Jill Dickinson

Building Bridges: A Critical Analysis of University-Industry Collaboration to Improve Diverse Access to Elite Professions.

This article explores how universities and industry can work together to improve access to graduate opportunities for disadvantaged students. Focusing on an initiative which involved students from a ‘post-1992’ UK university experiencing London’s legal sector, the article analyses the factors that contributed to the students’ perceptions of their increased self-efficacy as a result of participating in the event. Using a focus group methodology, the authors critically examine the barriers that can be imposed by students’ socio-economic backgrounds, which may prevent such initiatives from having a meaningful impact on diverse recruitment and fair access to the higher professional occupations. Concentrating on two strands of the Triple Helix model, the authors also make recommendations for building more effective bridges between universities and industry to improve access to the elite professions.

‘Dangerous Dogs’ Different Dog, Same Lamppost?*

Legislation governing the regulation of dangerous dogs is notoriously fraught with difficulties, in particular concerning the definitions incorporated within, and the enforcement and application of, the relevant provisions. This paper examines two aspects of the legislative framework; the regulation of ‘type-specific’ breeds of dogs, and the extension of regulations relating to the control of dogs from public to private spheres. These aspects afford an opportunity for two principal justifications in favour of controlling owners and their dogs to be analysed: the protection of the public and the need to responsibilise dog owners. This paper considers the extent to which type-specific provisions and the extension of dangerous dogs legislation to cover private spheres achieve those desired aims and concludes that these goals are not clearly met. The authors recommend a consolidated piece of legislation, alongside a more sophisticated approach (supported by further research) being adopted with respect to the nature of dog ownership.