HE Committee Chair’s Column

NAWE NEWS

HE Committee Chair’s Column

Summer...

It has been a busy six months for the HE Committee, and I would like to outline below some of the initiatives and discussions we have been a part of.

The HE Committee continue to monitor the impact the pandemic is having on the HE sector as a whole. We are paying special attention to ideas around blended learning and how this will (or will not) continue after all the restrictions are lifting. What is becoming clear is that while some universities continue to support writers working with them, others aren’t quite so understanding and we have to take a balanced view there.

We acknowledge and understand the issues around ‘blended learning’ which are not going to disappear overnight. And, indeed they may never go back to how things were. We continue to monitor this but as an organisation we need to be able to present ideas on what we have learned and how to make things better for the future. This process has begun and we will come back with some ideas. However, we would love to hear about any successes out there. Please do write to us with them.

We have also been engaged with the Society of Authors on various issues such as ‘Open Access’ (a problem for writers and PhD candidates who wish to pursue commercial publishing). Also issues such as ‘zero contracts’ for associate lecturers. The Open University have a gone a long way to helping ‘Associate Lecturers’ secure fixed contracts but other institutions have much further to go. In a climate where universities are engaging more casual staff and having less permanent heads, this is clearly very concerning. Along with the Society of Authors, we will support this across the board, if we can.

We recently conducted a survey on the different way institutions interpret their regulations on creative PhDs. It is clear these regulations are written differently across the country, including the split between the creative work and the critical reflection. It might be that we can produce a firmer steer on expectations because a consensus does seem to be coming to the fore. It was just as I expected. Apart from a couple of tweaks, the proportion/balance issue has been addressed simply but not on a percentage split. The creative piece is as long as it has to be, for example a 90,000 word novel, 40 poems etc., but the critical reflection is 20-30,000 words. That way the critical piece is fairly standard but the artefact is judged on its own merits.

One thing we considered was the ‘question’ the PhD addresses (with the creative piece being the answer). If, say, a performance piece, or a poetry collection addresses the BLM issue, what would be the question which frames the performance/collection? So the critical rationale is pushed towards critical reflection in the creating, and not just the theory of performance - or in a poets case, creative writing. However, it’s clear from this kind of input from colleagues on the committee that we can begin to bring a paper of suggestions together which we can put on the website.

One of the new things we have put in place – and this is an alert out there to undergraduate tutors –we will be adding a student contribution feature in upcoming editions of Writing in Education. This will be designed to give students experience in the submissions process. More details are to follow on this but we feel it allows us to encourage new, young writers.

On the good news front, Writing in Practice has two new Principal Editors. Kate North (Cardiff Met) and Francis Gilbert (Goldsmiths) have agreed to share the post. And sharing the post will be welcome because the Journal has grown hugely in the past few years. Indeed we are getting record submissions, way beyond our early expectations. Much of this success is down to Derek Neale (OU) who is the outgoing Principal Editor. Derek, we thank you for your strong hand on the tiller, your canny steering as each issue came to publication and never ending energy in taking it forward. You will be greatly missed, although I expect the handover will have your