Project work in partner universities 1996 - 1999:

The University of Birmingham

Contact Details

Other members of the PADSHE team at Birmingham

Key Findings

• all academic departments need something like PADSHE and PARs
• it can bring efficiency gains
• staff often do not appreciate its usefulness straightaway; they need to adapt and adjust to feel that they own their version and they need training to use the system well to bring maximum benefit to students
• students need careful induction
• careers and skills need to be integrated in it and there is work to do in identifying the best way to achieve this
• people rather than documentation (paper or IT) are at the core of this and the system must facilitate rather than replace human contact

Commentary on customisation of the Nottingham PAR model

• involves all students, not just those with problems
• is co-ordinated so that information can flow both ways
• is efficient.

• academic choices
• skills
• career development
• students reflecting on their own development.

• arrival information
• registration and ancillary choice
• module choice and registration in years two and three
• management and monitoring of students.

The materials used by the School of English Studies at Nottingham were transferred fairly directly to the School of English at Birmingham. Customisation was minimal. It involved retiming the schedule of personal tutor meetings and careers-related events and rewriting some of the prose to achieve a more personalised tone.

Changes to the documentation anticipated towards the end of the project included:

• thinning out paperwork perceived as unnecessary
• avoidance of directive language
• integration with the Departmental Handbook
• inclusion of assessment deadlines in the timechart
• increased emphasis on student self-evaluation and target-setting
• more space to document other matters.

Student views

What I like best about the new system is:

• I think it is much better.
• Structured opportunities to discuss marks and direction of study and more input as to what I should be doing.
• It ensures everybody gets to receive and discuss their marks.
• The fact that we get a written breakdown of our results plus the system is much more organised - with arranged meetings, reports etc. Shows that the Department are actually concerned with their students' progress.
• More in-depth discussion of marks.
• There is more feedback.
• Regular timetabled meetings.
• Clear system of results.

2nd Year Joint Honours

• PADSHE makes good sense.
• It is a vast improvement on my earlier experience.
• It's a positive benefit having a tutor who teaches you - they are better placed to make references.
• The system works very well.
• The greatest benefit I get is from the academic reports.
• The formalised procedure is definitely an improvement on the old system. It is reassuring to see the University making the effort.

• The tutorial procedure is better than before - more regimented - it's nice to know it's more structured - that tutors have a checklist to go through (for example, do you have a CV?) although it is tutor-dependent - depends on the extent to which tutors follow the guidelines.
• It is nice to receive marks from somebody rather than have them posted to you or on public display.
• The skill audit was really useful.

• It's nice to have it all together in a folder and organised.

• I think it is a good thing.
• The timing of the tutorials is right - well spaced out.
• It's good that your tutor also teaches you - they know you better - know your problems.
• The CV part of the folder is a good idea - doing it along the way is good otherwise you get to the end of three years and can't remember what's been done.

Core principles accepted prior to project

• designated member of staff with responsibiliy for monitoring progress and informing student
• initial meeting with tutees within the first two weeks of the session
• responsibility for no more than twenty students, where possible
• feedback at designated times during the year
• systems for appropriate information to personal tutors

Variations across disciplines

• more flexible approach to contact in Modern Languages
• more continuity of tutoring in some subjects than others

Distinctive good practice: students' views

• continuity of tutoring across the length of the degree programme
• enough contact with tutor (through teaching, continuity of allocation, etc) to establish a relationship
• tutors developing enough personal knowledge of students to give them confidence in references that would be supplied
• accessibility of tutors at times other than those designated for formal feedback
• reliable and well informed feedback on progress, in the context of direct knowledge of one's work

Impact on teaching and learning

• some teaching is now more explicitly linked to career paths, for example, publishing
• guided reading sessions have been linked to employability in choice of texts

Impact on institution/Continuation plans

Case Study

Deliverables

• School of English PAR
• Case study report