Are academics ready for the 3am phone call?

by Conor Ryan

Are university staff ready to take a 3am call from a student who wants help with their essay? This was one of the interesting issues raised by HEFCE Chair Tim Melville Ross at a plenary session of the conference this morning.

The price of quality

By Bahram Bekhradnia

Tim Melville-Ross, the HEFCE Chair, is such a likeable man. Rather than subject his new Chief Executive to delivering a Chief Executive’s report after only six hours in post, Tim effectively did that job. Among other things he asserted that maintaining the unit of resource for teaching is absolutely key for maintenance of quality. This is encouraging.

Good teaching must be flexible

by Conor Ryan

Since the introduction of tuition fees, students have become more vocal in expecting good teaching from their university lecturers. Its importance is underlined not only by the expectations of UK students but also of those from overseas who have always had to pay higher fees and who can choose from a growing range of internationally competitive systems.

School links may be the key to improved participation

by Conor Ryan

Another of the issues touched upon by Tim Melville-Ross in his speech this afternoon was that of widening participation. Although universities and higher education colleges are now spending over £200 million on access measures, most of this is being spent on bursaries, as a recent Office for Fair Access report showed.