Alice Wilby

Trying to imagine what the reaction would have been if the Govt had casually announced they were replacing A-levels with no details, as they have done with post-16 vocational qualifcations today.

Probably not total indifference.

“I hope other young people see a person who was in the same boat but is now doing loads of cool stuff."

Ahead of #GCSEResultsDay Sarah from the Students' Union and our Pro Vice Chancellor, @aewilby.bsky.social, talk about why it's not a time to worry.

northampton.ac.uk/news/what-to...

It's a proud day for our Learning Development Team as they are announced as winners of a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence by @AdvanceHE after demonstrating a dedicated and innovative approach to improving student outcomes - bit.ly/4fpaZhI

Even mild face blindness can cause serious difficulties in daily life – new study Strategies to recognise people require ‘huge mental effort’ and often don’t work.

🧠🧍‍♂️ Mild face blindness, major impact

A new study shows even mild prosopagnosia can make daily life difficult – including recognising close friends or family.

Calls are growing to recognise it as a form of neurodivergence.

🔗 theconversation.com/even-mild-fa...

#SciComm 🧪 #FaceBlindness

A set of eight rectangular cookies arranged on a square white plate against a dark wooden background. Each cookie is inspired by a wallpaper design by Morris & Co. The patterns represented feature different floral and leaf shapes in shades of baby blue, soft pink, leafy green, mustard yellow, cream, and dark grey.

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵

First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

Available Apprenticeships | University of Northampton List of Apprenticeships Accounting & Finance Manager Degree Apprenticeship [Level 6] The Accounting & Finance Manager Degree Apprenticeship...

There are new degree apprenticeships coming up at #UON, planned to start soon.

See our website for more about apprenticeships in #Accounting and #Finance, Digital #Marketing and #Podiatry.

northampton.ac.uk/apprenticesh...

#apprenticeships

"The role of the civic university agenda is not to extend the university into the world but to extend the world into the university." - spot on.

There's been a bit of bandwagon jumping on the 'civic agenda' in the last year - as a sector we need to look a bit less self-interested to do it well.

I remember a year 7 geography lesson where we had to draw something to represent Wakefield, and we all drew the M1...

I'm all in favour of the idea of offering more HE provision in my hometown, but amused that Wakefield's only selling point remains how easy it is to escape by road

My PhD research is on how we can better support students who have taken BTECs to succeed in HE, so alternative pathways to HE, rather than in HE.

Thank you, and likewise! My enthusiasm extends to all sea creatures (though cats still win)

This is astonishing (though also not surprising). A strong signal that some of the financial challenges in the sector are getting harder to manage without external support.

What universities do now is more important than how they came to be The age of a university is often used as a proxy for quality. David Kernohan learns from crustaceans that history can be misleading

What universities do now is more important than how they came to be wonkhe.com/blogs/what-u...

Any article that compares universities to crustaceans is always going to be a good one, and this is really excellent.

The definition of madness Governments need to stop making the same incredibly expensive mistake over and over again

New post just out:

"The definition of madness"

Why governments keep making the same incredibly expensive mistake over and over again.

And what they should be doing instead.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

Map indicating potential cold spots in provision of SHAPE subjects. ©️British Academy, 2024.

🚨 Are we seeing regional cold spots in social sciences, humanities & arts provision emerge across UK HE? 🚨

Today our team @britishacademy.bsky.social launches the first new mapping tool on our SHAPE Observatory. Our maps track changes in SHAPE subject provision in UK universities since 2011 🗺️ ⤵️

One thing that I didn’t have the space to put into yesterday’s article on mergers and student numbers distribution was the potential impact on housing.

A spiral of tabby cat with his paws over his face

Charlie wants me to believe he's had a hard day. Oh to be a cat.

“updated research has revealed that professionals from working-class backgrounds are paid an average of £6,287 – or 12% – less per year than their more privileged counterparts in the same occupations”
#SocialMobility

www.socialmobility.org.uk/campaign/the...

Amongst many other things I'm interested in education policy, widening participation, non-traditional and third space careers in HE, and making over-elaborate cakes.

Charlie the tabby cat curled up asleep on a grey blanket

And in my 'spare' time I'm a PhD student at Oxford Brookes looking at how we can better support BTEC students to succeed in HE. I'm supported/distracted by my brilliant feline assistant, Charlie...

I've been quietly watching on here - time to post something...

I'm Alice, in my day job I'm a consultant working with universities on all kinds of projects relating to transformation, curriculum development, tertiary education and regulation.