It has been a while since we provided an update on how things are progressing with the project and as the team has been busy working on various aspects over the last months and has one or two bits to share very soon it feels like a good point to provide a bit of an update.
Dr Andrew Whiting
Senior Lecturer in Security Studies and Desecuritsing Higher Education Project Lead
Given the pandemic we’re all dealing with globally I think it’s fair to say that the last 9 months or so have not been how anyone thought they would, and this project is no exception! However, we have been able to progress nicely with the two phases of the project and cover some of this below.
Continued FOI Analysis
After publishing our first report based on the initial findings from the Freedom of Information Requests (FOIs) the team spent time this year combing through this dataset in more detail in preparation for submitting our findings as a journal article for peer-review. The article we wrote entitled, The Prevent Duty in UK higher education: Insights from freedom of information requests, is forthcoming in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. It was great to get the confirmation that the article will be published, and we hope our findings and analysis can shed further light on how the Prevent Duty is being enacted within UK Higher Education. Everything going to plan, I hope to be blogging a bit more regularly about the project from now on and once this article is out in print, I will aim to write a summary of the main findings for this site.
“Phase two”
Alongside the FOI data we collected and analysed as part of phase one of the project, the other major job we have been working on over the year has been conducting interviews and focus groups with staff and students different universities across the UK. This began with the team traversing the UK’s railways to speak to people in person and ended up with virtual conversations via MS Teams. We’re grateful for all the students and staff who gave up their time to speak with us about the Prevent duty and how it looks in their institution. Having now transcribed and coded these conversations it is already apparent that there are some fascinating insights to reflect on as well as very different points of view concerning this controversial policy. Not only do the early findings look very interesting but it’s also gratifying to be able to deliver on one of the key motivations for this project, namely to hear from those that work and study in this sector and who are directly impacted by the law.
Working towards the project’s final report
In due course we will be submitting our findings from these interviews and focus groups for peer-review. However, the next thing on the horizon for the project team is our second and final report. This report will provide a concise overview of all the different aspects of the project to address our final aim of evaluating the design, implementation and effects of the Prevent Duty across UKHE. We hope to publish this report in the New Year and between then and now I will be aiming to provide more frequent updates via this blog. I will be reflecting on work done so far, reporting on outputs and revealing new findings from the project’s second phase as we get closer to publishing the final report.