This article explores some of the key academic narratives relating to student nonengagement and non-continuation. Factors influencing non-attendance include family life, mental health concerns, the pressures associated with transition to university, meeting new people, timetabling, paid work, financial concerns and being on the wrong degree programme. The article argues for the need for a shift towards a greater understanding of this complexity, including through intersectional analyses, in getting to understand structural factors affecting student non-attendance as well as for a shift towards a better use of data.

New Model Institute for Technology & Engineering (NMITE) is a new provider established to be a disruptor in engineering higher education. Its distinctive pedagogical approach utilises block delivery of industry-linked and challenge-led engineering programmes, delivered in an intensive, studio-based environment. This reflection discusses the benefits and challenges of studio-based block delivery adopted by NMITE and recommends strategies for effective implementation of block delivery, based on our teaching experience at NMITE, informal students' feedback, and discussions with academic staff. Our overall reflection is that block delivery approach is very effective to drive high attainment in students, and to facilitate a more immersive and engaged learning experience. We also believe that the benefits of block delivery have been greatly maximised by our studio-based approach.

This study enters the 'kitchens of science' or the 'backrooms' of international development agencies to examine the methods used to develop global COVID-19 response frameworks for education. These global frameworks need to be scrutinized as they are used to guide the development of national COVID-19 response frameworks for education. Drawing upon the theory of change, the study examines how the interventions embedded in these global frameworks are produced. The results show methodological flaws and epistemic violence in the production process of these global frameworks. It is suggested that epistemic accountability and epistemic reflexivity are necessary to resolve these methodological and epistemic vices.

Reflection is a requirement of the regulatory bodies for trainee and practicing Allied Health Professionals, making authentic reflection on practice a typical form of assessment in Higher Education professional programmes. The pessimism of reflective assessments from authors, working in HE motivated the scoping and design of an evidence-based assessment for reflection on the BSc Speech and Language Therapy Programme at De Montfort University. This paper presents a tripartite of challenges relating to the assessment discourse for professional programmes within a neoliberal University. First, the tension between professional and academic education is highlighted, addressing key themes from the debate around whether reflection can be assessed and how. Second, this is contextualised by the Higher Education Institutional national and local measures and the implementation of ‘assessment of’ and ‘assessment for learning.’ Third, the challenges of social mobility are presented given the high-stake responsibility for equitable learning and assessment. The principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are therefore explored in the context of widening participation. In response to the literature, practitioner reflections have influenced the design of an assessment which is pedagogically sound but inviting for students. This assessment is presented to demonstrate how reflective assignments may allow for creativity, individuality, and real-life value, whilst also providing a holistic judgement of students’ skills. UDL is implicit to the project and rightly aims to reduce barriers in the curriculum and the learning environment to promote inclusivity and support all students to achieve.

Covid-19 has recalibrated academic experiences of so many works, cultures, and institutions all around the world. Thus, I response about how Covid-19 has altered my definitions, theorising and practices as such. In short, my reflections contain two parts, ‘reflexive fragments for the fieldwork’ and ‘a metaphysical rethinking concerning the phenomenology and circumstances’. The prior is my reflexive ideas about a Covid-19 impacted teaching and learning classroom assessment. The latter is an awakening rethinking of the triad dialectics – phenomenological reflexivity, resistance to uncertainty, and pandemic resilience.