R. Comunian, Sarah Jewell, Adesola Sunmoni, Tam Dent
{"title":"For what it’s worth: European Arts & humanities graduates’ employability and their engagement in society","authors":"R. Comunian, Sarah Jewell, Adesola Sunmoni, Tam Dent","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156892","url":null,"abstract":"How do European Arts and Humanities (A&H) graduates contribute to their economies and societies? This paper aims to answer this challenging research question by analysing data from the 2018 pilot Eurograduate survey of graduates. The article explores the monitoring of employment dynamics and considers the labour market outcomes of A&H graduates compared to other graduate groups. Our analysis enables an understanding of the utilisation of A&H graduates’ knowledge and skills in the current employment market (job-qualification match) and more specifically, their contribution to legal, social and cultural occupations. The dataset variables enable an exploration of the multiple contributions made by A&H graduates to other aspects of contemporary society. Specifically, we examine graduates’ volunteering activity during and after their degree, alongside other forms of civic engagement, including political and social action. The findings contribute to the broader debate on the value and impact of A&H degrees beyond measurements of graduate earnings.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"211 - 232"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48970597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cutting the STEM of future skills: beyond the STEM vs art dichotomy in England","authors":"Heidi Ashton","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156893","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156893","url":null,"abstract":"For the last decade education policy in England has been underpinned by a dichotomisation of education into STEM versus Arts. The rationale is that STEM graduates gain more lucrative employment via the desirability of the ‘STEM skills’ which it is stated are increasingly in demand and imperative for economic prosperity. Through a literature review and analysis of policy documents and reports this paper examines evidence regarding the assumptions that are inherent in this claim. In doing so it reveals that the rationale for this approach is deeply flawed, particularly in relation to future skills needs. This raises questions not only for the current direction of policy but fundamentally the notion of STEM as a useful and meaningful acronym in this context. The evidence instead calls for an integrated, dynamic and strategic approach to education policy that fundamentally moves beyond the false dichotomy of STEM versus Arts.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"148 - 163"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41951075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melina De Dijn, Catho Jacobs, E. Zenner, L. Ihalainen, Minna Palander-Collin, Elizabeth Peterson, Sanne Arens, M. de Baar, Jeroen Touwen, Liesbet Heyvaert
{"title":"Skills as stepping stones for employability: Perception research into the skills of Humanities students","authors":"Melina De Dijn, Catho Jacobs, E. Zenner, L. Ihalainen, Minna Palander-Collin, Elizabeth Peterson, Sanne Arens, M. de Baar, Jeroen Touwen, Liesbet Heyvaert","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156887","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156887","url":null,"abstract":"OECD reports a mismatch between field of study and job content for Humanities students, while at the same time signalling labour market shortages for skills that seem clearly linked with the Humanities, e.g. delivering information. In order to investigate which skills Humanities students associate with their university studies, we conducted a survey among 1306 European Humanities and 231 non-Humanities students. The survey asked these students whether they felt they acquired skills during their Humanities university education which were identified in a pilot phase. The students’ answers were analysed quantitatively, arriving at a Humanities self-perception skills profile of 70 detailed descriptions of skills that fall under six clusters. We argue that this profile could be a crucial step to improve the employability of Humanities students, as students’ perceptions of their skills greatly determine the quality of transition to the labour market.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"194 - 210"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46935704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mapping Eve: A new materialist approach to concept maps as “working objects” in the humanities classroom","authors":"I. Hovland","doi":"10.1177/14740222231165906","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231165906","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a SoTL study of students’ use of concept maps in my undergraduate class “Women in Christian History,” in a mid-semester module called “the Eve project.” I present three students’ maps to show the different kinds of understandings that students developed in this literacy encounter. I am especially interested in how I can read these learning artifacts as a humanities scholar, and I use humanities theory—in this case, new materialism—to understand aspects of my students’ map-making, with a focus on the keyword “work.” I argue that the maps in my study, read through a new materialist lens, functioned as working objects in a manner that encouraged “differenciation” (inviting students to move toward multiple undefined learning outcomes), and that this is quite different from the work of “differentiation” (ranking students according to predefined learning outcomes) that concept maps traditionally perform in science classes.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"424 - 443"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47664474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daniel Ashton, D. Bennett, Z. Bulaitis, M. Tomlinson
{"title":"In the name of employability: Faculties and futures for the arts and humanities in higher education","authors":"Daniel Ashton, D. Bennett, Z. Bulaitis, M. Tomlinson","doi":"10.1177/14740222231160409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231160409","url":null,"abstract":"This introductory overview sets out the scope and aims of the special issue, which is concerned with establishing more meaningful understandings and discourses on the relationship between arts and humanities and graduate employability. The issue comes at a time of increased government-level questioning of the social and economic value of higher education (HE), and particularly humanities disciplines. The propositions developed in this introduction and the contributing authors’ papers aim towards developing stronger and more meaningful engagement with the future place and role of arts and humanities within HE and wider society. We establish a variety of themes in the value of HE and make connections to the contributing authors’ articles. We finish with critical questions for continued debate and research in the nexus between arts and humanities and graduate outcomes. These are all pertinent to the questions of value that underpin many of the papers in this issue.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"103 - 111"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42992376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Still not scraping the bottom of the barrel’: ‘Rich points’, feedback, disadvantaged students, and solutions","authors":"A. Hale","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156820","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156820","url":null,"abstract":"This article builds on research, previously published in this journal, which tracked student outcomes in a first year core course in an Australian university over the space of 6 years. That research found that a fundamental shift in educator attitude - away from problematising student disadvantage, to seeing student disadvantage as an opportunity - was essential in activating student motivation and autonomy. Success was measured by student retention, overall grade distributions, and positive student feedback. Viewing student deficits not as the problem, but rather as ‘rich points’, or opportunities for adaptation, is helping to facilitate student success. Indeed, this article asserts that an integral part of finding solutions is the ability to decode student feedback – both positive and negative – as an articulation of what disadvantaged students need most.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"388 - 406"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45462800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Art and/as open education: A collaborative action with refugee artists","authors":"Anna Apostolidou","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156807","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156807","url":null,"abstract":"The article illustrates the potential of engaged arts-based pedagogies in higher education with respect to integration interventions for young refugees in Europe. It discusses the conception and implementation of the collaborative initiative “Find Refuge in Art”, which was part of the research Project PRESS at the Hellenic Open University. This example shows how artistic synergy may become an integral part of research design, framing both awareness raising and open education in the backdrop of intercultural exchange. The initiative encouraged the co-production of artistic work from pairs of artists with refugee and non-refugee background and culminated in an exhibition with over 75 participating artists. Challenging the victimizing conceptualizations of refugee art as a primarily trauma-centered representation of displacement, the article invites us to consider questions of agency and inclusion in terms of mutual recognition and to widen participation as a means of fostering transformative intercultural learning and epistemic justice in universities.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"345 - 367"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48993833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identifying the phases of learning in an Australasian undergraduate architecture design studio model","authors":"Naima Iftikhar, P. Crowther, L. Burton","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156816","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156816","url":null,"abstract":"An understanding of the theoretical basis of the design learning process, and the resulting partnership between students and teachers in contemporary design studios, is required to optimise learning. Students’ learning in the architecture design studio has been widely studied, however the specific activities of students and teachers, and the interpersonal interactions between them, have not been investigated in great depth. This research identifies a complex, nuanced situation, one with three consecutive phases of different learning activities and relationships. An undergraduate architecture program at a large Australian university is analysed using a modified Delphi method to investigate the perceptions of staff and students and achieve convergence upon a shared understanding of how the design learning process unfolds through three distinct phases to support learning.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"407 - 423"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48627000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Crafting professionals: Logics of professional development in craft higher education","authors":"Lauren England","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156895","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156895","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores how the presence of competing logics in craft higher education (HE) influences educational provision and student experience. Findings are presented from four craft HE case studies across England, including analysis of degree programme specifications and module curricula and interviews with educators, current students and recent graduates conducted in 2018. The article presents how these logics influence employability-focused teaching in craft curricula and how this impacts time, space and facilities allocated to physical craft work. Key tensions identified include perceptions and measurement of graduate “success”, the impact on skill development and studio space and (dis)engagement with professional development training. The article concludes with reflection on how this relates to the perceived value of arts degrees, but argues that the responsibility to “prepare” students for craft careers cannot lie solely with HE providers.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"128 - 147"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44141178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Undergraduate language programmes in England: A widening participation crisis","authors":"Becky Muradás-Taylor","doi":"10.1177/14740222231156812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156812","url":null,"abstract":"England has a language education crisis: fewer people are studying languages at school and university language programmes are closing. This study analyses data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the UK admissions service for higher education. The study quantifies how entry tariff and socioeconomic background affect access to language degree programmes. The results show that (1) the number of students studying languages and number of languages offered correlate with entry tariff and (2) the probability of a university offering languages and probability of it offering a range of at least five languages correlate with entry tariff and the percentage of students from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds. Thus a widening participation crisis is highlighted: while many young people are unable to access language degree programmes, a small proportion, with the highest tariffs, can choose from a range of at least five languages. To combat the crisis, a Widening Participation Languages Network has been launched, supporting universities offering languages at below-average entry tariffs.","PeriodicalId":45787,"journal":{"name":"Arts and Humanities in Higher Education","volume":"22 1","pages":"322 - 342"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46972472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}