What is learned at University (SOMUL)

Project website

http://www.open.ac.uk/cheri/pages/CHERI-Projects-SOMUL-Outputs.shtml

What research questions the project addresses, aims & themes

The aim of the project was to:

• increase our understanding of the learning outcomes from an increasingly diverse higher education system
• investigate how these are socially and organisationally mediated. Social mediation refers primarily to the effects of the social mix of students and the characteristics of the student culture and lifestyle. Organisational mediation refers to the principles underlying the organisation of the curriculum and to linked organisational issues concerning staff, students, time and space.

Focusing primarily on three subject themes, biochemistry, sociology and business studies, the project explored the relationships between conceptions of learning outcomes:

• as cognitive development
• as academic and professional identity
• as personal identity and conception of self

Additionally the project considered ways in which learning is mediated.

The research questions were:

1. What are the various conceptions of student learning that underpin subject benchmark statements, associated programme specifications and methods of student assessment?
2. What is their relationship to conceptions of student learning held by students and graduates and to the changes effected in them?
3. How do student identities and conceptions of self impact on or otherwise relate to formal learning outcomes?
4. How and to what extent are student identities and conceptions of self formed by the interactions of disciplinary cultures and student experiences, both inside and outside higher education?
5. How and to what extent are student learning outcomes mediated by social and organisational factors?
6. To what extent and under what circumstances are student identities and other learning outcomes maintained after leaving higher education?
7. How might 'official' conceptions of learning outcomes (formal assessments of learning, programme specifications, benchmark statements) be adapted to take greater account of research into student learning and be used to shape and improve learning experiences and outcomes?

How the research questions are addressed by the project (methodology and activity/environment)

The project's conclusions were based on the experiences of students and staff from 15 universities covering a range of different types of institution and drawing on different types of data. Over 1600 questionnaires were completed from students at the 15 case study universities, and over 600 questionnaires were completed as part of the wider survey of students. In addition, nearly 250 interviews were conducted with students at the case study institutions, coupled with focus groups and staff interviews.

The project was informed by and built on a significant academic literature on student learning. The experienced project team was assisted by two international advisors, from France and the United States. Regular meetings with representatives of the Higher Education Academy and its relevant subject centres occurred, as did meetings with the Quality Assurance Agency. The project was also supported by a steering group chaired by the Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute and composed of relevant experts from the research and policy communities.

Findings, outputs and impact

The project's findings on the effects of the increasing diversity of UK higher education - both in terms of its students and its institutional forms - have implications at different levels and for different stakeholders in higher education. But common to all of them is a set of challenges to all those who uncritically accept a reputational hierarchy as being the key to the understanding of the effects and consequences of diversity. The project has identified many commonalities to the experiences and outcomes of university study, almost irrespective of where and what one studies. And where differences exist they do not automatically match reputational hierarchies.

This means that intending students need greater clarity in working out their personal objectives and preferences, and to help them seek a good match between these and what is on offer at any particular higher education institution. They should not merely seek the so-called 'best' place to which their exam results will take them.

Universities and other higher education institutions probably need more clarity about the particular kinds of student backgrounds, lifestyles and objectives that can be catered for within the institution. They should recognise that different kinds of students will need different things. This is likely to involve giving attention to

• forms of curriculum organisation, including the amount and kinds of choices available, the advice and information to be provided on these choices and the larger social, organisational and spatial implications of these choices;
• whether and how to try to target different kinds of curriculum and pedagogic offerings to different kinds of students;
• what other forms of support, formal and informal, need to be provided to meet the needs of diverse groups of students;
• ensuring that the assessment and certification of learning recognise a wide and diverse range of learning outcomes.

Employers and others concerned with the qualities of university graduates need to recognise both what undergraduate studies have in common and how they vary. They should resist the temptation to ascribe simple stratified and hierarchical notions to the rich and complex outcomes of university study.

For government and national agencies charged with the oversight of higher education in the UK, a number of potential challenges to current policies and thinking are suggested by the student voices which have emerged in the course of the project. They include the following:

• The employability and skills agenda of government may not be fully shared by students. At the very least, an exclusive focus on employability and skills may lead to a neglect of equally important ways in which higher education may change people's lives and impact upon the communities in which they live.
• Conceptions of learning outcomes as expressed in subject benchmark statements were broadly endorsed by the students who took part in the study. But they failed to tell the whole story of what is learned at university.
• The dominant hierarchical conception of diversity in UK higher education in policy discourse provides only a very limited reflection of the diversities that exist, and neglects the commonalities that can be found.
• Specifically, the student experience is a part-time one for most students. This should be recognised, as should the opportunities which this can provide for a wider range of learning outcomes, both employment-related and in personal development.

Publications

Brennan, J., Edmunds, R., Houston, M., Jary, D., Lebeau, Y., Osborne, M., & Richardson, J. T. E. (2010). Improving What is Learned at University: An Exploration of the Social and Organisational Diversity of University Education. London: Routledge. Awarded a prize and highly recommended by the Society for Educational Studies, November 2011.

Edmunds, R., & Richardson, J. T. E. (2009). Conceptions of learning, approaches to studying, and personal development in UK higher education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 79, 295-309.

Keywords

Social mediation, learning outcomes 

People involved

John Brennan
John Richardson
Mike Osborne (Stirling)
David Jary (Birmingham)

Project partners and links

Centre for Higher Education Research

Institute of Educational Technology, Open University

Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning, University of Stirling

Funder(s)

ESRC

TLRP

HEA

Start Date and duration

1^st January 2004 - 31^st March 2008