1. A proposal for
working with Higher
Education
NEWELL HAMPSON-JONES, Education Sector Representative, BSI
Speech delivered Tuesday, 27th July, 2010
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3. 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.
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.
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4. 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 Education
My 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 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.
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5. 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 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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6. If you would like to get in touch regarding this speech, please contact:
Newell Hampson-Jones
Education Sector Representative
BSI Group
389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL
T: +44 (0)20 8996 7227
M: +44 (0)7767 886 713
E: 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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