ACCESS TO HE PRIORITIES

What is going well / Who needs praise?

Nursing

• Some of the students have not received offers at university which has made us question carrying on.

  Medicine

• Most of us have been accepted to medical school which is a massive relief.

What could we do better?

You Said: We would like to celebrate at finishing the year.

We Have: Organised a graduation for students to recognise your achievement and let your hair down.

You Said: We would like assessments to be more spaced out, so we do not have so many at once.

We Will: Ensure that staff communicate about deadlines and provide opportunities for students to produce evidence throughout the units rather than just the end.

You Said: We would like to know exactly when our studies will finish.

We Have: Shared the academic calendar with you which highlights the end of the FE term on 14th June.

Medicine

You Said: Chemistry is the hardest modules – some of us are struggling.

Nursing

You Said: Now we are further on in the year, attendance has dropped within the class.

You Said: One of our teachers has been off for a sustained period and so some of our lessons have been combined.

What is going well / Who needs praise?

• We appreciate the use of the common room in the HE Hub.

• Having consistent classrooms is helpful, especially as most of the rooms have access to either a PC or chrome books.

• Our SPT is doing well managing the course.

• Most of your teachers are supportive.

• You find the course content interesting and enjoy the varied activities on offer.

• You are aware of when your assignments are due and largely feel confident that you understand what you need to do to achieve.

• Your classes are well structured

• You really like the use of google classroom and the ability to access notes / classwork outside of lessons

• You find the resources both in class and classrooms are good

• We find lessons are generally engaging and students feel that most of the content delivered is easy to understand and relevant to their end goal of medical school.

• We find the option to have sessions recorded live on teams helpful on the occasions that students cannot get to campus. It means that we can access this at a time that is convenient to us, and we can review what we have learnt.

• We love our Study Programme Tutor – he needs praise!

• Most of your teachers are supportive.

• You find the course content interesting and enjoy the varied activities on offer.

• You are aware of when your assignments are due and largely feel confident that you understand what you need to do to achieve.

What could we do better?

You Said: Teachers have different levels of input and in some there is more of an onus on students to research. More support may need to be offered to students who are struggling more than others.

We Have: Arranged for 1-2-1 drop ins for students to receive more support.

You Said: Some students feel that they need more specific support with learning difficulties.

We Have: Worked with the ALS team and will review needs that have been declared and the support offers we have available, ensuring we do our best to match students to the right help.

You Said: The assessment calendar in the student handbook differs from the one on google classroom. We think this might be because of extra time provided to those students that needs extensions, but for students who do not have these it becomes confusing.

We Have: Reviewed how we can have a separate hand in platform/deadline on google classroom, so individuals have more clarity on their assessment path.

You Said: It would be helpful if there was more source material in the library for psychology and cultural studies.

We Will: Collaborate with the library staff and ensure that we are fully utilising the online library archive. If we find this to be lacking, then we will explore what subscriptions we can purchase to provide more options.

You Said: It would be helpful to have a printout of how to air drop work to the printers from students’ private laptops.

We Will: Make this available to all students and show you how to do this as part of a tutorial session.

You Said: The feedback from staff across the course is not consistent and, in some classes, not individualised or constructive. There is no written feedforward for students to be able to improve.

We Will: Ensure that the internal verifier checks a sample of work from each tutor across the area focusing on what feedback. CPD opportunities will be introduced if a need has been identified and, in the case, where grades have been affected, these will be double marked by another tutor to ensure a fair process.

You Said: You would like more support for students with specific learning differences as they feel this is affecting their grades.

We Will: Discuss the possibility of introducing targeted support from the Additional Learning Support (ALS) team and/or 1-2-1 time with a tutor for proofreading, assignment structuring etc.

You Said: Some staff can appear unapproachable, and students are less likely to ask for help because of this.

We Will: Discuss this as a team and facilitate meetings between staff and students if there is a further need/wish.

You Said: Some of the class have difficulties logging into the Wi-Fi. Whilst you have access to Chrome books, and these are good for research they aren’t always easy to use for written work.

We Will: Work with network services to explore the possibility of installing boosters on the third floor.

You Said: Not all learners like deadlines falling into the next block as find it difficult to manage learning new content whilst writing assignments for previous content. You also feel that a lot of deadlines are in quite close succession, and although some modules have 1-2 different assignments in them, they all have the same deadline – Can these be split out more?

We Will: Restructure the curriculum so that deadlines for assignments fall in the same block as delivery and do not overlap.

You Said: You would like to have assignments briefs printed, so you can make notes on the actual assignment brief when these are discussed in class.

We Will: Print the assignment brief and resources for students to annotate as desired.

You Said: We would like to see marked work as soon as possible so we know if we have the distinctions that we need.

We Will: Always have marked work with effective feedback handed back to you within the four-week timeframe set out by the awarding body.

You Said: Lesson material at times does not seem planned or relevant to our course.

We Will: Review all resources and ensure that these are checked for quality and relevance prior to delivery.

You Said: On Fridays we have gaps in our timetable, and it feels like we are travelling quite far when we could spend that time studying at home.

We Have: Adapted the timetable so you have no gaps and back-to-back lessons so that timetables are more efficient.

You Said: The feedback from staff across the course is not consistent and, in some classes, not individualised or constructive. There is no written feedforward for students to be able to improve.

We Will: Ensure that the internal verifier checks a sample of work from each tutor across the area focusing on what feedback. CPD opportunities will be introduced if a need has been identified and, in the case, where grades have been affected, these will be double marked by another tutor to ensure a fair process.

You Said: You would like more support for students with specific learning differences as they feel this is affecting their grades.

We Will: Identify targeted support from the Additional Learning Support (ALS) team and/or 1-2-1 time with a tutor for proofreading, assignment structuring etc.

You Said: Some staff can appear unapproachable, and students are less likely to ask for help because of this.

We Will: Discuss this as a team and facilitate meetings between staff and students if there is a further need/wish.