PGT Student SupportTwo models of providing additional support to Masters students at the University of Southampton

Sarah Rogers (Student Transition to Living and Learning Project)Jean Leah (Learning and Teaching Coordinator, Management) Professor Darren Bagnall (Director of PGT Programmes, Electronics and Computer Science) 13th January 2011

Overview: The Masters student

experience

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Key features of the transition to PGT study for all students

• Intense period of study

• Can be a new discipline for the student

• New University environment for most

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Particular challenges for international students• Different education system (ways of learning, size of

classes)

• Not first language for many

• New country and culture; adapting to life outside of studies

• Some who have undertaken pre-sessional may be complacent (eg. some do not participate in induction activities)

• Asking for help is not something that many students, especially international, are comfortable doing

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Common challenges being faced by ECS and Management Masters students• Sharp increase in Masters student numbers in short period of

time

– ECS: 100 to 330 in three yrs – Management: 586 to 694 in one year

• Very high percentage of international students

– ECS 5% UK students – Management 12% UK students

• Students not necessarily taking full advantage of existing support available (e.g. personal tutors)

• UK and EU students can feel in the minority and struggle to integrate effectively with their peers

PGT Peer Advisors in Management

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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• Peer advisor schemes are known to work

successfully at UG level. However, at Masters level, it is difficult to introduce such a scheme because of the programme length.

• Decided to employ two recent Masters graduates for two months after they had submitted their dissertation

• One placement student was from China, the other from the UK, in order to offer different perspectives

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Peer Advisor Brief– Enhance the existing support structures in the School and

University, signposting them to where they should go to get the information they need

– Provide personal insights into what they found the experience to be like and provide reassurance

– Provide a bridge between the social and academic, and the students and staff

– Help build a sense of a Masters student community in the School (ManSoc seems to predominantly focus on UG interests)

– To use a variety of communication methods to reach out to all students (face to face, email, Facebook, Twitter)

– Maintain a log of every query and how it was dealt with

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ProcessConversation between School L&T Coordinator and TP, identifying what could be done to improve the experience of transitioning to study at Masters level in the School. Peer Advisor idea emerged.

TP Director agreed to fund Peer Advisor scheme if School wanted to proceed.

School approval of proposal for two peer advisors, lead by School PG Director

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ProcessJob descriptions* and MSA Board approval (TP lead)

Recruitment in September (email ad*, interview, appointment) (TP lead)

Office space established (School lead)

Induction for candidates in October (School and TP)

* See job descriptions and email advertisement for the placements in pack

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ProcessSet-up communication channels (email, Facebook, Twitter). Also set up spreadsheet for capturing all queries.

Start of term: Advisors run integration events, weekly social events, support Bridge the Gap, presentations in classes, gauge interest in and set up day trips

Ongoing signposting of support available to students by Advisors

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ProcessWeekly meetings between LTC, TP and the Advisors. In early Nov the PG Rep* joined these meetings.

Beginning of Dec: Advisors write report on the experience and notes for next year’s candidates

Mid December: Online survey asking for student feedback to gauge impact of Peer Advisor Scheme

*This is the first year that a PG Rep was elected, to coordinate all 15 PGT Course Reps

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The Peer Advisor Perspective (short film)

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The Peer Advisor Perspective (short film)

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The Student Perspective (short film)

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)How did you feel at different points in your first term here, on a scale of 1-5 (1 being anxious and unsettled, 5 being relaxed, comfortable and confident studying here)

1 2 3 4 5

Week one 21% 33% 16% 16% 14%

Around week four 4% 13% 41% 26% 16%

This week 4% 13% 22% 32% 29%

Here are some examples of what the students had to say…

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)• “I was very curious about how things happen in

this university and school in the first week, but unfortunately the classes was a bit boring and we got a assignment so soon, and most of us didn’t make it well since we never settled personally outside the university. But in the later weeks I really got good friends and classes were especially good, especially organisational effectiveness, which made me love my school and university. (I really love the way they teach us).”

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)• “Week 1 - Didn't really know people well enough to

ask them questions, didn't know who to approach etc.

Week 4- You've met all your classmates, you know who your friends are, some places around campus and in the city become familiar territory, you've worked in groups so you are not shy anymore

Week 6 - No one's a stranger anymore. Especially in a class of 30 students , by week 5 you know everyone by their first name, and since are class is very supportive of each other, we have had a lot of socials where the entire class gets together to relax, de-stress and have fun.”

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)• “First it was very difficult in listening the class and making

friends here！The following weeks I feel better but there were lots of assignment ， I felt pressure！Now it is close to the holiday ， and nearly courses have finished ， I feel quite happy ！ However there are still mountainous homework during the holiday ！ OMG…”

• “When you come from a foreign country, you need some time to adjust yourself in the different everyday conditions you have to face. What influenced me personally to change my feelings is the fact that I got socialized with people really fast, even without knowing anyone before arriving here, and also the fact that we are all students and we can understand and provide any kind of help to each other in order to 'survive' into this new environment.”

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)• 93% of students were aware of the Peer Advisors

• 92% of students said yes, the School should appoint peer advisors in the future, and here are some examples from the student feedback about why they should be in place next year…

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)– “yes, because we need people that are

trustworthy to ask about something outside the university things”

– “They should appoint PGT Peer Advisors. For pursuing masters, students from different countries come here. They may feel home sick, feel lonely and left out. Specially in those cases, the Peer Advisors would be useful to them.”

– “Because they have been a friendly and helpful point of contact”

– “they helped students to integrate”

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)

– “Well I feel it’s easier for students to talk to students their own age with questions they might have, they get the feeling that the Pg Advisor has gone through the same time and will hopefully be able to sort the issue.”

– “They are useful because they have recently finished their Masters program and are really familiar with what is going on around the Uni. In addition, we can communicate with them in our informal way and feel free to talk to them anytime; they have more free time than our secretary of personal tutors :)”

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Online survey feedback (first 100 responses)– “As far as social life and activities for postgraduates

are concerned, you need some motivators who have spare time to organize and set things up. Otherwise, there would not be that much participation and most likely nothing would really happen.”

– “I think they are very helpful for new students since the age gap is not so much . Normally, new students are afraid to talk with their tutor directly because of language barrier.”

– “We can’t disturb or approach doctorates or professors every time for our silly doubts, (like were do we get flip charts in Southampton) so they are really useful.”

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Costs• £11k from the Transition to Living and Learning

budget to cover salary costs of placements (this was for the lvl 3 candidate to remain until Feb which didn’t happen, so real salary cost iro £6-7k)

• An additional £3k was contributed by the School to support the cost of running events

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Highlights…• The degree to which the two individuals developed

as a result of the placement, and the enhancement to their CVs

• The high level of interest in day trips

• How easily this scheme integrated and enhanced existing structures, in particular the Course Rep set-up

• 50% of students (350 students) joined the Facebook page

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Highlights…• By week 6 current students were happily

responding to each others queries posted on Facebook

• By giving the candidates freedom within the role they felt genuine ownership and enthusiastic about what they were there to do

• Proof that students really will ask anything at any time – there was no pattern to the nature of the queries

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Alternative approaches for consideration• Number of Peer Advisors*

• Nationality of Peer Advisors*

• Hours of work per week (20 hours v.s full time)*

• Length of placement (2 months, whole semester, whole academic year)*

• Potential to broaden the remit to cover additional responsibilities in the School, appropriate for placement candidate

• Across-Faculty team-delivery approach, with an academic strategic lead assigned

* See full options appraisal provided in pack

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Next stages for the Scheme in Management• Committed to continuing next academic year

• Plan to continue with two month placement length

• Started discussions with Associate Dean Education and Student Experience in Faculty of Business and Law in view of rolling the Scheme out in the Faculty

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Improvements to be implemented next year• Recruitment should start in Easter of the previous

year (the MSA Board approval delays last year impacted on recruitment schedule)

• Induction will be more structured (candidate this year was very well informed about University processes and support systems)

• Transition from Peer Advisor responsibilities to PG Rep responsibilities will be built in from the beginning

• Incoming students will be informed about the Advisors pre-arrival

• Essential that the Advisors have their own room

PGT Study Support Scheme in ECS

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Background• Peer Assisted Study Schemes (PASS) or Supplemental

Instruction (SI) have been operating very effectively at undergraduate level in a number of universities (http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/tlso/studentsaspartners/peersupport/pass/passnc/)

• This Pilot Scheme in ECS uses a similar structure but for MSc students, using PhD students as facilitators and employing a Graduate Intern to coordinate the Scheme.

• The Scheme is overseen by the Director of PGT Programmes.

• The School had recently introduced MSc Project Monitoring whereby PhD students were supporting MSc students with their projects over the summer, and the two schemes seemed to complement each other well

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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• 25 PhD students are the (paid) facilitators of

weekly sessions of peer assisted study support to ECS MSc students.

• Numbers of students in each session can vary from 4 to 15 depending on the subject

• The facilitators provide a weekly report to the Graduate Intern, and keep attendance sheets and notes of issues raised for all sessions.

• The Graduate Intern oversees the smooth running of the sessions, and feeds any common academic issues and general areas of concern raised by the students to the Director of PGT Programmes.

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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• All 330 MSc students are expected to attend, and if

they miss three sessions the Graduate Intern will be informed. If some students are already identified as “at risk” they are approached if they miss just one session.

• Each PhD student facilitator works with one-two different groups of students

• The emphasis of the Scheme is around helping all MSc students to fulfil their full academic potential.

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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• Each session covers:

– introduction to key topic (if one has been assigned),

– review of the previous week and looking ahead to the next week.

• During the weekly sessions students:

– compare notes

– discuss the course and course materials

– compare what they’ve read around the subject

– analyse, criticise and seek verification of ideas

– raise any non-academic related issues with the facilitator

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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• The PhD students facilitate these discussions

rather than re-teach, guiding them through and providing the benefit of their own experiences.

• The PhD students are allocated to student groups that relate to their research group.

• The MSc students benefit from better access to PGR research and gain insights into life as a PhD student.

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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• If issues emerge that are beyond the facilitator brief,

the students will be directed towards the appropriate support provider (personal tutor, Senior Tutor, School Manager, SSC (esp First Support), SUAIC, and so on).

• PhD students are trained in effective facilitation skills, and are informed of the full range of support available to students at the University by the Intern and Director of PGT Programmes.

• The Graduate Intern attends SSLC meetings to be aware of broader issues that are being raised, and to feed in common issues that are raised through the Study Support Scheme.

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Semester One Topics covered in sessions

First stage Induction

Second stageCoursework prep, referencing, software, writing

Third stage2 week break where attendance is optional and focused on coursework

Fourth stageExam preparation, how to manage time and stress

Post-Christmas stage

Review of where students are at, go through past exam papers, prepare students for lower marks than they might be expecting…

Content of the Study Support Sessions

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StructureDeputy Head of

School Education

Director of PGT Programmes

Student Support Coordinator (Grad

Intern)

PhD SSS Facilitators (x25)

MSc students (x330)

Director of UG Programmes

Senior Tutor

School Manager

(Education)

Academic Tutors

Staff Student Liaison

Committees

PGT Administrator

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Costs• £28k for Graduate Intern

– £15k from Transition to Living and Learning Project

– £15k from ECS

• All costs covered by ECS for the PhD Facilitators at standard PGTA rate

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Examples of how the Scheme has made a difference• The School is able to respond to student needs and

concerns much earlier than they have done in the past:

– Student suspensions have been encouraged earlier, rather than after first semester exams

– Issues are raised and often dealt with before the next SSLC meeting

– Issues are formally raised at SSLC

– Number of issues reaching Director of PGT Programmes is greatly reduced

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Student evaluation

• How well have the sessions been run? Rated 4.3 out of 5

• Were the sessions enjoyable? 4.0 out of 5

• 70% of respondents said that the Scheme made a difference to how they settled in to life at the University

• 100% of respondents said that the Scheme should continue

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Student evaluation: Best feature

• “You get to know people who are open to questions of any kind. Good academic support on a regular basis and discussions about future options, e.g. PhD, employment etc”

• “There are senior students who pass their best experience with living and study to us, which is really useful. And it gives a more comfortable and relaxed environment for communication than when we are talking to our lecturers or even tutors”

• “He [the facilitator] has positive energy, he tries to get all students to talk about their problems and find a solution”

• “Opportunity to have a peer chat on issues that need resolving and to be informed on how to meet certain needs”

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Student evaluation: most valuable topics

• Time management

• Issues relevant to courses

• Referencing

• Intelligent Algorithms

• How to study exams and coursework

• Research topic of facilitator

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Student evaluation: suggested improvements• More information about MSc Project

• Give more opportunity to share problems privately

• Fewer people in group

• Greater academic support

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Why the Scheme works so well in ECS• Plenty of social space and available rooms in the buildings

for the weekly meetings to take place

• Culture of the School

• Intense courses – the expectations are so high of the students, they all find it challenging and are grateful of any additional support

• High number of PhD students, many have studied at Masters level at ECS

• School was prepared to contribute half of the salary cost of the Graduate Intern and all of the costs for the PhD students running the session

• Very experienced Graduate Intern

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Next academic year• Dramatic changes in the School as it restructures as a

Faculty

• Change of roles (Director of PGT programmes, International Student Officer role)

• Where will the Study Support Scheme fit?

Looking ahead and other developments

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Looking ahead• University strategy to increase international

Masters student numbers, so it is critical to ensure that we provide the appropriate support to ensure they are equipped to fully engage with the learning experience

• Opportunities to review student support within new Faculty structures?

• Opportunity to develop these schemes further for other student groups to benefit?

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Other developments: supporting international students with the transition to study at Southampton• Extended induction for international students

– International student induction redesigned for 2010

– Settling International workshops throughout semester one: Making Sense Of British Culture, Sharing Experiences Of Life At University, How To Cope With Studying In A Different Culture

Settling International workshop, 2nd November 2010:“How to cope with studying in a different culture”

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Other developments around supporting students with the transition to study at Southampton

– Settling International Newsletter, emailed weekly to all international students through the first term: www.susu.org/international

– Online pre-sessional in development with the “Prepare for Success” team led by Julie Watson: http://www.prepareforsuccess.org.uk/

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Date for your diaries…– 1pm, 16th February – Room 1019, Building 58a– Carys Fuller (Sociology Teacher, Barton Peverill) and Matt Oakman (Deputy

Head 6th Form, Wellington College) will make a short presentation each on what the learning experience is like for students from both a state and private 6th form college perspective, followed by an open interchange of ideas between all attendees to improve our awareness of the prior learning experiences and expectations of our students and how we might bridge any gaps

– Key topics for discussion will include:

• Teaching and learning styles• Student expectations of feedback on academic learning• Student engagement with research skills• Student preparedness for HE• + anything else you would like to discuss

– RSVP to Sarah Rogers sed2@soton.ac.uk for catering purposes (light refreshments will be available)

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Contact the Transition to Living and Learning Project if you would like…

– help preparing funding applications

– pilot funding for suitable projects

– delivery support for pilot projects

– research conducted to support education strategy

– support in submitting to research journals and publications

Contact Sarah Rogers sed2@soton.ac.uk if you would like to start discussing some ideas

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Further examples of Transition to Living and Learning Project activities

Developed:– Team of trained student transition facilitators available to support

activities– Video streams of example lectures and seminars, for use in induction– Tracked academic performance of international students, based on

IELTs score on entry (ongoing)– SUSU language drop-in for partners of international students pilot– Surveys of the international student experience of transition

In development:– Reviewing the communication plan for the pre-sessional students pre-

arrival– Developing good practice guide for UG peer mentoring– UG focus groups, by discipline– More detailed course information available online to new students

pre-arrival