king and institutions manipulative and resourced enough to succeed will fight, claw and elbow their way to the surface.

All comments, criticism and name calling in the box below please.

Unonditionally Guaranteed.
The Captain's reviled
commercial effort. 'Nuff said.

Bedfordshire's tariff requirements are low. While this impacts on league table and other reputation measures, it demonstrates our widening participation mission. It also presents an awkward question; do we want to make unconditional offers to non-ABB students and risk helping damage applicants' A level results, denying them the chance to shop around with more points in Adjustment or Clearing and/or restrict their future career choices?

We have an alternative to unconditional offers. Our foundation year option and the 'guaranteed place' may sound similar to an unconditional, but it is different. We do not offer unconditional entry to level 4, but have a foundation offer for students who - for whatever reason - need it. This could quite conceivably include those who have been burned and underachieved after being falsely lured in by an unconditional offer in the past. If and when we get these people, great. The fear is, however, that they will already have been put off by HE altogether.

The art of 'up-skilling'

I'll be honest, I felt a little uninspired when it came to writing my blog post this week. A great deal of the team's time has been taken up with the 2019 Undergraduate Prospectus over the last few weeks, and I think we've all gone a bit crazy and cross-eyed from the proof-reading! It's not quite ready to be revealed yet, so I'll leave that for one of the team to do when it is. 

Instead I thought I'd rather talk to you about some of the new skills Sara and I have been learning thanks to our manager, David. He has previously spent time as a graphic designer, and he has a lot of creative skills that would be incredibly useful to us, so has made it his mission to 'up-skill' us over the next few months. 

Photoshop  -

Although we have a working knowledge of Photoshop, we've recently been exploring some more unique design ideas, including something called 'double exposure'. I don't take to learning slowly, so I said I'd figure it out, and off I went. On my third (!!) attempt I managed to create this...

It's still a work in progress, but I could barely re-size a picture four months ago, let alone layer two separate images over each other! We're looking forward to being able to replicate these kinds of techniques in the campaign work we do over the next few weeks, so watch this space.

Dreamweaver/Coding/HTML (whatever you want to call it) -

The other skill David has been encouraging us to learn, is how to code. We write a fair few emails, and occasionally problems arise with them that can only be fixed by going into the HTML code, and figuring out what's gone awry. Designing them works in a similar way - the software we use has limitations, and knowing how to create tables and change text formats through code comes in quite handy. It's a complicated process and I didn't think I was taking any of it on-board until last week when I 'broke' an email, went into the HTML, and fixed it. Pretty cool, huh? 

I even just went into the code of this blog post to try and figure out why the picture above isn't centered like it should be. Ironically, I can't make any sense of it! But in the words of Hannibal Smith - "Give me a minute, I'm good. Give me an hour, I'm great. Give me six months? I'm unbeatable." So check back in with me in August, okay?! 

Me coding, funnily enough. Caffeine helps. 

And there you have it, as far as the art of 'up-skilling' is going, David's doing a pretty good job. We'll be better than him in no time. But I think that might be the point. 

Until next time. Over and Out. 

Reflecting on the past and looking to the future

Next month I will be celebrating my third anniversary of working within the Marketing department at the University of Bedfordshire. Although at times it doesn’t feel like I’ve been here that long, upon reflection it’s been a busy three years! In that time there’s been a desk move, a few changes to the team, and a change in my job title, and that’s just me getting started! I’ve also worked on five prospectuses, written countless e-zines, and interviewed several of our students and staff for video content and case studies. The team have also won various awards from Heist and CIPR (shameless plug - sorry!).

Whenever people ask me what I love about my job I always answer with the diversity of the role. The great thing about working in a Marketing role is that no two days are ever the same – some days I’m writing copy for our marketing materials, other days I’m briefing our designers on our artwork. You may also find me roaming around campus taking photos and video footage, or even helping the Recruitment team at our Open Days and other recruitment events. There are of course tasks that are more regular, such as promoting our Open Days, or writing content for our monthly e-zines, but other tasks, such as organising photo-shoots, or having the opportunity to sit on tender briefings may only take place once a year. 

The other great thing about my role is that, due to the nature of the marketing industry and the higher education sector, my role is ever changing. Because of this I’m always learning , whether this be through

attending higher education forums, or through in-house training. When I started this role I had limited experience with Photoshop, and though I’m far from an expert, I’ve developed my knowledge throughout my time here. Over the next few months I will be furthering my knowledge of the Adobe package by learning how to properly use InDesign, which will help me when I’m creating various promotional materials within my role. I’m excited to develop my skills in this area and will hopefully be able to share some of my work with you soon!

Sara