Welcome to the fourth edition of the Scholarship Project newsletter including latest news and updates - aiming to support the development and embedding of a distinct scholarly ethos in the college HE sector.

April 2016 The Scholarship Project Welcome to the fourth edition of the Scholarship Project newsletter including latest news and updates · Aiming to support the development and embedding of a distinct scholarly ethos in the college HE sector · The project so far... Update from John Lea, Scholarship Project Director We are now entering the crucial second phase of the Scholarship Project where we will begin trialling and testing ideas aimed at enhancing higher education (HE) learning through forms of scholarly activity, in the expectation that many of them will become part of the project’s scholarship framework.    The trials and tests will take place throughout the period June 2016-September 2017 and each Scholarship Development Manager from the colleges involved in the project, will coordinate the activities alongside their partner colleges. Each trial or test will be evaluated and repeated or enhanced, as appropriate. If you have an idea on how HE learning could be enhanced through scholarly activity as part of the trialling and testing phase, let us know.   Registration for our second AoC College HE Research and Scholarship Conference taking place on Tuesday 28 June is now open.  If you attended last year you will remember that it was a lively and productive day and we hope to repeat that again this year.  We see this conference as an important contribution to help develop our community of practice and to provide a forum to critically discuss the on-going research and scholarship taking place.    We welcome presenter proposals which relate to any of the themes for this year’s conference and delegates who may just want to come along and listen and/or take part in the workshop discussions.  We would particularly like to see more students at this year’s conference. To submit an abstract, please visit the conference page. The deadline for abstracts has been extended to Friday 29 April. East Kent as a beginner college One of the key aims of the Scholarship Project is to ensure that the outputs of the project could be adopted by colleges at the beginning of their scholarship journey as well as those more advanced. East Kent College is one of the Scholarship Project's pilot colleges that is considered a 'beginner', as the college is both early to the scholarship journey and has a smaller HE provision. Scholarship Development Manager at East Kent College, Chris Dows, gives an update on the work the college has done to date on the Scholarship Project and how the project has helped bridge the link between scholarly activity and student employability. How important is employer engagement? Research indicates that a key element in developing a scholarship ‘model’ for college HE could be teachers and students engagement with practices and knowledge developed in the workplace, “significantly, it also offers the prospect of inviting employers into this space, not as people who know the answers, but in more co-joined scholarly ways” (Lea 2016).   There is a general acceptance, especially in the policy literature, that colleges are closer to employers than other HE providers – but what does that mean in the context of scholarship? And how can students be ‘scholarly’ in this context? And as importantly, are colleges developing co-joined scholarship practices, including teacher-workplace and student-workplace practices, within their employer engagement strategies?  Colleges in the project are beginning to explore these issues. East Kent College recently produced a think piece on the idea of students taking employment into their own hands. We also have a case study written by Leicester College on how the college has tackled the issue through work-based learning.   Lea, J (2016) The Scholarship Project Literature Review, AoC https://www.aoc.co.uk/system/files/Final%2026%20Jan%20-%20Scholarship%20Project%20-%20Literature%20Review.pdf [accessed 26 April 2016] International parallel projects: Australia As the Scholarship Project develops, it is becoming clear that the project links to other international work aimed at enhancing scholarly activity and college HE. In Australia, during a recent Innovation and Applied Research roundtable in Canberra, John Lea, Scholarship Project Director and a wide range of delegates from the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Directors Australia and New Zealand, discussed with government representatives the role of TAFEs in applied research. The roundtable was organised by the Board of TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) and the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management, University of Melbourne.   A key outcome from the roundtable was that the TDA will develop a green paper on Innovation and Applied Research in TAFE. This was in response to the Australian Department of Industry outlining its $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) initiative aimed at universities.   From the other workshops that John undertook during this visit, it was evident that TAFEs were in a very similar position to many college HE providers in the UK as they consider their strategies for developing an applied research agenda.  Many of them are also developing capability programmes for new staff which link to scholarly activity and one of them is actively involved in developing a doctoral programme which taps into the Aristotelian notion of advancing practical wisdom. Keeping up with the Scholarship Project We now have case studies including video case studies. Share what's happening in your college by submitting a case study. Have you read the latest Scholarship Project think pieces? In April's think piece, Craig Steer, Programme Leader for the BA Hons Music Performance at Hull College Group,  discussed how to successfully combine doctoral level study with teaching and learning commitments. Read the previous Scholarship Project newsletters.   Dates for your diary: 28 June 2016 - AoC Research and Scholarship conference