{"id":37540,"date":"2017-01-18T11:17:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T19:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37540"},"modified":"2017-01-18T11:17:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T19:17:14","slug":"need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"generation<\/a><\/p>\n

University students have been called many things over the years, and the most recent term \u201csnowflake\u201d, is now being used to characterise a whole generation of \u201coverly sensitive students\u201d, more often labelled millennials.<\/p>\n

The word \u201csnowflake\u201d was both a Financial Times<\/a> and Collin\u2019s Dictionary<\/a> \u201cword of the year\u201d for 2016, with the definition given as:<\/p>\n

Someone deemed too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own, particularly in universities and other forums once known for robust debate.<\/em><\/p>\n

The phrase has been thrown around recently in relation to the changing face of higher education and the current reforms that will soon be impacting the sector. These reforms include the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), a flagship initiative from the Higher Education and Research Bill<\/a> which aims to give students more choice.<\/p>\n

The TEF will see increased scrutiny of English universities, which will be ranked as gold, silver or bronze depending on the quality of their teaching.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The higher education sector faces massive change. Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

Professional care?<\/strong><\/p>\n

These reforms are contentious, with many in the sector agreeing with the Sunday Telegraph\u2019s<\/a> analysis that:<\/p>\n

Universities will be forced to pander to the demands of \u201csnowflake\u201d students if controversial changes to the ranking system are approved<\/em><\/p>\n

In the same article, Baroness Wolf, a professor at King\u2019s College London, was quoted, saying:<\/p>\n

The student satisfaction measure is fantastically dangerous. The way to make students happy is not asking them to do any work and giving them a high grade.<\/em><\/p>\n

This perspective is leading to growing fears that university students cannot be trusted with power to shape how universities operate, and how education performance is measured.<\/p>\n

But I want to challenge this view, because an important motivation for the TEF is to address longstanding doubts about the level of professional care for teaching and learning in universities. The reforms are designed to prod the academic profession into less self serving behaviours, and instead to care more about the wider role of universities.<\/p>\n

As universities minister Jo Johnson put it in his 2015 green paper<\/a> that \u201cfor too long, teaching has been regarded as a poor cousin to academic research\u201d.<\/p>\n

Working in partnership<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having spent nearly two decades working and studying in universities it is clear to me that the academic profession \u2013 and the institutional environment of higher education more widely \u2013 has not cared enough about students and how their learning will shape the world.<\/p>\n

The right response for a profession that cares about learning is to work more closely with students in shaping the future. This means working in partnership with them. And this is why I am open to the challenges the TEF presents.<\/p>\n

There are legitimate questions about how teaching performance<\/a> can be fairly and reliably assessed, and whether surveying students should be the primary method. But concerns here are overblown. Because if students in our universities are learning to think critically about all kinds of subjects, then they can cope with learning about the limitations of psychometric \u201ccustomer satisfaction\u201d methods.<\/p>\n

Shared future<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need to move beyond what Ronald Barnett, emeritus professor at the Institute of Education, has called the \u201cconspiracy for safety\u201d in university teaching. This is the notion that the best way to achieve high satisfaction scores is to give students an easy ride, inflate their grades<\/a>, and turn education into light entertainment.<\/p>\n

We can overcome this by building structures of \u201cco-design\u201d and \u201cco-creativity\u201d with students \u2013 working with them as collaborators in learning and knowledge building.<\/p>\n

This means students redefining their role as \u201carchitects\u201d of learning rather than \u201ccustomers\u201d. The latter being a role they can leave behind as soon as they have secured their place.<\/p>\n

This is what I have started to do as part of a co-design process<\/a> with undergraduates. And although it takes a lot of time, care and energy, it is also professionally rewarding.<\/p>\n

For academics worried about the \u201cdumbing down<\/a>\u201d of teaching through the involvement of students in evaluating performance, my experience working with co-design has increasingly been the reverse.<\/p>\n

Yes, there is resistance and the occasional \u201cmeltdown\u201d that might be expected from young people in the process of becoming independent adults \u2013 the kind of thing we have all been guilty of in our lives. But undergraduates also demonstrate a hunger to learn, to share, and a motivation to succeed.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s fulfil our professional duty to care about students and how they learn. And let\u2019s work with them as collaborators to shape the future of higher education.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong>Mark Gatenby is an Associate Professor in Organizations at the University of Southampton <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University students have been called many things over the years, and the most recent term \u201csnowflake\u201d, is now being used to characterise a whole generation of \u201coverly sensitive students\u201d, more often labelled millennials. The word \u201csnowflake\u201d was both a Financial Times and Collin\u2019s Dictionary \u201cword of the year\u201d for 2016, with the definition given as: […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":37541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[42644],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-37540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-university-reform"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University students have been called many things over the years, and the most recent term \u201csnowflake\u201d, is now being used to characterise a whole generation of \u201coverly sensitive students\u201d, more often labelled millennials. The word \u201csnowflake\u201d was both a Financial Times and Collin\u2019s Dictionary \u201cword of the year\u201d for 2016, with the definition given as: […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-18T19:17:14+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/generation-snowflake.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"453\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-18T19:17:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":782,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/generation-snowflake.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"University reform\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/generation-snowflake.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-18T19:17:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/generation-snowflake.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/generation-snowflake.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":453},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"University students have been called many things over the years, and the most recent term \u201csnowflake\u201d, is now being used to characterise a whole generation of \u201coverly sensitive students\u201d, more often labelled millennials. The word \u201csnowflake\u201d was both a Financial Times and Collin\u2019s Dictionary \u201cword of the year\u201d for 2016, with the definition given as: […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-01-18T19:17:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":453,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/generation-snowflake.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities","datePublished":"2017-01-18T19:17:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/"},"wordCount":782,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/generation-snowflake.jpeg","keywords":["University reform"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/","name":"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/generation-snowflake.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-01-18T19:17:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/generation-snowflake.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/generation-snowflake.jpeg","width":680,"height":453},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/need-collaborate-generation-snowflake-improve-universities\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why we need to collaborate with \u2018generation snowflake\u2019 to improve universities"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37540"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=37540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}