Sharing practice at the fourth AoC HE Research and Scholarship Conference

Last Tuesday was the fourth AoC HE Research and Scholarship conference. It was hugely interesting to see how far the college HE sector has moved in terms of research and scholarship during the three years of The Scholarship Project. 

Key messages from the conference

I took three main messages from the conference experience proper – one is around the contemporary dynamism of scholarship and research in college HE, another is a comment on how far we have moved towards looking beyond our institutions for funding into networking on a national level and partnering with business directly, and the last is that we are part of an existing network of praxis which really articulates the benefits of college Higher Education.

College education as a critical voice

It was good to hear Kevin Orr’s keynote outlining the distinctiveness of the sector – a distinctiveness which brings both challenges and opportunities. Orr’s presentation pointed out that it is easy to conflate ideas of “widening participation” with those of social mobility. However, existing familial social capital and economic health has a large role to play too. Attending degree-level education is valuable, but ideas of value are hugely complex. Excitingly, college HE has a role to play, through the curriculum, in supporting positive social change.

Presenting our work on scholarly spaces

During the third break-out session I presented our work at Hereford College of Arts around scholarly spaces. I also listened with interest to the research which Alison Milner is conducting in South Devon College around how we encourage and support research in a college HE context. Entering into these conversations is hugely valuable and rewarding, and the post-session discussion equally so, with a range of different perspectives and ideas brought forward by delegates and presenters. 

And, of course, this conference launched the Scholarship Framework. Having been part of the community of practice which contributed to the resources on the framework, and participated in conversations with colleges adopting the framework, I’m looking forward to continuing the conversation digitally with colleagues once it goes live. Watch this space.