What is Ed? (Mike Day)

On 28th February, we had another guest speaker. This time it was Mike Day, chairman of the Education committee and senior cabinet member of city and council of Swansea. He firstly discussed how policy and politics come into our everyday life both at home and at work. It was interesting to be told that policy and politics is down to the practitioners such as your teachers, politicians and local education authorities. He said that education policy is used to create a workforce while producing rounded individusls. Policy in education provides guidelines however this can be a negative output as it may cause such strictness, that you might not be able to do what you think is right. It was also interesting to learn what the Welsh goverment cannot control. These include teachers salary and the compulsory school age. They can however control the foundation phase and the welsh medium. Overall this lecture was interesting as Mike engages us learners in the presentation.

What is Ed? (Olive Hopker)

On 14th February, we had a guest speaker called Olive Hopker who was head of planning and development at Swansea Met. Looking back at my notes from this lecture, I realised that I did not enjoy nor understand this lecture. I also remember that it was noisy in the lecture room which may have added to my frustration and caused a lack of concentration on my self and many others. However I do remember that Olive talked about collaboration vs competition and the way it is developed in terms of education and contexts of learning. Overall I did not enjoy this lecture as it was hard topic to understand which was reinforced by a noisy environment,

What is Ed (David Warner)

On 27/03/12 Vice Chansellor David Warner gave a lecture. He firstly talked about how university develops many transferable skills which are vital in the world of work. These skills include working within a group, arguing skills, writing skills, the ability to problem solve, research skills and working on your own initiative.

He then gave us a task to think of which put of a list of universities was the oldest. The list included:
Chester
Bath
Kent of Canterbury
Aberdeen
Trinity
Newcastle

By looking at the list, I thought that Kent of Cantebury was going to be the oldest. This is because the name of the university sounded historical whereas the other seemed modern and new.
However I was wrong as the oldest university out of the list was Aberdeen.

He then went on to talk about Higher Education. He gave two definitions of higher education: "the level of work you can do" and "who pays you".

David Warner also gave a brief overview of the history of universities in the U.K. The first universities came in the middle ages. These are uni's such as Oxford and Aberdeen.
In 1918 there were 22 university's. 1980 there were 47. 1992 there were over 100 universities.

Another topic he discussed was diversity of the U.K higher education system.

1- Charted university
. Ancient universities
. Civics
. Plate glass

2- Statuary university
. Created by an act of parliament

3- Higher education institute
. General colleges

4- Higher education in further education

5- Growth of the private sector

6- The situation in Wales

The purpose of higher education:
. Enable people to develop their capability and fulfil their potential both personally and at work
. Contribute to an economically and culturally diverse nation
. Social justice
. Contribute to regional prosperity both through technology transfer and direct contribution

Trends in the U.K
1) Elite to mass system
2) Female student increase
3) post graduate fluctuations
4) Part time decrease
5) Growth of international students
6) Balance of funding