MN on WonkHE

[titchy]

Great I thought! Then I read the item. Ellen's comment sums it up.

https://wonkhe.com/blogs/what-does-mumsnet-have-to-tell-us-about-students-consumerism-and-quality-assurance/?utmmedium=email&utmcampaign=Wonkhe%20Daily%20-%20Friday%2023%20September&utmcontent=Wonkhe%20Daily%20-%20Friday%2023%20September+CIDc77ef230f592e144970baa0fba50567a&utmsource=Email%20marketing%20software&utmterm=and%20while%20it%20aint%20pretty%20I%20argue%20there%20are%20lessons%20to%20learn%20for%20academic%20quality

This is so inappropriate. Whilst it is an open forum, I've always perceived it as a safe space for those of us working in HE to share concerns and experiences 😡

MN is definitely not a safe space, and I'm sorry you were mislead into thinking it so.

It's a large and wide-open site, with no user verification whatsoever

Well, "Jim Dickinson" has totally misunderstood that thread. Even though I (under a NC) made the comment he deigns to commend as "helpful."

<inset meme of "Stop talking women, a man has entered the room to give us his opinion">

HOW on earth can anyone concerned with the quality of HE and student experience read the thread he links to as anything OTHER than deep concern about students cheating themselves, gaming their own educations?

Why is he blaming academics for a fucked up system which we spend at least on average an extra 400 hours per year (around 10 hour UNPAID overtime per week) trying to shore up precisely so our students can have a satisfactory education??

Listen, Jim Dickinson, come in here and engage with us, actual academics, rather than snarking at women elsewhere. You're a coward

The commenters who suggested Jim wouldn't be writing like that about male academics' forum posts have nailed it, I reckon.

I've been a fan of WonkHE for a long time, but noticed a change in tone recently and don't feel that comfortable with it now.

Scraping MN click bait threads. How very daily Mail of the them. Not surprising as Wonkhe has been becoming increasingly less relevant for a few years, cowtowing to NUS and their favoured authors on repeat. Not as bad as HEPI who only seem to have 5 people on speed dial, but still.

The exception is David K who does a great job of increasing the accessibility of statutory data returns. It's such a shame as Mark started it all off so well.

I love DK's dashboards!

Disappointed with WonkHE now though - switching to Playbook (woke but quite funny).

The article strikes me as something written by someone who has done lots with student unions but never really grasped what academics do. I work with several people like this and it's surprising how blinkered they can be and are all about flexing everything for every students' whim.

Although it is still on the site, it seems to have disappeared from the public front page. Which is interesting. 🤔

It's also been amended since the original print...

Maybe posters who have been mentioned can put it on their CV, as public engagement? 🤔

Ffs. I don't even think the MN discussion has anything to do with the article's point about quality, it just seems like he wanted to have a dig at someone (preferably women). I also find it fascinating (and terrifying!) how any attempt at criticizing the status quo (the horrible workload, the mounting expectations, etc.) is increasingly shut down under the pretense of kindness and inclusivity.

Agreed @aridapricot - how anyone could read that specific thread, and see it as anything other than deep frustration with current HE systems & ethos coming from government policy and university senior managements, and the way they encourage students (and parents) to instrumentalise their education, is beyond me. I don't think he was writing in good faith.

I challenge him to come here & engage with us in an actual discussion, not snark.

The cherry on top of Dickinson's snark for me, was his dig at our concerns around student mental health. No-one on that thread was unconcerned about student mental health, but I think a lot of us are concerned about the way that normal feelings of anxiety, responses to stress, and the normal bumps of adult life, are becoming pathologised. And the real difficulties a minority of students face are being pushed aside by the cranking up of ordinary stresses. Dickinson chooses to read this as a bunch of academics laughing at student health concerns.

Totally agree - I've been puzzling over the segue from a discussion of students needing to engage with a topic when it's a named part of their award to his point about engaging students in discussions on academic quality. How does one link to the other?

I agree. You could top and tail this article and it would lose nothing from what I think his point is. Can't stand that man and have to mute him at conferences.

It's a REF impact case study for sure.