Facilitated Discussion

As this blog is supposed to be (partially) about my degree course, I’m going to talk about one of the units in the course structure – Ethics, Issues and Crisis Management

Today (as part of the course) I (and a couple of my course mates – Steph and Maria) had to facilitate a discussion with other members from our course about a recent issue:

Should Universities be allowed to charge what they like for tuition fees?

This issue has come from the recently released Lord Browne (link to BBC article) report, which paves the way for university tuition fees to rise substantially (as high as £12,000 per year)

Now obviously I am against this, as a whacking great debt isn’t really fair on anyone (especially not students) but this is more of a “reflective” blog - writing reflectively isn’t something I am particularly that good at, which is a shame especially as it is something that I have to do for a different assignment this year.

Facilitated discussions are certainly not my speciality; but having taken part in one last week, and being part of a team that led one this week, it’s something that hopefully I will improve at. The only fault that let the discussion down was the issue of time-keeping (I had initially thought that we had only 20 minutes), so was keenly eyeing the stopwatch on my iPhone...

We were praised for finding ways to develop the issues within the main question (in a room full of students, rises in tuition fees was expectedly unpopular) and looked at the difference between different universities and courses, what effect the university league tables should have, as well of the issue of funding and tuition fees that overseas students pay.

It was an interesting discussion, which flowed better than I had expected it to - and we could have easily carried on talking for much longer, as it was a topic that would affect everyone in the room - both students and lecturer!

In a way I’m glad that I don’t have to lead another discussion in the coming weeks – except I do:
When is bribery or corruption acceptable business practice?

So that’ll be something to look forward to / worry about (delete as applicable). As my ethics issue assignment (4000 words!) is about the ‘Spot Fixing’ scandal from the Pakistan Cricket team this summer, I can understand that it would be worthwhile to take part. Plus I can also talk about the recent bribery scandals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup bidding process.

Thanks for those who took part today - both inside the "fishbowl" as well as those who asked questions. (this entry is mainly aimed at my degree coursemates)

If you have any questions about the facilitated discussion, or have suggestions for the next facilitated discussion I’ll be a part of, then please use the comments box below!

Paul