The Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning 2009 'Supporting learning in the digital age: rethinking inclusion, pedagogy and quality' took place from Tuesday 22 - Friday 25 September 2009 at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. This conference is run by the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund's College in association with The Open University and The Commonwealth of Learning.

See http://www2.open.ac.uk/r06/conference/ for Conference papers and proceedings.

Seminars take place during term times and some of these are open to all. Please check the site regularly for forthcoming seminars.

Research at the Von Hugel Institute focusses on issues of social exclusion, justice and poverty in local, national and international educational settings.

Recent and current work includes research on:

• the ways in which widening participation students engage with the pedagogies of higher education Report February 2008

• part-time students in higher education: making & missing opportunities Report 2006 (cover page here)

• the life and life-style aspirations of young people who have opted out of education Report 2004

• widening participation for refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers with higher level qualifications and skills Report 2005 (cover page here)

• young people with special educational needs (O'Hanlon)

• the experience of state school students in Oxford and Cambridge

• regional and national studies of widening participation in higher education Report 2007 (cover page here)

• ethnic minority participation in higher education Report May 2007

• the role of Regional Further Education Colleges in delivering higher education in the East of England Report 2007

• the epistemological foundations of educational research TLRP see also teaching and learning research programme

Another theme is that of the role of higher education in regional and national development.

This is the particular focus of the work of:

• Perraton and Lawrence's recently completed work (2007-2009) on the history of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan: for further information see Learning abroad.
  • See the book flyer here.
  • The country studies are:-
  • Austrailia
  • Barbados
  • Canada
  • India
  • Pakistan
  • South Africa