Submission of TEF3

Earlier today the final version of our submission for the Teaching Excellence Framework, year three (TEF3) was submitted to HEFCE. I want, first of all, to publicly thank all those within the University who have contributed to, or helped to draft, this year’s document. A great deal of work has…

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New Year Resolutions?

Do you make New Year resolutions? As a rule, I don’t. I never find that I keep to them more than a couple of weeks or so anyway. What I have done, however, for many years now, is to use the time over Christmas (as well as the time just…

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Lessons from X Factor

Over the last couple of weekends, for reasons that are probably best not discussed, I have been catching up on the audition rounds of X Factor. I know there are many things that we can say are not good about the whole phenomena of X Factor; its commercialisation, its glorifying…

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And so, we got a Silver…

Yes, we got a silver award from TEF and that is, in fact, an incredible achievement. The comments from the TEF panel in their response to our submission, are really positive: Very high proportions of students from all backgrounds continue with their studies or progress to highly skilled employment, notably…

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Celebrating Language

Having bumped into Professor Tom Cheeseman yesterday, it reminded me of a wonderful evening spent a few weeks ago at one of the Volcano Fridays events that he is organising. Alongside a very mixed audience from across Swansea and beyond I enjoyed an evening, at the Volcano Theatre, of Arabic,…

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Reflections on Apprenticeships

  Over the last few weeks I have been doing a great deal of research and thinking in the area of higher apprenticeships. Universities UK and HEFCE published a very useful report on Degree Apprenticeships, Realising Opportunities, and the Welsh Government published their own report on Aligning the Apprenticeship Model…

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Visiting Zurich and Basel, and the Lessons Learnt

Last week my partner, David, and I visited Zurich and Basel to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary and also to indulge our shared passion for African Art. We visited a number of specialist museums but two, in particular, one in Zurich and one in Basel, set me thinking about issues of…

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Disciplinary Exclusions

Over the last couple of weeks I have opened the Roma, Traveler and Gypsy Arts and Culture symposium at the Taliesin and spoken at a University event to mark National Holocaust Memorial Day. These experiences have raised once again the question of inclusivity in our curricular. There are many ways of…

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Letting the Nightingale Sing.

Over the last week my life, and that of three other colleagues, has been dominated by writing and rewriting the TEF submission. I am very grateful to my colleagues, and to the many other people across the University, who have put so much time and effort into this process. It…

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Co-Creation and the Connected Curriculum

On Tuesday of this week we had the honour of hosting Professor Dilly Fung from UCL who came to Swansea to lead a workshop on Students as Co-Creators. Dilly brought with her a wealth of experience, both from her work at UCL and also her previous role at Exeter University.…

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