Author
Phil Pilkington
Phil Pilkington has worked in higher education for over thirty years in the students’ union movement, founded the Research and Welfare Staff (RAWS) group for students’ union staff in the UK, and as a trade union representative for the Transport and General Workers Union (now Unite the Union) at a local level as the Joint Union Secretary and at the national negotiating level, giving expert evidence to the Betts Inquiry into Employment in universities. He has been a trustee of a students’ union and advised the National Union of Students on a range of subjects. He has also organised conferences, founded the Student Network for the Society for Research into Higher Education. He has also been a member of Art & Language and published and exhibited in the UK and in Europe.
18 pieces
Newest first, since July 2014
· SUs
Are we setting sabbs up to fail?
Should sabbatical officers continue a tradition of representing the operations and services of the students union or give voice, amplify and join together the issues of students?
· Comment
What can VCs learn from SU officers?
We spend a lot of time inducting new SU officers into the ways that universities work. Phil Pilkington has some equivalent advice for those that lead universities
· Comment
The attention of a junior minister
Do junior ministers of higher education matter? Phil Pilkington shares a historical perspective on the relationship between the sector and government.
· Comment
Can an anchor drag you down?
In his latest narrative, Phil Pilkington examines the role of universities as “anchor institutions” within their local communities
· Comment
Time to talk about student mental health
As universities grapple with student mental health there’s lots of focus on talking. Phil Pilkington argues that we should think about who they’re talking to and why they’re listening.
· Comment
The secret life of a students’ union advisor
Away from headlines about demonstrations and speaker bans, students’ union advice centres quietly enable students to access their education. Phil Pilkington explains their value and purpose.
· Comment
What does being employable mean?
In this week’s narrative on higher education, Phil Pilkington wonders what on earth we mean when we say that a graduate is ‘highly employable’.
· Analysis
(Pre)posperous cheating
Phil Pilkington’s HE narratives continue with a look at the economics of cheating
· Analysis
Crime and punishment
Phil Pilkington looks at debates surrounding student discipline and the power that universities hold over students
· Comment
An exit from engagement
Phil Pilkington considers the role that universities played in the EU referendum
· Analysis
Righting the wrongs
In this week’s narrative on higher education, Phil Pilkington looks at what students are fighting for
· Analysis
The student experience was invented in 1994
Phil Pilkington explores the origins of the concept of the “student experience” and finds a desire to understand, rather than just solve.
· Comment
A leading question
Are we right to criticise the pay of vice chancellors, and why are they so quiet in the public debate? Phil Pilkington examines leadership in higher education.
· Analysis
Slumming it on civic engagement
Phil Pilkington is back again this week with a novel take on the civic role of universities, as part of the narratives on higher education series.
· Analysis
Spiralling inflation
In the latest in his series of narratives on higher education, Phil Pilkington looks at press coverage of higher education and asks where it might lead.
· Analysis
Rock goes to college
In the first of a new series of narratives on higher education, Phil Pilkington looks at the history of rock on campus
· SUs · Members
Student misconduct guidelines- unintended consequences?
· SUs · Members
Higher Education, Students’ Unions and the Question of Conscience