PODCAST: Value indicators, wellbeing, NDAs, student engagement

This week on the podcast Universities UK is proposing new VFM indicators, there’s new analysis on teaching and learning and mental health, universities are being accused of using NDAs to gag student complainants and we chat Open Access with UKRI.

With Vanessa Wilson CEO at University Alliance, Andy Youell – writer, speaker and strategic data advisor and Wonkhe’s editor Debbie McVitty.

Items this week

• Approach to judging the ‘value’ of a degree needs overhaul.
• Students with few or no helpful teachers are 146% more likely to report a high level of dissatisfaction with life
• Sexual assault claims ‘gagged’ by UK universities
• UKRI Open Access
• OfS is ramping up its student engagement work
• OfS’ new strategy won’t help students speak truth to power

Correlate

Biological sciences and subjects allied to medicine are two closely allied subject groups. But, in 2018-19, does strength in one necessarily mean strength in the other? I’ve plotted the raw numbers of students (at all levels) at each institution – yes, but does it correlate?

Full screen

And the answer is no, not really. R squared is 0.25, suggesting a very weak relationship more likely to be explained by provider size. The numbers are taken from the recent release of HESA student open data, and where the data doesn’t exist – I’ve not plotted it!

Get involved

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