Events and Activities
Seminar Series at Oxford Learning Institute
Week 1 Thursday 22nd January 2009
Does Linking Teaching with Research Add Value? The View from a Research-Intensive University
Week 2 Thursday 29th January 2009
Valuing leadership and leadership development in England’s universities: a route to isomorphism?
Professor Rosemary Deem, University of Bristol
Week 3 Thursday 5th February 2009
Delivering undergraduate research for all students? International perspectives
Professor Alan Jenkins, Oxford Brookes University
Week 4 Thursday 12th February 2009
An analysis of ‘hybrid’ scholarly journals: New spaces for developing distinctive ways of knowing?
Dr Barry Stierer, Centre for Higher Education Research, University of Westminster
Week 5 Thursday 19th February 2009
Characteristics of excellent teaching departments, and the role of leadership of teaching, in elite research universities
Professor Graham Gibbs, former Director of the Oxford Learning Institute
Week 6 Thursday 26th February 2009
Researching with integrity: exploring the role of character
Professor Bruce Macfarlane, Portsmouth University
Week 7 Thursday 5th March 2009
Tears and Fears: Canadian Tenure Reviews and Gender Equity
Professor Sandra Acker, University of Toronto
Week 8 Thursday 12th March 2009
Too good to be true? Teaching excellence in higher education
Dr Alan Skelton, Sheffield University
Previous Activities
Teacher Education Reform in Germany between Professionalisation and the Bologna Process Professor Hans-Georg Kotthoff (University of Freiburg) Time: 10 February 2009, 2:30 Place: Seminar E, Department of Education, 15 Norham Gardens Seminar Convener: Hubert Ertl
19
February 2008, 5-6.30 pm, Garden Building, Rooms G & H
Talk by Professor Hans-Peter Blossfeld
(University of Bamberg, Germany, and Director of the State Institute for Family Research):
National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) in Germany – Research Questions and Design for a New Lifecourse Study
Hans-Peter Blossfeld will introduce the German Education Panel Study (GEPS), a new large-scale survey which will collect longitudinal data on competence development, processes of education, and educational decisions in both familial and institutional contexts. The study will take all important stages in educational careers over the live-course into account. Prof. Blossfeld will discuss backgrounds, research questions and relevant methodological issues of the study.
17 – 18 March 2008
Seminar
Degrees of Success: Transitions between HE and VET
This seminar will discuss the findings of the Hefce-funded and TLRP-administered Degrees of Success project and consider their implications for the widening participation agenda. The overall aim of the meeting is to develop ways in which the transition of students between the contexts of VET and HE be facilitated and in which the learning experience of these people in HE can be improved. The seminar is aimed at researchers and practitioners working in HE and VET.
Helen Carasso's talking
On Tuesday 7 November 2006, Helen Carasso, one of the DPhil students at the Department of Educational Studies, gave a talk to the MSc graduate students in Higher Education. Helen has also worked as Admissions Officer for the University. Her talk gave students a great deal to think and talk about, with her insightful presentation on the issues that UK Universities are facing regarding costing and pricing undergraduate courses. 
Visit to Littlemore College
Our visit to Littlemore College provided us with a deeper sense of John Newman and his work. Sister Brigitte Hoegemann, of the spiritual order The Work, was our host for the visit. Littlemore College is situated about three miles outside of Oxford city, yet once we were inside the College, we found ourselves in a world of tranquility where the world seemed to fade away. The College's garden forms a nice courtyard for several cottages that are available for scholars and clergy who chose to study and/or meditate there. Littlemore College is truly being used in the way its founder John Newman meant it to be.
Sister Brigitte led us through the garden and by the cottages to the College's library where we were immediately immersed in the world of John Newman. Bookshelves filled with volumes of his letters and his discourses, in addition to other texts he had collected, lined the walls of the room. Above the bookshelves, paintings and photographs from Newman's life and portraits of him hung on the walls. It was fascinating to see with our own eyes the letters he had written, and to touch the desk where he composed some of his famous works.
Pointing to paintings and photographs throughout the room, Sister Brigitte gave us a thorough and insightful account of John Newman's life. Newman devoted his life to scholarly work and in particular to a deep exploration of the Anglican and Catholic faiths, the idea of a University and other discourses.
It was to Littlemore that John Newman fled in 1841 to escape the whirlwind of controversy that surrounded him. His involvement with the Oxford Movement and his belief that the Anglican Church should emulate the early Catholic Church, caused outrage amongst the Anglican bishops. Newman was forced to retire from life at Oriel College where he was a Fellow. To avoid the controversy that surrounded him, he devoted his time to changing the property at Littlemore from a large stable and semi-converted cottages to a college where scholars and clergy could study and retreat for a while from the outside world. While supervising the renovations at Littlemore Newman continued to work on the Select Treatises of St. Athanasius and other works. He became convinced that Catholicism was in his own words, "the One True Fold of the Redeemer." On October 9 1845, in the oratory of Littlemore College, he was received into the Catholic Church by Father Dominic Barberi, the Passionist. After 1846 John Newman left Littlemore and went to the Old Scott in Birmingham to be ordained as a Catholic priest. It was here that he founded the Oratory of St Philip Neri (a community of priests without vows). Later on this group became the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory who brought Littlemore College in 1951 and restored it to its former glory.
As both an Anglican vicar and a Catholic priest, Newman was a prolific writer and thinker whose works have been translated into numerous languages. In 1879 he was made a Cardinal, eleven years before his death in 1890. In his lifetime John Newman established himself as one of the most prominent theological and academic thinkers of his age. His book "The Idea of a University" is still in use today in universities throughout the world and is a seminal text in many university courses that explore higher education throughout the world
Our exploration of Newman's life ended with delicious refreshments provided by Sister Brigitte and an impromptu piano recital by Xuan that brought our visit to a pleasant close. Before we left we viewed Newman's bedroom that remains untouched and is kept vacant in his memory. A pair of his reading glasses and a letter he had written remained on a desk in the room, the remnants of a man who was first and foremost a true scholar.
Our visit to Littlemore College was not only informative and educational, but also entertaining and enlightening, thanks in no small part to our engaging host Sister Brigitte. We would like to thank her for making John Newman come alive for all us and for giving us a greater understanding of the man and his work.
Professor Gibbs talking
On Thursday 25 January 2007, Professor Gibbs, the director of the Oxford Learning Institute gave a talk on "Professionalisation of higher education teaching and the role of academic development." Since 1975, Professor Gibbs has been implementing structures for the professional development of university teachers in three institutions. His insightful and informed presentation focused on the work that the Oxford Learning Institute has conducted, in relation to the development of teaching and learning in higher education, as an area of academic research in its own right. Professors Gibbs also discussed the Institute's work in connection with development work undertaken by other institutions in the UK and worldwide.
