July 2019 - Bicycles Create Change

29/07/201922/08/2019

France: Cycling is now a legal right

As the administrator of this blog, I work hard to bring a range of bicycle-inspired news, initiatives, personalities, research and projects where bicycles create more positive social and environmental change. This means I get to read all manner of interesting (and unusual) material from all corners of the world. I love hearing about the various initiatives locally and globally that are working to get more people on bikes. Today, I saw the below article by Anna-Karina Reibold reporting on a recent French mobility law which enshrines cycling as a legal right. AWESOME!! This law signifies a major socio-cultural shift. Among other changes, it will legally require French companies with at least 50 employees to negotiate new measures to improve employee mobility, in particular by subsidising the use of cycling and other ‘green modes of transport’ for commuting. I love the direction the French are going with this! Let’s hope other counties will follow this progressive lead. Read for more details. Enjoy! NG.

Advocacy Success in France: Cycling Established as a Mode of Transport

Cycling and walking becomes a legal right in France!

After months of fierce debate, the French National Assembly approved the Mobility Orientation Law on June 18th, 2019.

The French Cycling Union (Fédération française des usagers de la bicyclette – FUB) was actively involved in the negotiation of the draft mobility bill and successfully advocated for the rights of cyclists. The FUB dedicated eight months to monitoring parliamentary sessions and working on possible amendments.

Agnès Laszczyk, Vice-President of the FUB in charge of lobbying, highlights: “The draft law on mobility is the very first time French MPs and senators have given cycling mobility the importance it deserves. More than 110 amendments tabled¹ in each house, i.e. 10% of all amendments tabled on the draft law, concerned cycling, with nearly all of FUB’s proposals (31 amendments in the Senate and 16 in the National Assembly) taken into account. Even more significant were the hours of heated debate during the sessions in favour of cycling.”

Creating Cultural Change – Making Cycling Safe and Accessible

Whilst this is essentially a symbolic progress, cycling will be enshrined in the Law, which will provide an excellent judicial pillar. Several changes that build on FUB recommendations can already be identified:

– The National Assembly adopted an official Learn to Ride (Savoir Rouler) educational program to “ensure that every child is able to ride a bike autonomously and safely in public spaces by the time he/she enters secondary school”. The FUB hopes that this will lead to a cultural change in daily mobility choices.However, this change will only be effective if measures are applied universally and made compulsory!

– A new sustainable mobility package has replaced the kilometre allowance (IKV) that could not be combined with other modes of transport. Employers are now able to introduce a fixed and combinable annual package. Figures of up to €400 (previously €200) will be tax-free.

– The maintenance and creation of new cycle routes will become compulsory with the renovation of roads. Over the course of seven years, €350 million, along with endowment funds of €100 million per year, will be allocated to cycling infrastructure projects. Additionally, discontinued cycling routes will become illegal!

– Another FUB advocacy accomplishment marks the introduction of mandatory bike marking, “Bicycode“. The resulting national database will come into force for new as well as second-hand bicycles in 2021. The FUB hopes to take this initiative a step further and inspire more European countries to adopt similar policies by introducing a continent-wide database.

Let’s Talk about the Bicycle

The FUB has been eager to capture the attention of the public eye and engage with citizens, MPs and the French government in debate.

The successes of the FUB in the development of the mobility law were advanced with the help of the “Parlons Vélo” campaign.

The campaign took force after the presidential and legislative elections in 2017, with the aim of engaging citizens and political leaders on cycling issues.

113,000 citizens were mobilised to participate in the French Bicycle Barometer.

French cities were ranked according to cycling-friendliness after inviting cyclists to share their feelings on bicycle use.

Encouraged by this momentum, the FUB is set to launch a second edition of the French Bicycle Barometer this September.

These results are expected to play a central role in the debates leading to the French municipal elections in March 2020.

The campaign has also inspired citizens to address the French government and MPs by sending them a postcard in support of pro-cycling amendments. This initiative counted over 100, 000 participants. Finally, an online tool, introduced by the FUB, allowed citizens to make their voices heard by giving feedback directly to their local MP, asking them to support or reject certain amendments.

The Revolution is on the move

Overall, the work of the FUB has had far-reaching impacts and sparked political interest, as it has illustrated the strong will of citizens to create favourable conditions for cycling. As Olivier Schneider, President of the FUB, notes:

“With, on the one hand, the quality of our 95-page white book of proposals on ‘”how to enhance the law to get France cycling’” and on the other hand the reach of our social media campaign (over 15 000 emails sent to MPs!), MPs that we came across were quick to tell us that they had “received FUB’s proposals and were looking at them closely”. Given the anonymity with which cycling as transport has been considered throughout the years, this feels like an exciting and promising development!”

For example, Elisabeth Borne, who has recently taken the position of Minister for Ecological and Solidary Transition, is now very much aware of the potential that cycling holds. “Mentalities have changed” says Agnès Laszczyk.

“Many efforts remain necessary to reach the levels of European cycling leaders, but the revolution is on the move”.

More information on this subject click here for the press release.

This article was first published 29th July 2019 on ECF by Ann-Karina Reibold.

25/07/201903/10/2019

Making an academic Zine: Affect, Knowledge and Embodiment (AKE).

Being a PhD candidate means access to some pretty cool events. Last week, I attended a critical feminist Arts/Research and Zine making workshop called Affect, Knowledge and Embodiment (AKE).

The focus of the workshop was to collaboratively experiment with sociological fiction, participatory visual methods and zine making as a way to further explore themes of affect, knowledge, and embodiment.

This AKE workshop is for established social researchers as well as postgraduate students who are interested in a practical introduction to arts/research methods.

In the workshop, we explored ways of practically extending critical and feminist social research– specifically through photos, writing and zine making. These arts practices are valuable for opening up how to critically explore, analyse, collaborate on, and share experiences and understandings of the social world.

The workshop had 3 talks (see abstracts below) – each followed by some activities and discussions: we did three generative writing activities after Ashleigh Watson’s sociological fiction. Then in pairs, we discussed/shared photos we had brought after Dr Laura Rodriguez Castro’s participatory visual methods session. The last session was Samantha Trayhurn’s zine history and culture presentation – and for the rest of the workshop, we worked on creating our own page to contribute to a collective workshop zine.

The idea for the zine was to produce a A4 page that synthesised the pre-workshop lecture by Sarah Ahmed ‘On Complaint‘ (which is incredible!) with materials presented in the workshop – alongside whatever else we wanted to include.

To produce the zine page, no perfection or prior artistic skill required, just a willingness to experiment, explore and express an idea – awesome!

It was great to see what people did for their individual pages – and then to see the final collated product was even more impressive. See link below.

Read the AKE Zine we made during the workshop here!

I had a great time at this workshop. It was great to meet new researchers from different fields and different universities. I only knew two other people when I first arrived, but make a point of chatting to those I didn’t know.

It was also great to have a mental and creative break from the usual solitary read-and-write research work that most of us do. And so awesome to collaboratively produce an official publication by the end of the session!

A massive big thank you to Ashleigh, Laura and Samatha for putting on such an interesting and productive session. And to all the participants who contributed ideas, energy, points for discussion and their pages to the zine – it was a delight to meet you all! Thanks!

This zine is a ‘curated sociology’ of photography, research writing and fiction interventions and was published with Frances St Press. AKE Zine is a collaboratively produced critical feminist arts/research publication (ISSN 2651-8724 [Online]).

Here is a copy of the first AKE Zine which was made on November 16, 2018, at Monash University (Melbourne). This particular volume drew on a different stimulus – it used Audre Lorde’s essay The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.

For more info about the AKE sessions, contact: ashleigh.watson@unsw.edu.au.

Read the AKE Zine we made from this session here! Bicycles Create Change.com 25th July, 2019.

Affect, Knowledge and Embodiment Presentations

A Critical Feminist Arts/Research Workshop Series

‘Working within entanglement: Considering epistemologies in participatory visual research’ Dr Laura Rodriguez Castro

Participatory visual research centres epistemic questions about power, ethics and positionality. Drawing from my experiences collaboratively organising and curating two photographic exhibitions with Campesina women in rural Colombia in 2016, and with participatory visual projects embedded in decolonial feminist epistemologies, I explore the entanglement of emotions, bodies and worlds in academic, artistic, and community research and engagement. These entangled experiences reveal political and practical implications about negotiating power, spatiality and creativity. Thus, I also discuss the implications of considering epistemologies for doing and curating public and creative research.

‘Sociological Fiction’ – Dr Ashleigh Watson

Sociological fiction opens important avenues for creativity in analysis and engagement. In this talk I chart a background of social scientists who have written fiction, discuss So Fi Zine and The Sociological Review’s new fiction series, and outline some stylistic criteria for writing and evaluating sociological fiction. These criteria include characterisation, voice, poetics, aesthetics, and verisimilitude. Using these criteria I make practical and conceptual suggestions for aspiring sociological fiction writers.

‘Body/Text/Form: Analogue Zine Making’ – Sam Trayhurn

When French philosopher Helene Cixous declared that we ‘must write the body’ she called for a literary practice that transcended binary classification and spoke from within a spectrum of bodily forms. Here, I will discuss how my investigation into corporeal writing and corporeal philosophy led me to the practice of zine making as an extension of these ideas. In a fast moving digital age, analogue zine making encourages increased presence, and an increased connection between writing and the body, as the physical act of creation manifests itself as a unified object. I will discuss how analogue zine creation is rooted in a praxis of rebellion that questions and challenges political/social norms, and provides legitimate alternative modes of presentation for literary and academic purposes.

21/07/201922/07/2019

Paws & Wheels always make it better

After a very difficult fortnight, I find myself reaching for some feel-good, bike-inspired, warm-and-fuzzies.

Nothing fills this spot for me better than trail dogs.

Regular followers of this blog know of my Instagram project #bikes_CISTA (CISTA = Cycling Inter-Species Teams of Awesomeness). This project requires that I randomly meet a troupe that has at least one dog, one bike and one rider – with whom I stop and have a chat with and ask if I can include their photo in my project. This project is my way of celebrating my local dog/rider/bike combos who are out and about in the community – we need more of them!

Like many others, dogs and bikes are my go to medicine for rough days.

Often, I reach for Ruby the Trail dog for this fix, but this week I needed something new.

And this little video, Paws & Wheels about riding duo Baloo and his rider Ollie, was it.

A simple story about the joys of two mates hitting the trails together (*sigh*).

The voice-over might be a little Disney, but nothing detracts from a puppy cam!

It is beautifully shot with sweeping trails, lots of sunshine and mountain biking good times galore.

There is something wholesome and reaffirming about watching a trail dog in slo-mo careering over trails – it is a special kind of happiness.

….. wind in the fur, rider by side, in the outdoors…

It is true – life is better with a furry friend.

Enjoy!

16/07/201917/07/2019

‘Thought control’ bicycle for spinal injury rehab

I am delighted to share this story. As well as being an incredibly inspirational story and testament to Dinesh Palipana’s unique fortitude and character, this story showcases some of the pioneering work that my university is doing. …And it is totally bike related! I’ve been working at Griffith for over 5 years now. I am continually impressed with the reach, impact and significant contributions Griffith makes to improve society. Last year, I posted about Griffith design graduate and PhD candidate James Novak’s global award-winning world’s first 3D printed bicycle – also unreal!! This story is about how Dinesh and his team turned an accident he had during his PhD into a scientific-bike research breakthrough. This article was originally published by Griffith News earlier this year. Here it is in full. Enjoy! NG.

Griffith medical graduate and Gold Coast University Hospital junior doctor Dinesh Palipana thinks about walking a lot, since a car accident left him a quadriplegic part-way through his medicine degree.

Now he’s thinking about pushing the pedals of a specially-adapted recline bike, and thanks to electronic muscle stimulation, he’s actually moving, in what is the first step towards a world-first integrated neuro-musculoskeletal rehabilitation program, being developed at the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct (GCHKP).

Griffith biomechanical scientists and engineers Professor David Lloyd, Dr Claudio Pizzolato and his team, together with Dinesh as both researcher and patient, are aiming to use their ground-breaking 3D computer-simulated biomechanical model, connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to capture Dinesh’s brainwaves, to stimulate movement, and eventually recovery.

Thinking about riding a bike

“The idea is that a spinal injury or neurological patient can think about riding the bike. This generates neural patterns, and the biomechanical model sits in the middle to generate control of the patient’s personalised muscle activation patterns. These are then personalised to the patient, so that they can then electrically stimulate the muscles to make the patient and bike move,” says Professor Lloyd who is also from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland.

“It’s all in real-time, with the model adjusting the amount of stimulation required as the patient starts to recover.

“We’re in the early stages of research and we’re having to improvise with our equipment, however we know we have shown our real-time personalised model works, basically like a digital twin of the patient.”

Dr Palipana is excited to be part of such novel research in his own backyard.

“I have a selfish and vested interest in spinal cord injury research and I’m completely happy to be the guinea pig,” Dr Palipana says.

“We’ve had equipment for many years where people passively exercise using stationary bikes, and stationary methods where people get on and the equipment moves their legs for them. The problem is you really need some stimulation from the brain.

“As the years go by we’re starting to realise that the whole nervous system is very plastic and it has to be trained, so actually thinking about moving the bike or doing an activity stimulates the spinal cord from the top down and that creates change.”

This top down, bottom up approach is novel, with the model effectively providing a substitute connection between the limbs and the brain where it was previously broken when the spinal cord was injured.

The neuro-rehabilitation research will dovetail with exciting research by Griffith biomedical scientist, Associate Professor James St John, who has had promising results for his biological treatment using olfactory (nasal) cells, to create nerve bridges to regenerate damaged spinal cords.

Establishing new neural pathways

“You use the modelling to recreate the connection, and over time, with the science of Associate Professor James St John, you establish new neural pathways. So over time patients will be less dependent on the model to control the bike movement and it will move back to their own control, with their regenerating spinal cord and their reprogrammed neural pathways,” says Professor Lloyd.

Associate Professor James St John hopes to move into human clinical trials in the GCHKP within the next 2-3 years, and in parallel Professor Lloyd and his team hope to refine their rehab testing with Dinesh, and develop the technology with leading global companies in exoskeleton design. These companies, could in turn, be attracted into the 200-hectare GCHKP.

“In ten years we want to be a one-stop shop for spinal cord injury and complex neurological patients,” Professor Lloyd says.

“I’m just really lucky to be well-positioned here where it’s all happening and I want to be involved as much as possible as a doctor and a potential scientist,” says Dr Palipana.

“It’s my university, my hospital, my city – it’s just really nice to be a part of that.”

Further links:

ABC Australian Story, 26 February 2018 http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/australian-story/NC1802Q004S00
‘I might be quadriplegic, but I’m your doctor‘

Images and text courtesy of Griffth University News.

11/07/201911/07/2019

NAIDOC Week 2019

What is NAIDOC Week?

This week is 2019 NAIDOC Week in Australia.

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life.

The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself.

During NAIDOC Week, there is a National NAIDOC Week awards ceremony. The awards are presented to inspirational Indigenous people in ten different categories including: Person of the year, Elder of the year, Artist of the year, Apprentice of the year, Scholar of the year, Youth of the year, Sportsperson of the year and the Caring for Country award.

Here’s a list of NAIDOC Week Events

NAIDOC Week 2019 Theme

For decades, NAIDOC has had significant themes to represent, celebrate and raise awareness to significant Indigenous affairs. This year the focus is on significant and lasting change to better the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples: Voice. Treaty. Truth.

Voice. Treaty. Truth.

This theme aim at getting everyone together for a shared future.

The Indigenous voice of this country is over 65,000 plus years old.

They are the first words spoken on this continent. Languages that passed down lore, culture and knowledge for over millennia. They are precious to our nation.

It’s that Indigenous voice that include know-how, practices, skills and innovations – found in a wide variety of contexts, such as agricultural, scientific, technical, ecological and medicinal fields, as well as biodiversity-related knowledge.

They are words connecting us to country, an understanding of country and of a people who are the oldest continuing culture on the planet.

And with 2019 being celebrated as the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages, it’s time for our knowledge to be heard through our voice.

For generations, we have sought recognition of our unique place in Australian history and society today. We need to be the architects of our lives and futures.

For generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have looked for significant and lasting change.

Voice. Treaty. Truth. were three key elements to the reforms set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. These reforms represent the unified position of First Nations Australians.

The Uluru Statement of the Heart

The Statement is a document Aboriginal people from all over Australia agreed on. In it they express that they are a sovereign people, and what they want the government to do to recognise and support this sovereignty. It also comments on the social difficulties faced by Aboriginal people.

It is not the first time Aboriginal people crafted such a document, but probably the first time Aboriginal people form a united position and a single key recommendation, or, as The Guardian put it, “the largest ever consensus of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on a proposal for substantive recognition”.

While previous documents of Aboriginal aspirations were usually addressed to the Parliament, the Uluru Statement From the Heart is directed to the Australian public.

Information in this post is sourced from the NAIDOC official website, SBS Learn NAIDOC Secondary Resource, Creative Spirits: Explainer Uluru Statement and Five Fast Facts by Reconciliation Australia.

06/07/201913/07/2019

Mike Lloyd’s bike research: The non-looks of the mobile world.

Mike Lloyd’s Bicycle Research: The non-looks of the mobile world. Bicycles Create Change.com 6th July, 2019. — Image: @Space4cyclingbne

In this post, we look at a recent publication by Mike Lloyd, entitled The non-looks of the mobile world: a video-based study of interactional adaptation in cycle-lanes.

Mike Lloyd is an Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies with Victoria University (Wellington, NZ). His research interests include ethnomethodology, sociology of everyday life, cycling and interaction and more recently video methodologies.

I initially contacted Mike after reading his article about NZ MTB trail rage – which was an absolute delight.

Since then, this blog has previously hosted two of Mike’s articles:

But I also still find myself returning to some of his earlier publications that explore media, cartoons and risqué humour via analysis of content such as The Adventures of Naked Man, Flight of the Concords and ‘dick joke’ competitions – my kind of academic!

See a full list of Mike’s work here.

Mike is coming to Brisbane in November for the International Cycling Safety Conference. So we are hoping to go for a ride together! Woohoo!

Article: The non-looks of the mobile world

In this particular article, Mike examines how cyclists and pedestrians in cycle-lane space adapt their interactions with each other, paying particular attention to the role of looking and non- looking as it unfolds moment-by-moment.

Any bike rider will be able to read and totally appreciate the happenings in this article.

It is very interesting exploring how differences between pedestrians ‘doing and being oblivious’ impact cyclists in bike lanes.

I also like the analytical focus of dissecting action and the absence of looking – or non-looks. Original, interesting and pertinent to all cyclists!

Other key concepts from this article that stand out are: the gaze to shift another pedestrian, direction of views, standing in bike lanes, people getting out of cars, pedestrians and mobile phones, ‘observer’s maxim’ moving for public transport and my favourite: glance, action, apology.

Creatively, Mike uses video still data from a bicycle Go-Pro to explain key theoretical concepts and outcomes.

His writing is well researched, interesting and entertaining.

This article is valuable contribution to extend discussions of how bicycles and cycle-lane use feature within mobility, space/infrastructure and situational interactions discourse.

Get a copy of Mike Lloyd’s (2019) article here Download

The Abstract

This empirical study uses video data to examine interactional adaptation between cyclists and pedestrians in a relatively new cycle-lane. Existing research on intersections shows order is achieved through the frequent use of a look-recognition-acknowledgement sequence. Whereas this is found in the cycle-lane interactions, there is also an important divergent technique which on the surface seems less cooperative.

Others are made to cede space based on ‘doing and being oblivious’, in short, forms of non-looking force others to take evasive action and subtly alter their line of travel. Here the dynamic nature of this obliviousness is shown through empirical examples.

Even though it is not always easy to distinguish between the two forms of non-looking, it is concluded that ‘doing oblivious’, whilst possibly annoying for others, is most probably harmless, but there are good reasons to be more concerned about ‘being oblivious’, for it may lead to collisions between pedestrians and cyclists.

Aspects of non-looking provide an important addition to knowledge of the mobile world, suggesting we renew attention to specific sites where people concert their movements in minutely detailed ways.

Lloyd, M. (2019). The non-looks of the mobile world: a video-based study of interactional adaptation in cycle-lanes. Mobilities, 1-24. doi:10.1080/17450101.2019.1571721

02/07/201926/08/2019

New Materialism Conference – Abstract Accepted!

New Materialisms Conference 2019 - Abstract Accepted! Bicycles Create Change.com 2nd July, 2019.

I got an email yesterday saying that my abstract submission for the 10th Annual New Materialisms Conference of Reconfiguring Higher Education has been accepted!

Woohoo!

This conference will be held at University of the Western Cape (Cape Town, South Africa) from 2-4 December 2019.

This is great news!

I have been working furiously on my Ethics Submission. Ethics continues to be an epic mission because of the international fieldwork aspect where I will be bike riding with locals (the Ethics board want Risk Assessments, Ethics for me, the project and the locals). This means an added level of evaluation, justification and paperwork, more so than if I just had local Brisbane participants. But I am up for the challenge!

So for this event, aside from the opportunity to participate in an international theory/practice conference, I am also engineering this trip to work in with my fieldwork.

I am very excited! There are a few big NM names also presenting, including:

New Materialisms Conference 2019 - Abstract Accepted! Bicycles Create Change.com 2nd July, 2019: NM Reconfiguring Conference

Conference Streams

There are 6 conference streams this year. They are:

New materialities, decolonialities, indigenous knowledges
Slow scholarship
Arts-based pedagogies/research in HE
Neurotypicality, the undercommons and HE
New materialist reconfigurings of methodology in HE
Political ethics of care, the politics of affect, and socially just pedagogies

My Abstract

Title: An athlete-teacher-researcher mountain bike race (re)turned: entangled becoming-riding-with

In this paper, I share how engaging with new materialist approaches have enabled me to think deeply and disruptively about my unfolding athlete-teacher-researcher performativities and methodology. Using as a starting point a ‘moment of rupture’ (Lennon, 2017) during a popular female-only mountain bike race, I problematize how representation, subjectivity and embodiment matters in my research with respect to my own athlete-teacher-researcher-becoming entanglements. In doing this, I draw on Wanda Pillow’s (2003) concept of ‘reflexivities of discomfort’ and Karen Barad’s (2014) diffractive ‘cut together-apart’ to reframe critical becoming-riding-with moments in alternative ways. In doing so, I delve into some messy and destabilizing ways of becoming-to-know and knowing as I continue to experiment with foregrounding the agential force of bicycles within my research unfolding.

Conference Info.

Taken from the official conference website: Annual New Materialisms Conferences have been organised since 2009 by an international group of scholars who received the EU’s H2020 funding from 2014–18.

The conferences are meant to develop, discuss and communicate new materialisms’ conceptual and methodological innovations, and to stimulate discussion among new materialist scholars and students about themes and phenomena that are dear to the hosting local research community as well as interdisciplinary new materialist scholarship.

After having visited many cities across Europe, as well as Melbourne (Australia), the conference will come to Cape Town (South Africa) in 2019 in order to discuss the dynamic higher education landscape that we find ourselves in today. The recent #Rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall protests have, in particular, set South African higher education on a new course towards transformation, focusing on equitable access to higher education, Africanisation and decolonisation.

This has raised important questions regarding knowledge production beyond the South African context, particularly in relation to the use and value of western theorists in local research and curricula, as well as who gains epistemological and physical access to higher education.

On the other hand, we have seen many productive junctures between pedagogy and the new materialisms, including the use of Deleuze and Guattari in education studies. In particular, there has been a focus on cartography, schizoanalysis, corporeal theorising, rhizomatic learning and nomadic thought in socially just pedagogical praxis.

These junctures and innovative genealogies and methodologies can both address as well as be further improved and made more precise by engagements with transformation toward accessible, Africanised and decolonised curricula, and research agendas and practices.

It seems fitting, then, that the 3rd South African Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conference will be held directly after the 10th Annual New Materialisms Conference as we grapple, together, towards new ways of being and seeing in relation to higher education.