Applications open for University of Newcastle 2020 National Writing Program
Now in its fourth year, the Writing Program for Equity and Widening Participation Practitioners program is led by the Centre for Excellence for Equity in Higher Education (CEEHE) at the University of Newcastle, Australia in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University, UK and the Office for Fair Access, UK.
Program Overview
It is increasingly important that higher education institutions reveal the significant impact of equity and widening participation initiatives, including strategies to support access, transition and retention of students from historically under-represented backgrounds.
One way to achieve this is through greater integration of practitioner informed research about equity and widening participation practice.
The University of Newcastle, Australia in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University, UK and the Office for Fair Access, UK, have developed a writing program to enhance the relationship between equity and widening participation practitioners and academics.
The aim of the program is to:
- enhance the relationship between widening participation practitioners and academics
- raise the profile of robust research and evaluation of widening participation activity nationally and internationally
- support widening participation practitioners to present research and evaluations of their practice in refereed academic journals, enabling practitioners and academics to share their work with broader audiences.
Program Outline
The Writing Program for Equity & Widening Participation Practitioners involves practitioners working in higher education participating in a series of workshops on the craft of researching and writing academically, along with being mentored by leading academics in the field from around Australia and internationally.
Program workshops cover some of the important methodological approaches underpinning equity practice and the process of producing and disseminating a research paper from start to finish, including:
- writing and research techniques
- producing an abstract
- presenting a research poster
- searching for literature
- methodology
- presenting findings
- submitting papers to journals.
At the end of the program a selection of the papers produced through this program will be published in special issues of national and international peer reviewed widening participation journals, and more will be presented at conferences hosted in both England and Australia.
A selection of papers from the 2017 program were published in a special edition of the journal International Studies in Widening Participation in mid 2018. You can access these papers here.
Cost
There is no cost to participate in the program. However, costs associated with travel and accommodation for the one-year writing program will also be at the participant’s expense.
Further Information
More information is available here.