SRHE Annual Report - Society for Research into Higher Education

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Chair’s introduction The Society provides an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to share and debate research into Higher Education. The sector has experienced a raft of challenges in the past year both in the UK and internationally. Although many of these challenges have caused consternation amongst our colleagues, there have also been numerous opportunities to research the policy and practice of higher education as a result. Indeed, the need to research the field is even more imperative. During the past year, the Society has been active in enabling its members to engage with emerging research and theoretical stances through its networks and conferences. The Society introduced a new research award to address three domains: Higher Education and Society, Higher Education and Policy and Higher Education Practice during 2011. The awards were well received and attracted interest from a wide spectrum of colleagues. We were able to make four awards in this first round of funding. We are pleased that our commitment to supporting research in higher education has led to these awards and we will be announcing the next round of funding in 2012. We have been active in promoting the Society’s publications. We successfully launched a new SRHE book series in 2011. The first books are being published in 2012 and we anticipate a growing number of future publications through our partnership with Routledge. Members will now be familiar with the new style of SRHE news under the leadership of Professor Rob Cuthbert. His editorial style has been particularly enjoyed by members and we are now looking forward to drawing upon our newly developed website to further enhance the dissemination of our work and keep members informed of research in the field. We will be saying goodbye to two outstanding editors this year, both Fellows of the Society. Professor Malcolm Tight will be standing down as Editor of Studies in Higher Education, the Society’s journal, and Professor Ian McNay will be standing down as editor of Abstracts in Higher Education. Both Ian and Malcolm have provided leadership and commitment in ensuring that research into higher education is disseminated widely and accessibly. We thank them for their hard work over the past years. Our network events continue to attract a significant following. We are pleased that our new networks in International Issues and Theorising Higher Education are now well established. We hope to further enhance opportunities for delegates to continue discussions through social networking in the coming year. Our network events and meetings have benefitted from our recent move to new accommodation. Our new website which will be launched at the end of 2011 will provide additional opportunities for members and the public to engage with our activities. As Chair of the Society I would like to thank the SRHE office staff for their untiring dedication to the work of the Society. I would like to thank all my colleagues who are members of Council and the Society’s committee for their commitment and hard work over the past year. There are four Council members who are standing down this calendar year: Professor Miriam SRHE Annual Report 2011 Page 5
David, Professor Vaneeta d’Andrea, Janice Malcolm and Professor Ron Barnett. I thank them for their contributions to the work of Council and support for the Society. Finally, on behalf of all members of the Society, I would like to thank our Director, Helen Perkins. The Society continues its strong position today as a result of her commitment and energy. I have enjoyed working with her this year and look forward to our continuing collaboration. Higher education research has a key role to play in the sector. I believe that the Society offers opportunity for dialogue and debate and can provide impetus for new ways of conceptualising higher education and influence its practices. I very much hope that members will continue to derive benefit from the range of activities of the Society. Professor Yvonne Hillier Chair A word from the Society’s Director Our President, David Watson, and our Chair, Yvonne Hillier, have both picked out a number of highlights of the past year, all of which mark significant landmark achievements for the Society, not least amongst these the introduction of new SRHE small research grants. I will therefore focus more on looking forward to the year ahead and our next set of challenges. One very significant change ,forced upon us by circumstance, was the need to move offices yet again when the building in which we thought we had settled alongside a number of other linked organisations was sold to developers and the rug(or more literally the carpet tiles) was pulled from under our feet. The role of the Director of a learned society is multi various; a “Jackie of all trades” but also, one hopes, master of the most important ones. Estate agent and surveyor are not roles in which I claim any expertise but once again, under pressure, the SRHE office team all pulled together and for several tough months we searched the highways and byways of London for suitable premises, whilst at the same time coping with landlord behaviour which made “Rachman “(a reference for the older members) appear benign. With our Network events attracting such high delegate participation we were already finding the space we had for seminars of 35 people too small and putting these events out into commercial rentals was proving expensive. So, if at all possible, we were looking for a space with great flexibility, scope to hold the majority of our events in-house, well located for SRHE Annual Report 2011 Page 6
Page 1 and 2: SRHE Annual Report 2011 73 Collier
Page 3 and 4: President, Vice-Presidents and Fell
Page 5: Governing Council (As at 1 st Octob
Page 9 and 10: Membership update SRHE Members Stat
Page 11 and 12: Research and Development Committee
Page 13 and 14: SRHE Research Awards 2011 As part o
Page 15 and 16: SRHE Publications Studies in Higher
Page 17 and 18: Guides on Postgraduate Issues Publi
Page 19 and 20: Honorary Treasurer’s report The S
Page 21 and 22: BALANCE SHEET AT 31 JULY 2011 Fixed

SRHE Annual Report - Society for Research into Higher Education

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?