A proposal for working with Higher EducationNEWELL HAMPSON-JONES, Education Sector Representative, BSI

Speech delivered Tuesday, 27th July, 2010

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This presentation is a brief presentation of how BSI has approached education in the past and how the new Education Sector Representative is hoping to work specifically with higher education to support the sector through a period of uncertainty and make a new generation enthusiastic about standards and standardization.

Previous BSI Activities

BSI’s previous focus was mainly Key Stage 2 – Sixth Form, with a number of projects, the most successful of which was the BSI Education website, which won the inaugural European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) PR award for best website contribution.

Parallel to these activities there were also higher education linked initiatives. BSI supported research studies, some of which are ongoing, by Dr Henk de Vries and Dr Knut Blind, two of the industry’s most renowned standardization researchers. The International Journal of Quality Standards was formed and can still be found on the BSI Education website, providing peer-reviewed standardization research from international academics. BSI has also engaged in collaborative projects with universities prior to standards development work, these being research studies to influence the need, scope and direction of standards.

BSI has been successfully active in the education sector, but partly due to the academic freedoms that autonomy provides universities, it is clear that there is a need to focus on the higher education sector so that we can ensure students understand standards and standardization-a skill set which can be a benefit to have in the workplace.

Feedback from Higher Education

In my eight months in post, I have received some great feedback which would appear to agree with this assessment. From a number of meetings and communications with the various areas of the sector, we’ve heard the following:

On teaching standards: Standards are important, but difficult to teach. Many

academics feel they and colleagues teaching standards do not fully understand what they are and how they’re made.

Resource Availability Many academics are not confident about teaching

standards due to lack of resources Standards themselves are perceived as expensive for

students to research, which in itself, is an interesting point I shall come back to later.

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With regards to Academic involvement: Some academics believed that the cost of being involved in

standard development makes it difficult to take part, especially in the current economic environment.

But on the subject of standardization and research I was told:

Standards could be a vehicle for getting research to market, of which the UK has been traditionally slow.

A collaborative group could be beneficial; listening to the industry’s needs and setting out BSI’s objectives.

There are clearly specific needs in the sector that I believe we have to address and I would like to quickly propose how BSI can meet those needs.

Standardization EducationMy key concern is not to get standards taught on degrees’ syllabi, many relevant courses already teach standards, it is to change the way standards are taught. It is my personal belief that some academics are not teaching standards in a way that effectively helps students understand them. I have heard tales of lecturers talking of standards as if they weren’t written by anyone but just exist.

“Here is a standard, now go forth and learn it.”

I think we should look at raising awareness of the context of standardization, meaning we need not just to educate students, but the academics as well, to encourage more enthusiasm and understanding of how standardization can be a tool for innovation that all could be a part of. This would benefit BSI in years to come with strengthened committee membership and a new perspective to the standardization process.  It sounds simple to say, but how do we do this? If we were to create an adaptable lecture which can be delivered to students regarding the context and history of standardization with a later focus on standards that may be relevant to the student, I think we would have an excellent tool that lecturers could use to reach this objective. Alongside this, we can create a seminar plan for a simulation exercise putting the students in a committee meeting writing their own standard. The work here can be compared to an existing standard, hopefully showing a number of differences which will encourage students to get involved so that they can make the changes they feel are needed to standards. Ideally, this could be done for a standard up for public comment, this way we can immediately feed the student’s ideas back to the committee and they can follow the progress of the standard’s creation.

Should this approach become successful and gain popularity, I would propose we also recorded a video lecture for delivery on distance learning courses, to give students a permanent reference

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to standardization or use as backup training resources for academics. This can then be the springboard for creating an online module, which could be an elective choice for university degrees or short courses in their own right.

We are already making progress with these ideas and I’m very pleased to say that the support from academics and universities so far has been fantastic, contributing to ensuring the students get the best experience possible.

Standardization Research

Standardization research can be a vital tool for increasing awareness of the role standards play in the economy and industry. It can also help with demystifying the process and providing more transparency, to make it more accessible to end users who may not understand it.

As awareness increases we can hopefully lead the way in innovating the process, listening to ideas from a fresh outlook.

Ideally I’d like to be able to assist academics in securing support from research funding bodies, like the Technology Strategy Board, for study in this area or to create within these bodies a fund for standardization impact research which can be applied in the workplace or used to help educate students.

I also propose that BSI continues to work with university research departments on any standards associated research that they may wish to embark on.

Working Together

The most important aspect of this proposal is to ensure that both BSI and the sector can work together. I have been using online and social media extensively to communicate with the sector, example of which can include commenting on HE focused blogs & articles, utilising networking sites like LinkedIn and academia.edu and keeping in touch on Twitter.

Online support is great, but just as important-if not more so-is meeting with individuals from a wide spectrum of areas in the industry to gather feedback, advice and ideas. It is important to understand what the stakeholders of our work feel is needed, rather than dictate how to proceed and I hope this attitude has been reflected in my work so far and continues to be in the future.

In the longer term, I hope to create a proactive collaborative group to encourage involvement from academics, key decision makers and students. I should also take this moment to add that our

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international activities with CEN and ISO will be just as important in maintaining BSIs position as industry innovators.

One of my main goals will be to bring more academics in to the standardization process, inviting to relevant committees. I would also hope to increase student involvement through BSI’s standards development website or the standards proposal portal-both initiatives that I think are excellent tools to add transparency in the process and engage end users.

Students will also be important in identifying gaps where BSI can provide solutions to help with their learning. With this in mind, if you will allow me to revisit my earlier point where I was told that standards are expensive for students to research, we also need to communicate to students and lecturers the resources that are already freely available to them. Most universities have access to the British Standards Online libraries, but there have been many instances where students or academics are unaware of this. Through closely working with the sector we can also inform them of where further resources, like BSI’s YouTube channel or the International Journal of Quality Standards, are available for them to get the most out of learning about standardization.

With the proposals mentioned today, I truly believe we can help universities and students through this period of austerity gain more from services BSI can offer and benefit from increased awareness of standards and the standardization process. I’d like to thank you for listening and to add that the work presented here would be nothing without the input of the people I have met and worked with both in BSI and the higher education sector. With that in mind, I always welcome comments and suggestions and-most importantly-any questions you might have.

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If you would like to get in touch regarding this speech, please contact:

Newell Hampson-JonesEducation Sector Representative

BSI Group 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4ALT:  +44 (0)20 8996 7227M: +44 (0)7767 886 713E:  newell.hampson-jones@bsigroup.com

Newell Hampson-Jones - Biography

Newell Hampson-Jones is the new BSI Education Sector Representative. He has spent most of his career working within Higher Education at a variety of levels. Starting in administrative student facing roles, Newell has worked on a number of large scale projects, including implementing policy for the new Tier 4 Points Based System, co-designing a raft of post-graduate business degrees and managing the student experience for those programmes at a private business school.

Newell joined BSI in January 2010 as Education Sector Representative, charged with raising awareness and participation in standardization throughout the Higher Education sector and becoming a point of liaison for the sector for any issues relating to standards. He represents BSI and the UK Higher Education sector on the CEN/CENELEC Joint Working Group on Education about Standardization.

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