ASHPIT THINK TANK DAYS

Overview: The ASHPIT project will include three policy and practice think tank days per year. These days will include a policy overview, a keynote speaker, a workshop on a particular aspect of researcher development, and a best-practice sharing session . The results of these think tank days will be written up and published here for the benefit of those who cannot attend.

Fifth Policy and Practice Think Tank

  The next think tank event will be held on Monday 28^th May at the University of Oxford. 

  It will focus on: collaborating in consortia; embedding impact; and preparing PGRs for careers in academia.

Provisional Timetable 

9.30-10.00	Arrival with coffee
10.00-10.45	Panel presentation: “Working in Consortia”: discussion of the benefits and challenges of working in the new context of DTCs and cross-HEI consortia.
10.45-11.05	Q&A session
10.05-11.30	Introduction to impact: Introduction to key points of the impact agenda, particularly in terms of the relationship between RCUK ‘Pathways to impact’ and impacts for the REF
11.30-11.45	Coffee break
11.45-12.00	Case study of current good practice in researcher development seeking to bring together these two types of impact
12.00-12.40	Group exercise: development of a hypothetical project encouraging PGRs to work ‘impactfully’ in collaboration with academic staff
12.40-13.00	Group feedback
13.00-13.45	Lunch
13.45-14.15	Policy Review: “The Wilson Review”
14.15-14.45	“Preparing for Careers in Higher Education”: Introduction to the skills needed and existing provision for preparing PGRs for careers in HE.
14.45-15.00	Case Study of current good practice in preparing PGRs for academic careers, including an example of an HE ‘internship’ model
15.05-15.45	Group Exercise: design in-house’ (HE) internships to support PGRs’ preparation for academic careers
15.45-16.00	Coffee plus group presentations of / feedback on internship ideas
16.00-16.30	Summary / final Q&A

Venue: 

The event will be held in the University of Oxford’s Humanities Division, Hooke Building, Parks Road, OX1 3PR. This is the building to the left of the Natural History Museum, as you face the museum. 

Fourth Policy and Practice Think Tank Day

The fourth think tank will take place in London on Friday 18^th November 2011 between 9.15am and 4pm and will focus on the topic of Placements and Internships.

Provisional Timetable

9.15-9.30	Arrival with coffee
9.30-10.00	Welcome and Introductions
10.00 to 11.00	Presentation:  Sarah Kerr & Dr Rebekah Smith McGloin, ASHPIT project leaders: Policy Review – why the imperative for work placements?
11.00-12.00	Panel Discussion Dom Potter - Dom is co-founder of Internocracy, an award-winning social enterprise which raises the bar and lowers the barriers in internships. Internocracy works with employers to accredit exceptional paid internship programmes and supports young people into quality, paid internships. He is also the founder and Director of the Transition Institute; a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; and a trustee of the volunteering charity TimeBank. Adam Buss - A marketing and public relations specialist with more than 6 years of high- level working on major brands such as Sony, Motorola, Topman and Air France, Adam is currently Director of Audience Engagement at Derby QUAD Limited. He is a specialist in Arts marketing and public relation,  having developed national media profiles and marketing strategies for leading regional arts organisations, including Derby’s new £11million centre for Art and Film, QUAD. Kerry Wright – Kerry is Postgraduate Placements Manager for the University of Nottingham, in which capacity she has been managing the European Regional Development Fund £1 million postgraduate placements project in partnership with Nottingham Trent University.  Kerry will cover the following areas: resource implications for universities; issues around setting up a large-scale placements project; the expectations of the industry hosts and other key challenges; ‘top tips’ for managing industry/ HEI relationships; human resources/payment of interns. Isobel Esberger – Isobel is a postgraduate student who completed a placement at Reaktion Books this summer. She will talk about her experience there; what she got out of it; what the key challenges are as a postgraduate taking part in a placement ; and the key skills she developed during her placement. Rebekah Smith McGloin or Sarah Kerr – Chairs of ASHPIT and Researcher Development Training Managers at the University of Nottingham will be exploring how to use reflective practice to maximise the impact of a placement for PGRs.
12.00-12.30	Coffee Break & Comment
12.30-1.30	Case Studies: TBC Anyone interested in presenting a case study should send an email with a brief overview of the placement scheme they would like to discuss to: ashpit@nottingham.ac.uk
1.30-2.15	Lunch
2.15-3.15	Workshop
3.15-3.30	Coffee Break & Comment
3.30-4.00	Final Comments & Close

Venue:

The event will be held at University College London’s Careers Service building, which is easily accessible from both Kings Cross/St Pancras and Euston station. Click here for details of the venue location and the nearest tube stops. For more travel information, please use the journey planner on the Transport For London site www.tfl.gov.uk

Third Policy and Practice Think Tank Day

The next ASHPIT event will be held on Tuesday 12th July at the University of Manchester. The theme for this event is Employer Engagement and, as usual, the day will begin with a review by the ASHPIT managers Rebekah Smith McGloin and Sarah Kerr of recent policy pertaining to this theme. The keynote presentation will be delivered by Peter Forbes (Associate Director of the Council for Industry and Higher Education).

Provisional Timetable

10.00	Arrival with coffee
10.15-10.30	Welcome and Introductions
10.30 to 11.15	Presentation:  Sarah Kerr & Dr Rebekah Smith McGloin, ASHPIT project leaders -“Employer Engagement in Policy”. Why should I spend time on engaging with employers?   A brisk walk through recent relevant policy including a look at:  Leitch Review and CIHE submission on ‘After Leitch’ to the select committee, Smith Review – One Step Beyond:  Making the most of postgraduate education sector (2010), The Concordat and the RCUK Delivery Plan, Hodge Review of Researcher Skills Development (2010) and Hidden Connections:   Knowledge exchange between the arts and humanities and the private, public and third sectors (2011)
11.15-11.30	Coffee Break and Comment
11.30-1pm	Keynote Presentation, Q&A & Workshop: Peter ForbesPeter is currently Associate Director of the Council for Industry and Higher Education.  He is a human resources development consultant and manages projects and programmes in the public sector. He focuses on employability skills development and helping higher education and employers create value through their links with each other.  Peter is a member of the policy forum of the Council for Industry and Higher Education. He has been secretary to the National Forum for Business School Deans and Employers, Council Member of the Institute for Teaching and Learning (now the Higher Education Academy), Vice President of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, Board Member of the Council for Education in World Citizenship and Board Member of the Foundation for Management Education.
1-1.30pm	Lunch
1.30-2.15	Case Studies
2.15-2.45	Comment and coffee break
2.45-4.00	Workshop: Making researcher development relevant to employers. Participants will work in teams to take one of the three key skills gaps identified in the Talent Fishing CIHE report – leadership skills, work experience and an ability to explain the value of a postgraduate degree – and develop a collaborative training intervention to plug the gap.

Venue:

The event will be held in room 2.016/2.017 of the Arthur Lewis Building, marked number 36 on campus map. The venue is easily accessible from Manchester Piccadilly station; our hosts at the University advise  if you intend to take a taxi from the station that you request to be dropped off at the Manchester Business School.

Second Policy and Practice Think Tank Day

The second ASHPIT event will be held on Friday 15th April at the University of Oxford. The theme for the think tank will be Entrepreneurship, and the day will include delegate workshops as well as a policy update from ASHPIT managers Rebekah Smith McGloin and Sarah Kerr, keynote presentations by Alison Mitchell (Deputy Director of Vitae) and Andy Penaluna (Professor of Creative Entrepreneurship) , and three great case studies of current practice in researcher development.

Provisional Timetable

10.00am	Arrival with coffee
10.15-10.30	Welcome and Introductions
10.30 to 11.15	Presentation:  Sarah Kerr & Dr Rebekah Smith McGloin, ASHPIT project leaders - “Entrepreneurship in Policy”. Why should I spend time on entrepreneurship skills development?  What do the Researcher Development Framework and Statement; Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers; AHRC Research Training Framework; ESRC Postgraduate Training Guidelines, and QAA say about entrepreneurship?  Examples of good practice.
11.15-11.30	Coffee Break and Comment
11.30-12.30	Keynote Presentation and Q&A: Alison Mitchell, Deputy Director of Vitae & Andy Penaluna, Professor of Creative Entrepreneurship, Swansea Metropolitan University and Chair-elect of Enterprise Educators UK
12.30-1.15	Lunch
1.15-2.15	Case Studies “Researcher Development in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship: targeting the full discipline base” John Baxter/Nigel Biggs: University of Surrey “The use of social enterprise as a model with which to engage researchers on the topic of enterprise skills” Paul Spencer, University of the West of England “The Enterprise Cycle” Kevin Byron: Queen Mary University London
2.15-2.45	Comment and coffee break
2.45-4.30	Workshops: Generating practical plans for entrepreneurship-skills development for researcher developers working with researchers in the Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities.  The case-study presenters will each lead a group looking at how to develop their ideas cross-institutionally, and Rebekah and Sarah will lead a fourth ‘wildcard’ group.

Venue:

Humanities Divisional Office

37a St Giles’

Oxford

OX1 3LD

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 280106

 

Please click here for a map of the venue location.

First Policy and Practice Think Tank Day

The first of these sessions will be held on Monday 13^th December at the University of Nottingham. The focus for this first think tank day will be on Public Engagement in researcher development.  A provisional programe for the day is included below. Please note that we are looking for speakers to present case studies of their work on any researcher development project which fits with the theme of Public Engagement. If you or a colleague would like to present your work in this area to the think tank please email ashpit@nottingham.ac.uk expressing your interest and giving a very brief summary of the case study you would like to discuss. Alternatively, leave a comment at the bottom of this page and we’ll get back to you.

Those of you who are intending to join us on December 13th may find the University of Nottingham’s Map and Directions webpage helpful in planning your journey to the University of Nottingham. The policy and practice day will be held in room LG13 of the Trent Building. You may find this University Park Map helpful in finding your way there.

Provisional Programme

9.30-10.00	Arrival with coffee
10.00-10.30	Terms of Reference for the group
10.30-10.45	Coffee Break
10.45-11.30	Presentation: Dr Rebekah Smith McGloin & Sarah Kerr, ASHPIT project leaders - “Public Engagement in Policy”.Why should I spend time on public engagement activities?  What do the Researcher Development Framework and Statement; Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers; AHRC Research Training Framework; ESRC Postgraduate Training Guidelines; and QAA say about public engagement?
11.30-12.00	Comment
12.00-12.15	Break
12.15-1.30	Presentation: Paul Manners, Director of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement.Paul will be talking about the headlines from The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement conference. He will explore the place of public engagement in the 21st Century university system and focus on the launch of the NCCPE’s Public Engagement Manifesto and associated resources – distilling the learning from the beacons initiative, and created to inspire and support universities to embrace engagement in their work.
1.30-2.00	Lunch
2.00-2.30	Case StudiesStudy One: Dr. Claire Stocks, Humanities Research Staff Development Officer at the University of Manchester, will be talking about the Humanities Researcher Showcase, a public engagement initiative allowing doctoral and postdoctoral researchers to communicate key aspects of their work to the public via research posters. Dr. Stocks will discuss the Showcase itself, as well as some of its key outcomes for both participants and their audiencesStudy Two: We will also be joined from the University of Southampton by Dr. Laurie Stras and Dr. Will May, who will consider some of the ways in which the Faculty of Humanities is putting Public Engagement at the heart of its postgraduate curriculum. In particular, they will focus on the development and implementation of a new project which will involve Creative Writing Masters students and their work in the running and programming of the literary elements of the New Forest Arts Festival.
2.30-4.30	Workshops: Generating practical plans for public engagement activity as a tool for researcher development in the Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities.