Personal Blogs

I try to avoid politics on this blog and in some ways, what I write in this posting is not party political.  It seems very strange that when the government is making such consequential decisions, it is so desperate to avoid scrutiny from MPs or the public.

Scrutiny from "critical friends" and perhaps even critiques from people who are not so friendly can help develop better ideas and avoid mistakes.  I have, for example, written materials and been given feedback on these.  This feedback has often pushed me to develop better work as well as simply pointing out mistakes, mistypings etc.  Similarly group discussions can ideally lead to exploratory talk where ideas and solutions are produced that are better than any one person can produce.

MPs are not being given time to read the Bill in detail and this is simply bad practice for effective decision making.    This coincides with a period when many students are writing their first assignments of the academic year (if they are on J presentations).  I and many other tutors are advising them to make sure that they read carefully and consider what they are reading from different angles and in a critical way.

There is a great deal of activity in the management of the Open University at the moment and there is a very complex array of "workstreams" working on "transforming" and "redesigning" the way the university works and as a tutor, I hear about them through messages and meetings such as the AL Assembly last weekend.  However, the issue of Brexit and its effects on the university does not seem to be mentioned often enough.

I would think Brexit will have a very significant effect on the Open University (and probably all other British universities as well).  A first effect will be on the many EU staff in the university and their morale and retention in a hostile environment.  A second will be on the recruitment of students.  A colleague commented on how she has fewer students than before from Eastern and Central Europe.  The atmosphere around Brexit and hostility towards EU citizens might have led to a less positive attitude towards the UK in general and UK universities in particular.  A third effect is the reduction in EU research funding.

The Open University management have been relatively quiet about the effects of Brexit on the university although a statement was released on March 30th - https://msds.open.ac.uk/tutorhome/news-messages-unified.aspx#ns1

It seems that the process is beginning to do immense damage to the British university sector (and, as far as I can tell, the whole economy).  The following story of job losses at universities in South Wales seems to reflect broader trends:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/university-announces-139-job-losses-12820580

One of the courses I teach on is LB160 Professional communication for Business Studies and for their final assignment, students need to write about issues that are important to their businesses.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Brexit is a topic that has been mentioned as a threat to the businesses they work in.  As mentioned in an earlier posting, it looks like Brexit will have profound effects on the Open University and it also looks like it will on many other businesses in the UK.