Value for money in Higher Education

This week I read a typical British press headline: “Students Complain of ‘Poor Value for Money’: Almost one in three students at UK universities say their courses are not good value.” As so often in the media the glass is one third empty rather than two thirds full. We do have some outstanding universities that provide an undergraduate education second to none and we must not forget it.

This said any customer satisfaction survey where a third of respondents are unhappy is a cause for concern. I suspect a good deal of undergraduate dissatisfaction is down to the relationships between price and expectation; the more you pay for a university education the more you expect in return.

When I started at Oxford, university education was free. Since I wasn’t paying I was prepared to go with the vagaries of the system. Tutorials with substitute post-graduates rather than the promised professor were acceptable and a light timetable of lectures meant more time for social engagements. Most of all, the underlying culture that education was something you did for yourself rather than a service you consumed was rightly seen as good preparation for life.

The introduction of university tuition fees has changed student views. Undergraduates no longer enjoy free education, but are fee paying customers and as such want tangible returns for their £9,000 p.a. investment. Universities are effectively becoming like independent schools, and the more they charge the more students and their parents expect them to deliver. This cultural change sits at odds with traditional university values where academics can prioritise research over teaching, and where students are proactive learners finding out things for themselves, rather than receptive consumers of university produced revision notes and online lectures.

This tension is something independent schools know all about. Hard pressed parents making significant financial sacrifices to pay school fees rightly expect independent schools to pull out all the stops to help their children succeed. This naturally does mean providing excellent lessons, outstanding pastoral care, and a wide variety of extra-curricular opportunities; but it does not mean giving pupils all the answers in return for the fees. Education is not a service that can be passively consumed; it is a preparation for life that requires students to be motivated and eager to drive their own learning experiences. Students need to be enthused, guided and supported along the way so that individual potentials are realised, and this is where the best independent schools and universities merit their fees.

The marketisation of universities is certainly affecting the way they operate. Some universities are providing an excellent service which is good value for money, others appear to be struggling. Such institutions may benefit from talking to independent schools, who have years of experience in striking the right balance between charging a fee and providing a service, whilst still recognising that education is a process of give and take. Students who passively consume course materials will never do as well as those who proactively take responsibility for their learning and supplement course materials with their own ideas and reading.

Manifesto for the marmite subject

‘What’s wrong with maths?’ – an important question and one being put to teachers, researchers and policymakers at a debate organised by Cambridge Assessment today. The Perse is one of three schools to have shared their experiences in a specially-commissioned short film to launch the conference.

The British public seems to have a Marmite approach to maths – love it or hate it or, more mathematically, a binary response of 1 or 0. As Perse Deputy Head and maths teacher Paul Baker says in the film, society defends or excuses people saying ‘I’m not very good at maths’, yet they would be unlikely to dismiss illiteracy so lightly. Are we short-changing ourselves by accepting inadequate skills?

Relative to other countries, things do not appear totally ‘right’ with maths in the UK. Analysis by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) puts the UK 28th out of 65 OECD countries for performance in maths. To mark the conference and this important debate, here are some thoughts on how to ensure students get a better maths education.

1. Invest in good maths teachers. It is an unfortunate rite of passage for talented sixth formers in many schools to discover that they know more maths than their teacher. On the flip side the brightest mathematicians are not always the best teachers; if they understand concepts first time they don’t always get why others might struggle. As student debt increases, the UK must invest in attracting graduates with potential to be inspiring maths teachers rather than lose them to big business offering generous golden hellos.
2. Maths is a building block subject

Michael Gove is right: We need 3D Teachers

“Next Up, It’s Sir on the Ukulele” ran the headline in The Sunday Telegraph as the paper gently poked fun at plans for teachers to take part in school variety shows with the comment, “It is difficult to know who will be more embarrassed, the teachers or their pupils.” This attitude is wrong however, and betrays a lack of understanding of what makes a good teacher.

Teaching is often inaccurately portrayed as a one dimensional profession, with the emphasis on academic outcomes and exam results. Some view ‘a good teacher’ as someone who can efficiently shovel knowledge and exam technique into the brains of pupils; everything else they do is barely valued and largely irrelevant. It is a view that Michael Gove has helped reinforce with the use of SATS, GCSE and A Level metrics to measure school performance.

Good exam results open doors to universities and employment opportunities, but a collection of grades are just one of the many things children take with them when they leave school behind. The real purpose of any school, and the main role of any teacher, is to prepare children for a successful and happy adult life – and this involves far more than just teaching the curriculum in a classroom setting.

Preparation for life is a 3D process that requires teachers who will not just share their academic knowledge (the first dimension), but also provide pastoral care (the second dimension) and impart passion for extra-curricular opportunities (the third dimension).

The best teachers are three dimensional. ‘Ukulele playing’ teachers in school variety shows are not a subject for ridicule, they exemplify the importance of non-academic activities in schools; the music, drama, sport, art, clubs and societies that children learn so much from. These extra-curricular activities provide children with excellent opportunities for leadership, organisation, teamwork and communication – helping develop the attitude and skills so valued by employers.

Teachers and pupils working together on extra-curricular projects such as variety shows see each other in different lights. Mr X is no longer just a Chemistry teacher but a gifted choral singer; pupil Y may struggle with the periodic table but he can play the guitar solo from Stairway to Heaven. Three dimensional teachers enjoy better relationships with their pupils and this has a positive impact on classroom learning.

At The Perse I am proud to say that we have a huge array of 3D teachers. They deliver exceptional lessons, have genuine empathy and care for young people, and can also offer insight into a vast array of fascinating extra-curricular pursuits. A brief look around the staff room reveals (amongst many others) a ballroom dancer, a beekeeper, an Aerobics instructor, an awarding winning musical writer, a session jazz musician, a part time DJ, a published fiction author, an ultra-marathon runner, a grade 8 cello player, an Olympic hockey player and a conservation worker with the Orang-utans of Borneo. All that seems to be missing is a ukulele player!

MOOCs – do online courses have a place in secondary education?

Guest blog by Duncan King, Director of Digital Learning at The Perse School.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have made a huge splash in the media over the past 12 months. In short, these are (currently) short online university courses for free via three main platforms – Udacity, Coursera and Edx. Both Coursera and Edx are backed by major ‘real’ universities including Harvard and Stanford. From July this year, a UK based platform, Futurelearn, will also begin to offer online courses from a number of leading UK universities. At present it seems that many universities are getting involved because they see MOOCs as a way of attracting students to study full time at their institution, but what does the future hold? Many are skeptical about the potential scale of their impact but others see things differently. Prof Martin Bean, vice-chancellor of the Open University, describes this as the “Napster moment for higher education” and Sir Michael Barber suggests ‘an avalanche is coming’:

Meanwhile, Sebastian Thron, founder of Udacity, has made the extraordinary claim that the growth of online learning will mean that in 50 years time there will be only 10 institutions in the world delivering higher education. For a more sober reflection, I would also recommend that you read @timharford ‘s blog on the topic: what oxbridge can learn from youtube.

To get a better understanding of the developments in this area I attended a conference earlier this week hosted by Merchant Taylor’s School: ‘Making sense of MOOCs’. It was especially interesting to hear Dr Hamish Macleod talk about The University of Edinburgh’s experiences of running MOOCs in January 2013. Here is some of the raw data about the take up and completion of the six courses they offered:

At first glance, the ‘completion’ rates look very low when compared to ‘real’ university courses where such high drop-out rates would not be acceptable. Drop-out rates however don’t seem like the right metric to use for courses where the barriers to taking them or dropping out of them are basically nil. It seems more reasonable that MOOCs are measured on just the absolute number of people who actually finish a course. The fact that over 6,000 people from all over the world completed a course in Equine Nutrition for no certificate or material benefit other than for extending their own learning is remarkable.

For schools, MOOCs raise different opportunities and challenges. In the near term, the real opportunity for schools is to encourage able and interested students to extend their learning by taking existing MOOCs that are relevant to them, especially if they offer a foundation for their own university study. Given that a 12 year old pupil completed the Astrobiology MOOC offered by the University of Edinburgh, many of these courses should be well within reach of the average A-level student.

A key challenge for schools, however, concerns whether MOOCs will creep deeper into secondary education. Are school MOOCs on the horizon? There are a few reasons why this might not seem likely, for example:
1.Students may not be ready for or want self-directed online learning – students need teachers to prompt and motivate them through learning school level qualifications*
2.Practical subjects (e.g. sciences) require practical experiences that an online course can’t replicate
3.Why would schools want to offer such courses? They would be time consuming and potentially expensive to set up so what would be their motivation?

Despite these objections it does not seem unreasonable to suggest that secondary school online courses might be with us in the future. Here is a scenario:

Schools want to offer a broader range of subjects (e.g. additional foreign languages) or an extension class in a particular area but can’t justify the cost of employing more staff for subjects with potentially low take-up. An online A-level or short course in that subject could be offered by a group of schools getting together to set it up and they could employ one teacher to offer direction and assess work. The contact time would likely be less than in a normal class. Taught material could be delivered by video and discussion could be managed using Google Hangouts or Skype with work submitted and marked via Google Docs (this could be written or voice or video feedback). As more such courses became available, students could sign up to the courses which have the best feedback by former students. While these wouldn’t be a full MOOC experience (these would be much less ‘Massive’ and be more teacher directed), it could create a tremendous opportunity for all learners to take meaningful additional qualifications away from the constraints of the timetable.

Independent schools could take a lead in this by employing their resources and specialist subject teachers for the benefit of learners everywhere. Many Independent schools already invest a great deal of time and effort in extending their reach beyond their own students into their local community. MOOCs present an opportunity to take a fresh look at who could benefit from an Independent school’s resources, creating ‘virtual public benefit’ potential on a global scale.

In truth, I cannot imagine online courses will replace the school experience (school offers so much more than just subject learning, and, to be blunt, parents need somewhere for their children to be looked after), but I do think that technology like this could have a significant disruptive impact on secondary education in the coming years and schools need to be alert to the opportunities and challenges ahead.

* For one reason why human beings are so much better than computers for motivating people, read why a ticket inspector is a job that a robot could never steal

Duncan King is Director of Digital Learning at The Perse School. This blog was originally posted on his blog http://whatwillschoolbelike.wordpress.com/ Follow Duncan on Twitter: @kingduncanking

Mrs Thatcher and the value of hard work

I should have known better. Attempting to discuss the significance of Baroness Thatcher to a school assembly of 11 to 18 years olds born between 1995 and 2002 was always going to be difficult. Mrs Thatcher falls into the ‘ignorance gap’ between history and current affairs that isn’t covered in the school curriculum. Learning about the Tudors in history means that many of today’s pupils know more about the 1580s than the 1980s, and could be forgiven for assuming that the General Belgrano was a part of the Spanish Armada.

My attempts to set the 1980s scene fell on stony ground. Nationalised industries, widespread strikes, hyper-inflation, coal mines, IRA bomb blasts, the Iron Curtain, limited television schedules, and Mini Metros mean little to today’s children. It is not just that the 1980s are not taught in schools; it is that the world has moved on and the Thatcher past really is a foreign country where they do things differently. Perhaps this shows the extent of Mrs Thatcher’s legacy and that she really did change Britain; or perhaps Britain was changing anyway.

Whilst the ignorance gap between history and current affairs can be frustrating, it also serves an important intellectual purpose. It creates time for perspective to develop, for emotions to calm, and for people to think with their heads rather than their hearts. Much of the recent commentary on the Thatcher legacy has been too prone to hyperbole as old opponents have used the occasion of her death to lock political horns once again.
Mrs Thatcher was a ‘marmite’ politician who stirred up strong emotions both for and against. These passions get in the way of reasoned and objective analysis. It is too soon to judge the Thatcher legacy, but some of those best placed to judge it will be the school children of today. They carry no Thatcher baggage, and when the conveyor belt of time moves the 1980s from the ignorance gap into curriculum history, sensible reasoned and objective analysis will be written.

In the meantime, I hope the class of 2013 will learn one enduring lesson from Mrs Thatcher’s example. Putting politics to one side, the rise of a young Margaret Roberts from a grocery shop in Grantham to the Cabinet Room in Number 10 Downing Street is a lesson in the importance of hard work and determination. By all accounts Mrs Thatcher was a talented but not exceptional student. She was, however, not frightened of hard work and famously survived on just four hours of sleep a night. Exceptionally thorough preparation meant that Mrs Thatcher was very well briefed – often with a fuller grasp of the facts than her own ministers and opposition.

Mrs Thatcher is an extreme example of human effort and industry. Working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 11 and a half years is not typically a recipe for success or human happiness. But in education and employment there is definitely a correlation between effort and achievement. The correlation may be distorted by luck, but for most of us what we get out of life broadly equates to what we put in. This is the essential message in Matthew Syed’s book Bounce, which is subtitled, ‘The myth of talent and the power of practice’. It is also why in schools high grades for achievement so often correlate with high grades for effort.

Every cloud has a revision silver lining

I always remember my Oxford tutor telling me there was a correlation between the weather and the number of first class degrees.  In years with a cold and wet spring undergraduates remained at their desks and in the library.  Bad years for weather were good years for study with the number of firsts rising accordingly.  Conversely balmy spring weather distracted undergraduates from their revision, and whilst they may have attempted to revise outside in the sunshine, such ‘al fresco’ study was less effective.

Meteorologically, March 2013 has been a miserable month with below average temperatures and days of grey gloom.  This will be a late spring, and the weather appears unlikely to really warm up until May.  Multiple cricket sweaters will be needed for the start of the season as cold north easterly winds lower temperatures and spirits.  What will be bad news for gardeners, BBQ enthusiasts, and followers of summer sport will be good news for GCSE, AS and A level candidates.  Inclement weather is ideal for revision; below average temperatures keep pupils at their desks, whilst a late spring will depress pollen levels for longer – easing the examination plight of hay fever sufferers.

This Easter students should take advantage of the bad weather and crack on with their revision.  Revision is a cumulative process and the more times a topic is revised the better it is remembered.  Early revision allows knowledge to seep into the longer term memory where linkages are made and a deeper understanding achieved.  In contrast, last minute revision fills the short term memory with facts but limits insight.  Over the years I have found that students who ‘cram’ in the hours prior to an exam are more likely to regurgitate just-revised material in a stream of consciousness rather than answer the question set in a considered manner.

Effective revision requires self-understanding, a suitable plan, a good lifestyle and some incentives.

We all learn best in different ways, and to maximise the effectiveness of revision students need to know their preferred learning pathway.  Many Perse students will have completed self assessments which indicate whether they are visual, auditory, verbal or kinesthetic learners but there are also a multitude of online questionnaires which can help identify preferred learning pathways.  Some students learn best using visual methods and thus should base their revision around spider diagrams and flow charts; others prefer verbal routes and should therefore summarise notes onto cards or ‘teach’ revision topics to friends and family.  Kinesthetic leaners need to be active in their revision; making models to explain volcanos, or integrating revision with household chores by learning the French vocabulary for kitchen utensils whilst washing up.  Auditory learners should listen to online revision podcasts, and make their own broadcasts to play back.

Central to any effective revision strategy is a revision timetable.  Most students should aim to revise for up to seven hours a day, with each hour broken into 45 minutes of revision, five minutes of testing to check understanding, and 10 minutes downtime to let everything sink into the mind.  It is important that all aspects of a subject are covered equally, and that students do not avoid topics they find difficult.  The weakest areas need to be targeted first and be regularly revisited.

There has been much in the press recently about the teenage brain and how it does not function well in the morning.  Some students certainly prefer to revise later in the day, and some like burning the midnight oil.  Whilst effective revision is likely to occur when the brain is most receptive, it is important not to get into a different ‘time zone’ during revision.  Public exams are sat between 9.00am and 5.00pm; it is thus essential that pupils are used to working well during these hours.  Students who become nocturnal revising to the small hours and lying in until late in the morning will have body clocks out of sync with the exam timetable.  This will cost them marks.

The brain, like any other organ in the body, needs to be treated well to perform at its best.  Effective revision thus requires adequate sleep (at least eight hours), regular physical exercise, and a well-balanced diet high in fruit and vegetables.  Good hydration is essential.

Revising for 7 hours a day this Easter whilst rain or even snow falls from leaden skies may not sound like fun.  It is thus important to incentivise revision with treats for tasks completed.  Days off are essential to preserve spirits and prevent fatigue from setting in.  Preparing for exams is akin to running a marathon; whilst a good start is essential it is important to ‘pace’ the revision programme.  Marathon runners need their coaches, and in the revision race it is essential that parents and teachers are on hand to provide encouragement, support and guidance to students.  Students need to know that their teachers and parents believe in them, but they also need to know that revision timetables and arrangements will be enforced.

There is good news on the horizon.  Having accurately predicted a long cold winter, I am forecasting some hot weather for July and August just in time for the post exam celebrations and something we can all look forward to.

Guest Blog: Scientific Opportunities in the USA

Perse Head of Science Jeremy Burrows submits a guest blog about his recent trip to Boston:

Travelling around the snowy outskirts of Boston recently I passed an enormous hole in the ground; a hole in the ground that interestingly sums up exactly why I was in that part of the States on my half term break. By 2015 that hole will have become part of Novartis’ Global Research HQ – a new $600 million development which will further increase this area’s world leading scientific opportunities. ‘Big Pharma’ is moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts for a reason.

I was visiting Boston to evaluate the possibility of a science-based trip which would expose Perse students to the scientific innovation on offer and hopefully inspire some scientists of the future. I visited two local high-performing High Schools, was given tours around cutting-edge Research Institutes and Technology firms, and attempted to glean some information about the top universities in the area.

Boston was swathed in snow and getting about was difficult. 24 hours before my arrival cars had been banned from driving on the roads: failure to comply would result in hefty fines or even a year in jail. As a result several schools were shut, so a certain amount of last minute re-scheduling was necessary.

The schools I visited were Milton Academy and Roxbury Latin, both private schools to the south of Boston. Their laboratories all featured a ‘wet-and-dry’ layout with a Harkness table for written and discussion work – a truly wonderful learning environment for the students. The Headmaster of Milton, Todd Bland, is keen that we set up some links between our schools. I saw four excellent lessons at these schools and felt the academic demand was at least as high as at The Perse for equivalent ages.

During the trip I was fortunate enough to meet with several very impressive young people, all of whom were making excellent use of the advanced scientific opportunities on offer in and around Boston. I was introduced to some Harvard students who showed me around the campus and laboratories, whilst giving me an inside line on Harvard’s admissions procedures. During a visit to Merrimack Pharmaceuticals I spoke to four interns (all from abroad) who gave me a tremendous insight into the scientific opportunities in Boston. It was fascinating that they believed the real advantages from being in the USA came at post-graduate level, since UK and European Scientists get to specialise earlier at school. Even though their company’s approach to biomedical research is biology-based, they impressed upon me the importance of mathematical and programming skills in their work as modellers of biological systems. I also spent an enjoyable evening with a recent Electrical Engineering graduate from MIT whose current work is in robot design. He gave me several insights into applying to MIT, life at MIT and career paths after graduation.

I left these exceptionally bright people with the words of the great Harvard alumnus Tom Lehrer echoing in my head “It’s people like that who make you realize how little you’ve accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years”. It also got me thinking about how so many Perse pupils I have taught would thrive in this environment, working with these kinds of people.

As well as meeting with so many awe-inspiring young people starting out on their careers, I also visited a number of scientists and firms at the very top of their fields.

Once such individual was Michael Fairbanks, a prominent philanthropist and government economic adviser. Originally a biochemist he is a founding shareholder in Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, which has drugs currently undergoing FDA trials to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases. Michael showed me around their laboratories and offices in Boston, and introduced me to the interns I mentioned earlier.

The next day I met with the Director of MIT Museum, John Durant. As Adjunct Professor in the STS Program he also teaches students from both MIT and Harvard. We had a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion and I gained more insights into the subtle differences between MIT and Harvard.

I was lucky enough to meet Charles Jennings who is Director of the McGovern Institute Neurotechnology Program: he kindly agreed to show a future trip around the Institute. I was also fortunate to meet Dr Ralph DiLeone, associate professor of psychiatry and neurobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, who has developed techniques that can turn neurons on and off. His research focuses on discovering which brain mechanisms regulate eating and are important in the development of obesity.

I left Boston bowled over by the generosity of the people who had helped me on my trip, and excited that their welcoming and encouraging responses make me certain that an excellent trip of about a week’s duration would be entirely possible to organise if enough students are interested. It would appear that the best time of the year to visit Boston would be April –to coincide with our Easter holidays, the US Cambridge Science Festival and Milton Academy being in session.

There is a real buzz about all things scientific in Boston, and I am extremely grateful to have been able to meet and share ideas with such eminent people. I am thankful to our Headmaster for giving me the opportunity to visit and to all the people who gave so freely of their time and made me feel so welcome.