Reasons to write for Wonkhe this year

There were close to 400 articles on the site last year which were written by the wider Wonkhe community.

The world of higher education criss-crosses virtually all areas of both policy and professional practice, if you can find the stories and the voices – it’s one of the most interesting things about our jobs. This also means that there are few easy answers and a whole host of silos, both in governments and institutions, sadly – but that’s a different blog.

So to pick some examples from the last twelve months, we had authors in and around the sector writing for us about family leave, campus security, support for disabled PhD students, and consent education.

…and technical staff data, and culture and the mission economy, and Scotland’s apprenticeship system, and research impact brokerage, and what radiographers can teach us about AI.

We had articles on curriculum design for language degrees, how to make a good HE chart, whether students should be paid to take part in surveys, and even how Australia might learn from the TEF. And like 350 other topics.

There’s a readership out there for all these different subjects, because across the country others are working in related roles and dedicating their lives to doing them better – and also because it’s fascinating to get an insight into what’s going on in parts of universities that you’ve never stumbled into.

What’s published on Wonkhe is a cross-section of what people are willing to put themselves forward and write about. And if you’ve got something to say on any topic, no matter how niche, there’s an interested and informed audience out there.

You can find more about the process here – for now, we caught up with a handful of first-time Wonkhe authors from the past year to ask them why they wanted to write an article and what they got out of it.

Sapna Marwaha

Back in June Sapna wrote on Wonkhe about research security and EDI, looking at how developments in other countries contain lessons for the UK. She said:

The rapid pace of change in the research security space means that it can be hard to find the time to pause and reflect on the bigger picture. I had been thinking about the topic for a while and I reached out to the Wonkhe team as I was pulling my ideas together.

It created some accountability for me, making sure those ideas didn’t linger in a draft version for too long.

A great thing about Wonkhe is the reach – starting a conversation beyond your network and the usual suspects. A number of people reached out after the article went out: some to let me know that it resonated, others to say that it got them thinking, and some to start a conversation about overlapping projects and ideas.

Emma Maslin

Last year Emma both wrote about her PhD research with commuter students and was back on the site six months later to pick up the conversation in light of new developments. Emma said:

As a PhD student researching commuter student experience in HE, I was really keen to widen the impact of my research outside of academic texts to the people who were working with commuter students and could make a very real, credible difference to their experiences. A previous colleague of mine suggested I write for Wonkhe.

I’ve read Wonkhe daily for a number of years now so I had a good idea of the tone and length of articles, but it was really useful to also read their style guide to frame the piece. All in all, the process took less than a month from conception to publication.

Writing my first Wonkhe article gave my PhD research exposure in the sector I just wouldn’t have had otherwise. Following the publication of my article, I was invited to speak on commuter student experiences at a student services training session, write an expert commentary on commuter student experience, and advise student services professionals on defining and supporting commuter students. This was also demonstrable real-world impact I could highlight to my funding body.

When it came to applying for jobs in the final stages of my PhD, I was able to use the articles I had written for Wonkhe as examples of my knowledge and expertise of sector challenges and how this could interact with student experience.

Jon Rowlands

In October Jon wrote an article for Wonkhe problematising the idea of building resilience in students and suggesting an alternative. He told us:

As an academic who works in a more practice-based field, I am very mindful that my publication record is thin, and my confidence in that area has not been high, so I wanted to try and nudge into a more public-facing arena on a topic that means a lot to me. Having recently discovered my own neurodiversity, that seemed to be a topic I could speak on that would cut across subject specialisms and perhaps resonate – as indeed, and delightfully, it did.

My first draft ended on a slightly confrontational note (I was aiming for provocative…), which was me trying to front up the confidence a bit, to mask my insecurity of being taken down by seasoned academic writers! The feedback on my first draft was so helpful and focused, gave me a clear line without interfering on my argument, and really helped me shape it up into something better and more of a conversation starter.

Alongside some really rich reaction on the article comments itself, I made some very interesting connections out of it, at least one of which has the potential to become a slow burn collaboration.

I would highly recommend this route to any academic in a similar position, who wants to explore and extend their academic network and exposure within a supportive framework.

Erica Cargill and James Cunningham

James and Erica took an initiative at Robert Gordon University as a starting point for wider reflection on what works – and what doesn’t – in undergraduate research.

We often discuss things in the office that we have seen in Wonkhe, we talk about whether the debates and discussions are important for what we do. Also, we see Wonkhe as one of the most widely read outlets in the industry. Everyone from vice principals to new lecturers keeps up with what is going on there.

As we all know, there is a tendency to fall into academic silos – we saw this as a chance to speak to a broader audience. We knew that our curriculum initiative would be useful for others to hear about, so we wanted to get it in an outlet that had reach and credibility. Wonkhe was the natural choice for us.

One of the main draws was the format of articles, relatively short pieces which can be impactful and offer food for thought to the reader. In terms of the process itself, this could not have been more straightforward: emailing our idea across to the team who then gave some advice on length and suggestions to tighten the content.

Darcie Jones

Darcie wrote about her experiences as a working-class sabbatical officer. She had this to say about the reaction to her article:

One thing I didn’t anticipate was just how many officers, and ex-officers, felt the exact way I did but didn’t have the words to explain their discomfort, or the empowerment to speak up against classism they had experienced while working in the HE sector.

While my social media and emails flooded with messages of thanks for verbalising these experiences, members of staff that I may have underestimated stopped me on campus to talk about my article. I quickly saw that while I felt alone, I was surrounded by sabbatical officers and university staff with almost identical experiences to myself but who had chosen to assimilate to their environment.

The feedback showed a gap in spaces for working-class officers to become a community and acknowledge our barriers while empowering and supporting each other.

So thanks to writing an article for Wonkhe, I created a space to build this community, while facilitating educational sessions to also support the professional development of officers – and we now have a community of 60 officers from the UK and Ireland that partake in open conversations about their experience of working in a middle-class dominated sector.

Sarah Whalley

Along with her colleague Candy Rowe, Sarah wrote for Wonkhe on Newcastle University’s work on research culture, contributing to the discussion around the shape of the next Research Excellence Framework exercise.

Being a prominent home for the debate on the REF people, culture and environment proposals, Wonkhe provided an ideal forum for us to share our work on research culture evaluation, and to advocate for a values-led sector-wide approach.

Publishing our work with Wonkhe sparked wide-ranging interest, and led to an invitation from Advance HE to deliver a keynote at their Research Culture Symposium. This has proved very beneficial as we continue to develop methods to evaluate our research culture programme and wider research strategy. It opened up opportunities for engaging with colleagues across the sector that may not have happened if we had published the piece elsewhere, and helped me to regain momentum on a project started before my maternity leave.

The process of pitching to Wonkhe was a very positive one – we received a quick, welcoming and encouraging response. We were advised on the timing of when to publish, and how to shape the piece, to achieve increased engagement. I would encourage anyone with an idea for an article to get in contact with the Wonkhe editorial team.

Lucy Merritt

Back in April Lucy contributed an article to Wonkhe on the changes being made to Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). She said:

I have been a long-time reader of Wonkhe and know it has a powerful readership base. I contributed an article in March this year about reforms to Disabled Students’ Allowance.

I work really closely on DSA and know how important it is for disabled students and their universities. There was a void of information out there about the reforms and what they mean in practice – and I knew my knowledge would be of help to others.

Duncan Hindmarch and Steve Hollyman

Last autumn Steve and Duncan blogged for Wonkhe on how the Office for Students’ previous proposals for the retention of assessment materials would cause big problems for authentic assessments.

We both shared concerns about the Office for Students’ guidance on retaining assessments for future scrutiny. Steve had previously scratched the surface of this complex issue in a small research project which focused on how inspectors could effectively judge work which was original at the time of submission but had become outdated when reviewed five years later. The findings also revealed concerns about, among other things, practicalities of data storage and access to obsolete apps.

After publication we wrote a brief overview for the Staffordshire University technology blog to raise awareness of the article. Duncan was then able to use this on the university’s online MA Education course to show students different approaches to writing for different audiences. One of their assessments is to write a blog, so it was good motivation to see an example from a lecturer (and great fun for them to critique it as well).

We found the process really supportive and confidence building. If you’ve got something to say, we would fully recommend having a go.

We want to hear from anyone with an interesting story to tell to help drive forward the conversation for the benefit of the sector. If you are interested in writing for Wonkhe, we’d love to hear from you.