What I Will Miss ...

As I wrap up my time here in England, I am reflecting on the past three weeks. Cambridge is nothing at all like I expected. It is much larger of a city, and the number of bicyclists still astounds me! While I am looking forward to returning home, there are things I will miss about this dear country.

First, I never realized that the English were such animal lovers. Being an animal lover myself I enjoyed my time walking to and from Anglia Ruskin through the greens. There was never a time that I walked that there weren't dogs out walking or playing. The greens are large open areas that have pedestrian walkways cutting through them and it amazed me that more often than not the dogs were not leashed! In the U.S. we have to have enclosed parks specifically for this purpose.



Then there was my favorite little grocery store where I would pick up my dinner. Waitrose has larger stores throughout the country, but they have "little" versions in town. The food here was phenomenal and looked so fresh. If I had had a kitchen to cook I would have liked to have created some meals from their food!!

And of course there are the people I have met. So many have been so generous with their time, and they have a great sense of humor - there has not been a day when I haven't found myself laughing! I have learned so much from them and will miss them.

Megan

Insight into Welcome Week

Last week and yesterday were filled with meetings so I could get a better idea of how the welcome week is currently going at Anglia Ruskin from the standpoint of staff and students. I was able to conduct a focus group with staff on their feelings towards and opinions of Freshers Week (aka welcome week). Since English universities have to wait so long until they know with certainty who will be attending their university, they don't have the luxury American colleges do to hold orientation throughout the entire summer.

The staff doesn’t know for sure who is going to attend until the day of the event. This has to do with England's admissions process where students don't get the results to their A-levels until the middle of the summer. Freshers Week in England is also set up so that there are typically three units involved in planning activities for students - Student Services, the Student Union, and each Faculty (similar to our colleges). Coordinating all of these schedules and communicating them to the students can sometimes be a bit of a challenge.

I have been impressed with the number of ideas I have learned from not only my research but the individuals I have spoken with as well. The overarching question is how do we engage students, especially non-traditional students? This is a question we in the United States are facing as well. Non-traditional students tend to have outside commitments that demand their time. While they may want social activities, the reality is they may not have the time to engage in social activities. The goal seems to be balance - balancing what they want to do with what they need to do. This is the charge of the university. Having come from a background of largely commuter campuses with a high percentage of non-traditional students, I have empathy for these students and want to create the best possible experience for them. Sometimes this means knowing not all activities are going to work for all people, but the idea is to keep trying. That is what I have learned most from this experience, just keep trying!

This weekend I went to London, below are pictures from my trip ... enjoy!

The Horse Guards of Buckingham Palace

A guard outside Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Tower Bridge

Until Next Time!

Megan

Anglia Ruskin's Chelmsford Campus

On Monday I had the opportunity to visit Anglia Ruskin's Chelmsford campus. Chelmsford is named after the River Chelmer and is the birthplace of radio!! The physical environment of the campus is quite different from the Cambridge campus - it is more spread out, there is more green space and it sits on the river.

The Chelmsford Campus

Student Services is on the 3rd floor of the Tindal building, so there is marketing facing out to let students know they are there.

During my time there I went on a tour of the campus, learned about how Anglia Ruskin uses Survey Monkey to collect data, and spoke with one of the advisors from the Student Money Advice team. The conversation with the Money Advice advisor was quite interesting as I learned more about what they do and I had a chance to talk about our funding model as well. Next year, the UK is moving to a new funding model for their students where students will be required to pay substantially more than they currently do for higher education. Several years ago, students did not have to pay any of their tuition and fees! Knowing that we require our students to take on quite a bit of debt for their degrees, one of the areas of interest from all people I have spoken with has been how we handle this.

Looking out on the River Chelmer

In the past, I haven't really consciously thought about how we deal with our students as being "customers" of the university. In class, we talk about the consumerism of higher education and the demands some students have for the level of their experience while in college, but to me, this is just the way it is. I am not sure I have really known it any differently in the time I have been in college. Having to talk articulate our services has given me a different perspective on all that we offer and made me more reflective. I have enjoyed talking about what we do, and learning about the transition that the UK is in with regards to the expectations on higher education. It will be interesting to see how the universities here progress over the next several years.

A residence hall on the Chelmsford campus


One of the buildings on campus was opened by the Queen


Until Next Time!

Megan

Cambridge

This past weekend I was fortunate to go on a tour of Cambridge with Michele, one of the assistant directors at Anglia Ruskin who is hosting me. I am both grateful and appreciative of her taking time on a Saturday to walk through Cambridge with me, as I am sure I would have never seen some of things she took me to. It is amazing to see how old some of the buildings are. For example, we first stopped at the Round Church, literally a round church, dated from 1130 AD!! Can you believe that?! At Michele's urging, I touched the rounch church so that I can now say "I touched a building 882 years old!"

The Round Church

During the rest of the day we ate a delicious lunch at an authentic Italian restaurant, saw several of Cambridge University's colleges, walked through the Fitzwilliam museum, and had afternoon tea at the Agora at the Copper Kettle Tea Room (where I must admit, I had coffee!). It was an amazing day filled with lots of wonderful memories.

Around Cambridge

Inside Corpus Christi College of Cambridge University

Inside Queens College of Cambridge University

Outside the Fitzwilliam Museum

Until Next Time!

Megan

Language Barrier

Coming to England I wasn't too concerned about a language barrier. What I didn't realize was that although we speak the same language our terminology and programming is totally different. This has thrown me for a bit of a loop, and I have learned quickly that even if I think I know what a word means I need to clarify and make sure I'm not thinking of something else. We often speak of our first generation students as not knowing the "lingo" of higher education, and after this experience I have a better appreciation for those students. To give some examples:

Orientation is called Induction in England, and often the first week of activities are known as Freshers Week.

Many of the student services go by different names. For example, Student Support Services is roughly equivalent to our Office of Disability Services; Faculty Student Advisors are the equivalent of our Academic Advisors; Faculties are equivalent to our Colleges (eg the Faculty of Science and Technology v. our College of Science and Math).

Students choose courses (what we refer to as majors or programs of study) and take modules in their courses (modules are the equivalent of courses in the US).

In order for a student to graduate, they must attain 360 hours of credit. Their modules can be a combination of 15, 30, 45 or 60 credits with 60 credits typically being the most a student will take per semester.

In England, a personal tutor is not someone who works with a student on homework or study skills, but rather is an assigned person who checks in with them periodically to make sure they are doing alright. Personal tutors are assigned at the beginning of their experience, and students must check in with them within a certain time period after starting school.

I also was unaware of some of England's processes in higher education. For example, all universities in England are public universities, and there is a strong tie-in with the government. Another example is that of their admissions process. Students apply to university through one central agency, the University Center for Application Services (UCAS), not directly to the individual universities - with the exception of Cambridge and Oxford who do have their own admissions process. Students choose six universities they would like to attend, and then through interviews, they must narrow their choices down to two. Most students receive a letter of conditional acceptance, meaning if they attain certain grades on their A-level exams, then they can be admitted into the school. They receive these grades in July, and if they get the grades needed, they call the appropriate school and let them know they will accept their offer.

However, if the student does not attain the required grade they go into a system called "clearing." This is when all the students who did not attain the required grades are pooled together and need to start negotiating with universities across the country to ensure acceptance. Students may not know where they are going until after a university has started classes and will enter school one to two weeks late.

Until Next Time!

Megan

Welcome to Anglia Ruskin

Yesterday was officially my first full day at Anglia Ruskin. I was introduced to the university by Karen Burton, a manager in Student Services. My first thought was that the campus was quite small. However, after a tour of the campus I realized how large it really is. It is very compact and being in an urban environment there is little green space, but they have made an effort to "green up" the campus by adding raised flower beds and putting grasses on the rooftops. The campus is a combination of old and new which is a complementary reflection of the town of Cambridge.

Anglia Ruskin is actually a composite of the Cambridge Art College and Anglia Technical Institute. The two merged many years ago. Since the formerly independent art college has deep roots, Anglia Ruskin University has in turn become well known for their fine arts department. In fact, I got to see the gallery of master's students in the children's book illustration program. Karen said they are internationally known for this program and have 100% placement. Needless to say, the artwork was beautiful!

The thing that was most impressed upon me throughout the day was how student-centered the people I met with are and their openness to new ideas and change. In one day I have learned so much and am looking forward to learning much more in the coming weeks!

Until Next Time!

Megan

Getting to Know You

This past week, I have had the opportunity to review some documents specifically regarding Anglia Ruskin University. The first was the Anglia Ruskin's Student Charter. A student charter is a document that outlines what students can expect of the university and what the university can expect from the students. This was my first experience reviewing a charter. In England, each university drafts a charter which is reviewed with students during induction (induction is similar to what is referred to as orientation in the United States). During a phone call with Belinda, who will I will be working with while at Anglia Ruskin, she mentioned the charter and its importance. Originally, I was thinking of something similar to our Student Code of Conduct. However, I quickly realized this was not the case! These are two totally different types of documents.

A few weeks ago I worked on a case study for StudentAffairs.com with a couple of my classmates. Our task was to analyze using social media effectively and with civility on the college campus. What we gathered from our research was the idea of creating a civility statement for the college. When I read the Student Charter, it reminded me of that idea! I must admit I very much admire this document and could see the benefits of something like this being developed and put into practice on American college campuses. It will be interesting to see if what is identified in the charter is actually practiced on the campus.

There are eight areas identified with expectations listed for various audiences in the university, including, but not limited to: the students; faculty; student services; and IT. The eight areas are:

1. Communicating with each other
2. Starting your studies
3. Studying with us
4. Supporting you during your studies
5. Listening to you - your feedback and dealing with difficulties
6. Fees and other funding
7. Completing your course
8. Keeping our promises to you

The document is laid out with visual ease - it is to identify which responsibilities belong to which group. The other interesting detail is that while there are statements such as "[students will] ' treat our staff politely and with respect'" there are also many statements which include quantifiable indicators of reaching these statutes, such as "answer 80% of calls within five rings or 20 seconds." Many times when it comes to such intangible items as customer service, this is when it is most difficult to quantify results. I was happy to see that Anglia Ruskin is doing this. The second document I had a chance to read was Anglia Ruskin's Corporate Plan, 2012-2014. This document outlined 15 goals Anglia Ruskin wants to accomplish by 2014. For each goal, they identify strategies to reach their goal and a chart outlining a milestone for each year (2012, 2013, & 2014) until they reach their goal. While each goal is aimed at improving the university and promoting growth, all are framed within the constructs of their six values:

- A sense of belonging;
- Academic ambition;
- Innovation;
- Supporting each other;
- Honesty and openness; and
- Concern for the environment.

These are both very interesting documents which I encourage all to peruse, if not read. Anglia Ruskin is undertaking some very worthwhile projects and I am looking to finding out how these documents are used on the actual campus during my visit.

Until Next Time!

Megan

The United Kingdom Education System, Part 2

Similar to the higher education system in the United States, England's is as complex. Currently, once students finish their compulsory schooling at age 16, they have the choice of either entering the workforce or furthering their education. To continue their education they have the option of attending a sixth form college for two years (until they are 18); this will allow them to be eligible for A-level qualifications. There are 80 A-level subjects available. The sixth form college is part of the further education college's sector. Students can also obtain A-level qualifications in two parts, by getting the AS-level qualifications the first year and then add the A2-level qualifications.

Once a student reaches higher education (after meeting the A-level qualifications), he/she will obtain an undergraduate degree at a university. A bachelor's degree takes three years to complete. After this, a student can work towards a graduate degree where a master's degree typically takes one year to complete and a doctorate degree takes three years to finish. There are various professional degrees (including law and veterinary science) which, unlike the United States, are completed in an augmented undergraduate program - these are considered specialized degrees.

After reading a bit of information about England's education system there are several questions I have. First, I would like to know, with the qualifications they require before a student can enter higher education, do they have the need for developmental/remedial courses? I would also be interested to know more about how the new mandates (outlined in the White Paper) are going to impact the further education sector - is the curriculum that was taught at these institutions going to be enveloped into the secondary education system? Finally, I wonder if what we term "non-traditional" students have been atypical in the English further education and higher education systems?


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Resources Used
Qualifications Explained
Wikipedia
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Until Next Time!

Megan

The United Kingdom Education System

First, let me state that I was overwhelmed when I began to read about the structure of the United Kingdom's education system. I never realized how different it was from ours in the United States. There really is no easy way to compare our education system to theirs - it would be like comparing apples to oranges. It was fascinating to read about how they arrange their education and to read the notes stating that different facets will change in the coming years due to new legislation.

One of the most profound changes will actually be implemented beginning in 2013. Up until now, the age for compulsory attendance for education was 16. Following the Education and Skills Act of 2008, though, the new compulsory age will be 18. The first step moving towards this will be implemented in 2013, when the new age will be 17 followed by 18 beginning in 2015.

In the United States, we have struggled with publicly subsidized preschool. In the United Kingdom, however, there are currently publicly funded nurseries and preschools for children under 5, with only limited hours available each week. I would be interested in learning more about this, because on the surface it seems like a nice compromise. I would like to know what the "limited hours" are and how conducive they truly are to worker's schedules. Also, if someone needs additional hours, are those services available at an additional cost or would they need to employ someone such as a babysitter at their own expense and time in finding someone?

Unlike the United States where individual states are responsible for developing k-12 curriculum (and it's sometimes even more localized than that), the United Kingdom developed a national curriculum. Below, is a graphic giving an overview of the required curriculum along with the 4 key stages (this is in comparison to our 13 year grade system: kindergarten through 12th grade). It is also important to note that at the end of each stage a required Standard Assessment Test is given to students to evaluate each student's knowledge. However, these tests are being phased out and I would like to know what they are replacing them with and how they are going to validate student learning in order for those students to progress through the system. Another thing to remember is that this curriculum is also being revamped beginning in 2013, and I'm guessing this is due in part to the change in the compulsory age. This outline gives you an idea of the structure of the United Kingdom's current education system.

Once students complete the GCSE they can leave school, similar to seniors graduating from high school in the United States, or continue with their education. My next post will offer an in-depth look at the higher education system in the United Kingdom. Much like our higher education, it is complex in the options afforded to students.

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Resources Used

UK Education Systems: British Council

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Until Next Time!

Megan

The Culture of England

During my junior year of college I took a seminar on England. There were two lecturers who had both visited England numerous times. I was in awe of England and looked forward to visiting there someday. They both gave vivid accounts of the scenery (with personal photos included) along with other anecdotes regarding the cuisine, shopping and sightseeing of England. To complete the class each student had to write about one place we would want to visit if ever given the chance to visit. After listening to one of the lecturers detailed account of Stratford-upon-Avon I was dead set on visiting there and wrote my paper with such intent.

Well, it has been several years since I took that course and as a refresher I decided to Google "English culture." Since I love to cook, I decided to focus my research on typical English cuisine. After reading information from different sites, I am very excited to try English cuisine. I am especially looking forward to trying bangers and mash which is sausage with mashed potatoes and England's different types of pudding which is their typical dessert. While England's cuisine is noticeably different, there are also many similarities to ours.

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Resources Used

Project Britain
A Guide to British Culture
Wikipedia's Culture of the United Kingdom
These resources cover a vast array of topics relating to English culture that I found extremely useful in preparing for and learning more about England.
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Next week, I will be taking a broad look at England's education system.

Until Next Time!

Megan