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International News

lor Simone Buitendijk plans to replace long-form lectures
with “shorter chunks” that students can watch before class
to pre-arm themselves with the knowledge they need to “be-
come more creative and engaged with their teaching”. Prof.
Buitendijk told THE previously that long-form lectures are
“pedagogically not sound” and not evidence-based, and that
the change would have happened regardless of Covid.
Melbourne-based Victoria University says there is no
place for lectures in its ‘block teaching’ model, which is
based around small class groups. Trish McCluskey, its as-
sociate provost of learning and teaching, says lectures are
“an artefact of a bygone era,” when books and resources
were scarce and the only way to learn was to sit at scholars’
feet. “Lectures were the transmission of information from
the lecturer’s head through the pen of the student and on to Imperial’s Gast and Sanderson: bullying taint
the exam paper. It never actually made it into the student’s
head,” she says. grounds of gross misconduct.
The Imperial administration has courted more contro-
UNITED KINGDOM versy since it has emerged that its harassment and bullying
Imperial bullying row policy had been edited online to remove references to such
offences being treated as gross misconduct. The updated
PROFESSORS WHO CHAIR DISCIPLINARY pan- version merely says that all such incidents will be “treated
els at Imperial College, London, have warned that seriously”.
the institution’s handling of bullying cases involv- An Imperial spokesman blames the change on a “cleri-
ing its president and finance chief could hamper their abil- cal error” and says that the investigation into Prof. Gast
ity to fulfill their roles. and Sanderson “used long-standing and approved policies,
There is mounting anger at this globally respected insti- which remain in place”.
tution that president Alice Gast and chief financial officer Meanwhile the college management has issued a state-
Muir Sanderson were allowed to retain their offices despite ment to the effect that its leadership team “will drive chang-
being found to have bullied colleagues last year, and that es as a result of (the investigation’s) recommendations,
senior staff only learned about the disciplinary proceedings while redoubling ongoing efforts to improve the college’s
against the pair via the press. operations, culture, transparency and management”.
Details of the case emerged after a whistleblower alerted
Labour MP Alex Sobel, who posed a parliamentary question CHINA
which was picked up by the media. A letter was sent to staff Moocs revival
on December 4 by chair of disciplinary council John Allan
confirming that an investigation into alleged bullying had CHINA HAS DECLARED ITSELF THE WORLD’S
taken place, but also stating that he was “more confident leader in massive open online courses (Moocs), in
than ever that Imperial has the right leadership”. Ten more terms of the number of courses and participants.
days passed before it was confirmed that Prof. Gast and This announcement has directed academic attention to a
Sanderson had faced disciplinary hearings for bullying, and type of learning that was pronounced “dead” in 2017 by
the pair offered apologies. a vice-president of Udacity, a US educational technology
In a letter to all staff, seen by Times Higher Education, giant.
Imperial’s consuls — academics elected to act as “the con- In October 2020, China had more than 30 Mooc plat-
science of the college” — and Stephen Curry, assistant pro- forms hosting 34,000 courses, education minister Chen
vost for equality, diversity and inclusion, wrote that they Baosheng said at a conference held at Tsinghua University
were “dismayed to learn from the chair of council’s email in December. Of all Chinese Mooc users, about a quarter are
on December 4 of the events that took place in March”. university students who receive credit for their work. “We
Michael McGarvey, president of the Universities and have gradually established a unique development model
Colleges Union (UCU) branch at Imperial, is on record stat- of online teaching,” says Chen. “In the post-pandemic era,
ing that allowing Gast and Sanderson to remain at their Chinese education has entered a new stage of high-quality
posts “sends a terrible message to staff and creates a culture development, integrating the advantages of Moocs and on-
where bullying can thrive”. The university has not revealed line education.”
what, if any, sanctions the pair faced following their disci- China is taking the lead in this revival. Tsinghua Uni-
plinary hearings. UCU has called for them to resign on the versity, working with the United Nations Educational,

52 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2021