Do the political attitudes of students change during their time in higher education?

Experience of higher education (HE) has come to characterise many contemporary political divisions, including those related to Brexit, Trump and coronavirus policy. However, the academic literature is unclear whether HE plays a causal role in changing peoples' political attitudes or is simply a proxy. Furthermore, in many contexts, there is limited descriptive evidence on whether students' political attitudes change during HE. This paper focuses on the UK, using data from the British Election Study, to make a twofold contribution. Firstly, the paper introduces recent political science theorising on the nature of contemporary political divisions, which has remained largely outside the HE literature to date. This theorising is illustrated through a cross-sectional analysis, comparing the political attitudes of those with and without experience of HE, showing that the former tend to be more left-leaning and less ethnocentric. Secondly, a longitudinal analysis is performed to assess how students' political attitudes change during their time in HE. While in HE, students tend to make small movements to the left and become less ethnocentric, representing approximately 20-33% of the overall division between those with and without experience of HE. These findings are interpreted through a critical realist lens-they evidence that HE could have a causal role to play in creating contemporary political divisions. However, to establish whether HE does play a causal role, further intensive research is needed to explore how particular aspects of HE might bring about these changes and how this varies for different students in different contexts.

Preparing Engineers for 2035: Transforming Australia’s Engineering Education for Emerging Roles and Expectations

The Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED) recently concluded a project (‘Engineering 2035’) to reshape Australian engineering education for future professional engineering graduates. Consultations with industry leaders and others identified the need to strengthen graduate engineers’ capacity for multi-disciplinary and cross-functional teamwork, with greater public accountability. Focus groups of prospective students revealed weak understanding of the growing range of opportunities offered by an engineering qualification of this nature. The corresponding curriculum transformation must ensure greater focus on transferable skills and contexts are delivered alongside technical content. We envisage more industry-based, problem and project-based pedagogies. We found that the engineering academic workforce is positive to such changes. Its recent adaptation of teaching methods to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions gives confidence of a good response to the emerging needs. The project identified 22 Calls for Action to the schools of engineering and ACED, and to industry, government and the professional accrediting body, Engineers Australia. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Healthcare systems and the sciences of health professional education.

Health professions education is that part of the education system which applies educational philosophy, theory, principles and practice in a complex relationship with busy clinical services, where education is not the primary role. While the goals are clear-to produce the health workforce that society needs to improve health outcomes-both education and healthcare systems continue to evolve concurrently amidst changes in knowledge, skills, population demographics and social contracts. In observing a significant anniversary of this journal, which sits at the junction of education and healthcare systems, it is appropriate to reflect on how the relationship is evolving. Health professions educators must listen to the voices of regulators, employers, students and patients when adapting to new service delivery models that emerge in response to pressures for change. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is one example of disruptive change, but other factors, such as population pressures and climate change, can also drive innovations that result in lasting change. Emerging technology may act as either a servant of change or a disruptor. There is a pressing need for interdisciplinary research that develops a theory and evidence base to strengthen sustainability of change.