Month: May 2016

Seminar programme

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEMPORARY HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENT: ONE-DAY SEMINAR

Wednesday, 21st September 2016; University of Surrey, LTJ, Lecture Theatre Block

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

09.30-10.00, Registration

10.00-10.15, Welcome and overview of the ‘EuroStudents’ project: Rachel Brooks, University of Surrey

10.15-11.15, Keynote presentation: Michael Tomlinson, University of Southampton

Student Experience in Context: higher education policy and the changing value of university education

11.15-11.30, Break

11.30-13.00, Parallel sessions

Session A: LTJ

Spatial and social (im)mobilities through higher education: Michael Donnelly, University of Bath

Students in cities – the everyday mobilities of contemporary UK students: Mark Holton, Plymouth University and Kirsty Finn, Lancaster University

‘Talent-spotting’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal employable graduate: Nicola Ingram, Lancaster University and Kim Allen, University of Leeds

Session B: LTF

Her majesty the student: marketised higher education and the narcissistic (dis)satisfactions of the student-consumer: Elizabeth Nixon, Richard Scullion and Robert Hearn, University of Nottingham

The student-as-consumer versus the student-as-learner: some preliminary findings from the UK: Stefanie Sonnenberg, University of Portsmouth

Understanding the student experience: Rachel Spacey and Mary Stuart, University of Lincoln

13.00-14.00, Lunch

14.00-15.30, Parallel sessions

Session C: LTJ

Unreasonable rage, disobedient dissent: the social construction of student activists through media and institutional discourses in the United Kingdom: Jessica Gagnon, University of Portsmouth

‘I am completely uninterested in politics’: ‘Filial nationalism’ and ‘rational patriotism’ as mainland Chinese students’ political orientations in Hong Kong: Cora Lingling Xu, University of Cambridge

Understanding the contemporary HE student: ‘It’s like a bubble. You just get sucked in’: Grace Sykes, Northampton University

Session D: LTF

How institutional doxa an shape choice within higher education: Jon Rainford, Staffordshire University

Contemporary students’ rights: a discursive strategy to overcome hysteresis in a post-92 HE setting: Karl Baker-Green and Cinnamon Bennett, Sheffield Hallam University

Paradoxes of the academisation process: a sociological exploration of the history of foreign and classical language education since 1864: Eric Lybeck, University of Exeter

15.30-15.45, Break

15.45-16.45, Keynote presentation: Johanna Waters, University of Oxford 

Biopolitics and the ‘making’ of the unexceptional student: some geographical reflections on education in East Asia

16.45-17.00, Concluding comments

To attend the seminar, please register here. (There is a small charge of £30.)

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Two research fellow posts

Post-doctoral Research Fellows (2 positions – both are 5 year posts, starting on 1st August 2016)

Salary: up to £33,574 per year

The Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey invites applications for two research fellows to join the five-year ‘EuroStudents’ project, funded by the European Research Council (see here for further details). The project will explore the different ways in which higher education students are constructed across six European nations.

The first research fellow post will be responsible for the strand of work that focuses on institutional perspectives, i.e. the ways in which the higher education student is constructed through official university texts and staff understandings. S/he will be required to: liaise with relevant gatekeepers to secure access to research sites across six European countries; analyse websites and other public documents produced by universities (using both qualitative and quantitative methods); conduct and analyse interviews with members of university staff; and contribute to the analysis of data and dissemination of findings from the project as a whole.

The second post will be responsible for the strand of work that focuses on student perspectives. S/he will be required to: liaise with relevant gatekeepers to secure access to research sites across six European countries; conduct focus groups with students in three universities in each of the six countries; and contribute to the analysis of data and dissemination of findings from the project as a whole.

The successful candidates will have a doctorate in a relevant topic area, and experience of using relevant research methods. They will also have excellent organisation and communication skills and, ideally, knowledge of one or more of the languages covered by the project (in addition to English): Danish, German, Polish and Spanish. A willingness to travel abroad for a substantial proportion of the fieldwork is essential.

For informal inquiries contact Rachel Brooks: r.brooks@surrey.ac.uk

Closing date: 5pm, 6th June 2016

Interviews: 20th June 2016

Start date: 1st August 2016 (or as soon as possible thereafter)

Further details about the first post and the online application form can be found here, and details and the application form for the second post can be found here. (Please do apply for both posts, if you are interested in both.)