PODCAST: Return to campus, Augar, Black History Month

This week on the show we check in on the return to campus and the fallout from student self-isolation that’s been dominating all the press coverage.

We also discuss the government’s partial response to the Augar review, the start of Black History Month and there’s a look at student discipline on Hidden History.

Presented by Mark Leach, Wonkhe CEO with Shân Wareing, Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Northampton; Joe Cooper, Deputy Director, HR and Service Transformation at Imperial College London; and David Kernohan, Associate Editor Wonkhe.

Items this week

• As calls from students and their families grow, Jim Dickinson wonders whether the usual fudges on tuition fee refunds are going to hold this time.
• Following the advice? Jim Dickinson digs into the advice from government scientists on student accommodation that went ignored by policymakers and looks around the corner at what might be coming next.
• Jonathan Grant and Simon Lancaster explain why a Comprehensive Spending Review offers a chance to rethink research funding.
• Progress on tackling racism has been painfully slow, says Kate Wicklow. A new GuildHE anti-racism initiative aims to spark action for change.
• Anti-racism isn't always comfortable, but true allyship demands action and accountability from universities in support of #BlackLivesMatter, argues Shaminder Takhar.

Correlate

This week I was charmed to see Michael Goodier in the New Statesment argue that there was a correlation between student neighbourhoods and Covid-19 cases. But does it stack up? I plotted last weeks Covid cases against students in term time residence for Lower Super Output Areas in England - the same data that underpins my dashboard on Wonkhe. Because of limitations in public data, I'm only looking at LSOAs with more than 2 cases of Covid-19. But is there a correlation?

On a national level, there is no correlation. R squared is 0.03. You can get a better correlation by looking at certain areas - Coventry, for example, gives you a correlation of 0.9, but this is entirely down to a skew caused by an outbreak at Warwick. Data is from the Jisc Tailored data service and Public Health England.  As always where the data doesn't exist I've not plotted it.

Get involved

To get involved in The Wonkhe Show, email team@wonkhe.com