This week on the podcast the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) has published its annual Student Development Survey – what does it tell us about graduate jobs and skills?
Plus we discuss staffing in the sector, a new report from HEPI on China, and institution-level student financial support.
With Helen O’Sullivan, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of Chester, Pete Quinn, independent higher education consultant, David Kernohan, Wonkhe’s Associate Editor and presented by Jim Dickinson, Wonkhe’s Associate Editor.
Featured on the show
- This year’s ISE student development survey tracks the shift in employer expectations of graduates’ skills – with remote working and technical competence high on the list. Nicola Thomas surveys the scene
- Universities’ current industrial relations problems stem from political choices on the part of government, argue Adam Habib, Phil Clark, and David Lunn
- UCU: Two-thirds of university staff considering leaving sector, new report reveals
- As the state reduces its support for students in real terms, Jim Dickinson considers the role of institutional student finance measures in addressing the cost of living crisis
- Periodically, professional bodies, academics, and employers get together to set out expectations for the coverage of higher education courses. David Kernohan wonders how something old can feel so of the moment
- Higher education is changing rapidly but our conception of how universities are staffed has not kept pace, argues Mary Stuart
- Jonathan Grant applauds a new edited collection exploring the boundary-crossing “third space professional” roles in higher education
- HEPI: Understanding China: The study of China and Mandarin in UK schools and universities
Correlate
This week’s question is a perennial in higher education. Everyone knows that the staff student ratio varies by provider and by subject. But is the idea that more students need more staff the best predictor of variation.
If you plot academic staff FTE (excluding atypicals) against total student FTE for all cost centres, does it correlate?
The answer is yes. There is a medium correlation (or as David Hulse at Keele University would have it, a medium coefficient of determintate) – R squared is 0.597 and that’s at p is greater than 0.0001.
What fascinates me is the other thing that predicts variation – you may remember the Wonkhe groups that I use (yellow, pink, mint, teal…) to mark similar providers. Well, if you look at the graph the group is a very good predictor of staff-student ratio. I should also note that the graph allows you to look at each academic cost centre in isolation.
Data is from the HESA staff and where it doesn’t exist I’ve not plotted it.
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