There's life after HExit

Photo by Dave Simpson - CrossRhythms Radio

It's a funny old life. Just over a year ago I was working full time in Higher Education, as an Associate Professor. My main role was as a teacher educator, and I enjoyed almost 20 years working with great students, and wonderful colleagues. However, as those of you working in universities and colleges will know, it's not a bed of roses, and if anything, life in higher education is becoming more difficult with economic stringencies (cuts), austerity (penny pinching) and accountancy driven policy (bean counting).

Academics are expected to do more with less, and students are expected to pay more for less. On top of all this, the bureaucracy, surveillance and managerialism are unbearable for many, so there has been a steady exodus from higher education in the last few years. I was one of those who left higher education, and my account of my experiences and the reasons I left can be read here on my Learning with 'e's blog, and also on the Times Higher Education site.

So what have I been doing with my time post-HExit? The picture above will give you a clue, but I am not only doing my stint as a community radio DJ - which is great fun because I get to play all my favourite vinyl recordings of rock, blues, funk, soul - I'm also still quite active in all sectors of education.

Work this last year has taken me to Toronto, Brussels, Prague (twice), Dublin (three times), Auckland, Singapore (twice), Copenhagen, Aarhus, and a host of UK cities to present my work, and also to visit schools, colleges and universities to offer my professional services as an innovation consultant. I am also examining more PhD vivas than I ever did, and working as an external examiner for a Masters Programme.

This work is supported by my new consultancy company, Steve Wheeler Associates, which exists to advise and consult with schools, colleges, universities and organisations as they come to terms with change, innovation, new learning and emerging technology. I'm also spending some of my time working as Head of Research and Innovation for a new Ed Tech start-up company called LiketoBe, which you can read about on this link. I'm in the process of writing a new text book for Kogan Page too. I'm as busy as ever, but would still like to hear from you if you think I can help your organisation. Get in touch here.

And of course, I have plenty more time to spend enjoying playing my guitar, walking, writing (short stories such as this one), reading, watching great movies and doing all the other things I always wanted to do but never had the time. I'm off now to put together another show for radio, which means I have to listen to an awful lot of vinyl records. I know - it's tough, but someone has to do it.


There's life after HExit by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.