Please see below for three pieces of information SCUTREA Council hopes you might be interested in:

1. Call for Expressions of Interest to the Special Issue 'Advancing Theory and Research in Widening Participation' to be published in Studies in Continuing Education.

Organised by Nalita James and Ellen Boeren, this call seeks expressions of interest in papers contributing to the following topics:

• Methodological considerations in Widening Participation research, including the use of new innovative methodologies
• The need for appropriate data to assess Widening Participation issues
• The development of recent theoretical frameworks in the field of Widening Participation
• Empirical testing and validation of new theoretical frameworks and measurement instruments in the field of Widening Participation
• Pressing questions for Widening Participation research
• The role of interdisciplinary thinking in Widening Participation research
• The development of innovative evidence based impact and dissemination strategies in the field of Widening Participation

Papers can be conceptual and/or empirical in nature, but the main argument of the paper needs to be constructed around the way in which your findings and outcomes can be used to advance research strategies in Widening Participation research.

You can download the call or see it featured below. Within this document you will find further details, deadlines and contacts for this call, but please note that the deadline for 500 word outlines is 15 December 2015.

2. We wish to make you aware of SCUTREA's events fund: as an organisation we support members to organise and run seminars, one day events or mini-conferences. In giving this support, we want to stimulate the exchange of information, research output and ideas between members belonging to the adult education community - academics, post-graduate students and practitioners. Please note you must be a member of SCUTREA to qualify (either institutional or individual), but our fees are modest.
​Further information can be found here: http://www.scutrea.ac.uk/p/events.html where you can also download the full guidelines.

3. Article by Claire Callender, 'We must act now to save part-time university education' which argues that higher fees are to blame for plunging enrolments, and that the dismantling of provision may make loss irreversible:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/claire-callender-we-must-act-now-to-save-part-time-university-education

Claire Callender is professor of higher education at Birkbeck, University of London and the UCL Institute of Education. The above article is an edited version of her contribution to the Higher Education Policy Institute’s blue book on part-time study, 'It’s the finance, stupid!'.

We hope you find these pieces of information of interest, and as always please feel free to share, tweet, or contact us for further information or assistance.

With best wishes

Gillian​

Dr Gillian Cowell
Visiting Affiliated Scholar
School of Education
University of Stirling
Stirling FK9 4LA
http://stir.academia.edu/GillianCowell
Twitter: @Gillian_Cowell

Communications Officer for SCUTREA (Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults)
SCUTREA Twitter: @SCUTREA14  and #SCUTREA2016 for our 2016 conference 'Adult Education in Austere Times' at the University of Leicester. Keep up-to-date via www.scutrea.ac.uk.