Challenges for University Engagement in the UK: Towards a Public Academe?

This paper considers the changing role of universities in the UK as they respond to an engagement agenda that stipulates a more immersive and visible interaction between academics and the public. It constitutes a survey of attitudes to public engagement in a selection of UK universities drawing on interviews with senior academics with managerial responsibility at the end of 2009. The results of this study reflect a mood of indecision and anxiety among respondents towards a public engagement agenda seen to influence the contours of their professional identities and working lives. The study situates academic accounts that contest the legitimacy of public engagement as a core academic activity and the role of academics in communicating with public groups. Moreover, it reveals a lack of agreement and consistency in the conceptualisation and application of public engagement in higher education contexts, certainly beyond an emergent discourse of research impact.     

Caregivers of school children with epilepsy: findings of a phenomenological study

Epilepsy is one of the most frequently diagnosed neurological disorders among children. Epilepsy is continuously linked with academic underachievement and social challenges. Despite the implications that these difficulties have for a child's educational success, little is known of how children with epilepsy experience school. Understanding how to best support and accommodate these children can contribute to their positive adaptation and quality of life. The purpose of this phenomenological study by Jillian Roberts and Cheryl Whiting of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, is to understand the school experiences of children with epilepsy. Data was gathered through open‐ended, semi‐structured interviews. The caregivers' narratives were transcribed and analysed to elicit the essential experiences of school children with epilepsy. Five categories were elicited from the families' narratives: (1) health‐related issues, (2) family coping, (3) academic experience, (4) social belonging, and (5) awareness. This information will be particularly useful for teachers and allied professionals serving the needs of children with epilepsy – as well as those with other chronic health conditions.     

University Admissions and the Prediction of Degree Performance: an Analysis in the Light of Changes to the English Schools’ Examination System

The United Kingdom's Department for Education has recently changed the nature of the AS‐level examinations normally taken by students aspiring to enter higher education degree courses one year into their post‐compulsory education. In the face of protests from universities and other institutions that this would both harm students’ progression towards the A‐level qualifications, on which entry to English universities is normally based, and make it difficult for universities determining which of their applicants were best placed to benefit from their degree courses, the Department conducted research which it claimed showed that degree outcome could be predicted as well from the results of GCSE examinations taken one year before AS‐levels as from AS‐levels themselves. This paper critiques those analyses and their conclusions showing, through a re‐analysis and extended interpretation of the Department's data, that AS‐levels provide a more reliable predictor of degree performance in 2011 than GCSEs and that many students who performed better at AS‐level than at GCSE gained a place, and performed well, at a university with high entrance standards.