Loraine Blaxter

Writing on academic careers

ABSTRACT During the last two decades the higher education system in the UK has moved from an elite to a mass orientation, while academic careers have become less secure and more demanding, and a greater accountability has been imposed upon the system. In the light of these changes, it is appropriate to ask what is known about the nature of academic work. For the purposes of this article, academic work has been conceptualised as involving one or more of five overlapping roles: the commonplace triumvirate of teaching, research and managing, plus writing and networking. The existing literature on each of these roles, and on academic careers in general is reviewed. At the time of writing, there was no single comprehensive text available on academic work in the UK. While much has been written in recent years on the teaching role (and, to a lesser extent, on managing) relatively little of a cross-disciplinary nature appears to have been written on academic researching, writing or networking. The future developm...

Participating in medical education: views of patients and carers living in deprived communities

Objectives  Active patient involvement in community‐based education is still relatively novel; in particular, the involvement of patients living in socially and economically deprived areas is still unusual. This study explores the views of patients and carers living in deprived areas on their participation in medical education.

Telling it How it is: Accounts of Academic Life

Several kinds of account of what academic life is like are available. This article reviews three of these – academic novels, the professional media and ‘how to’ guides produced for academics – and makes some comparisons with the picture presented by academic research on higher education. These genres convey multiple, partial, diverse and competing accounts. Understanding their messages is interesting, useful and important to those interested in academic life.

Mature student markets: An institutional case study

Warwick University, a research-led institution, has, in common with other universities, sought to expand its provision for mature students by developing new part-time and full-time degree programmes. Separate but related research projects have surveyed the students involved, looking at their characteristics, educational backgrounds and study purposes. This paper examines the extent to which distinct or overlapping markets for mature students are catered for by the different degree programmes offered.

Life Transitions and Educational Participation by Adults.

This paper examines the idea that life transition events or turning points are linked with educational participation in adults’ understandings and biographies. The extensive, interdisciplinary literature in this area suggests the importance of such linkages in both theory and practice, and is supported by anecdotal evidence and behaviour. Our analysis focuses on 36 interviews carried out as part of a study of students on two large, local part‐time degree programmes. These students split into two, almost equal groups: those for whom a clear linkage between their current educational participation and one or more life transitional events can be identified, and those for whom no such linkage is readily apparent. Indeed, the latter may be consciously resisting such linkages. They are involved in education for its intrinsic interest, with no immediate instrumental end in view. The idea of life transitional events, while it has its uses, does not form a suitable basis upon which to build satisfying, explanatory ...

«I'm only doing it to get in the black gown': dream and reality for adults in part-time higher education

Abstract This paper argues that there is a rich variety of goals and motivations to be found among adults studying for arts and social studies awards in higher education institutions. The way in which the purposes of degree‐level study are described by participants is significantly influenced by age, gender and economic position. The purposes of study may also be best revealed in retrospect. The research reported here was a case study of the University of Warwick part‐time degree programme. At the time of the research there had been five years of enrolment, and the first students had just graduated.

Audiences for part‐time degree study

Abstract Part‐time forms of higher education have been given little attention in policy discussions during the last 20 years, but they have been steadily growing in importance. They are likely to become even more significant as the British higher education system attempts to move rapidly towards mass participation by the beginning of the next century. This paper draws together the findings of six selected recent surveys of part‐time first degree students: carried out by, at, or on behalf of the Council for National Academic Awards, four Scottish higher education institutions, the Open University, Birkbeck College, London, the then Polytechnic of North London, and Warwick University. From these sources, the information available on the nature and variety of part‐time degree students is summarized: covering their age, sex and other demographic characteristics, social background, previous educational experience and qualifications, motivation, employment and employers, location, expenditure, reactions to thei...

Weak and strong publics: drawing on Nancy Fraser to explore parental participation in neonatal networks.

Aims  We draw on the work of Nancy Fraser, and in particular her concepts of weak and strong publics, to analyze the process of parental involvement in managed neonatal network boards.