The University of Newcastle's Case Study

PARs for MA/MLit in Ancient History

Rationale

• Interest in seeing if PAR approach could help postgraduates
• Faculty of Art's concern to provide a more structured frame work for postgraduate work.
• Desire from the Graduate Council and the University's Academic Quality Enhancement Unit to ensure Quality in postgraduate qualifications.

Numbers participating

Students: 5

Staff: 1

Other groups involved

Careers Advisory Service.

Timescale of the case study exercise

Academic year 1998-99.

Adequacy of existing provision for case study student group

Key findings

• No systematic PARs in Classics.
• Standard use of existing forms, which provided basic information about the students, and of tutor's record cards (for recording progress and meetings), which were completed as suited the tutor.
• Level of help and support very dependent on individual tutor.
• All postgraduate courses in Arts have research training modules, but there was no systematic way of assessing the skill needs of individual students or of trying to match provision to need - similar situations reported elsewhere in Arts.

Main modifications/innovations in PAR processes/documentation agreed in relation to staff roles, student roles, staff-student interactions

PAR at postgraduate level has the same advantages as the undergraduate PAR: it provides accurate, up-to-date information about the student and the student's programme and progress through it. It enables both staff and student to monitor progress systematically, to set goals, and to ensure they are achieved.

All the postgraduates involved in the case study had programmes which involved a considerable amount of choice and a lot of decisions to be made about individual topics to be followed. For this reason most of the postgraduates found the Diary and the reflective element the most useful part of the PAR. It enabled timetables to be agreed, progress to be reviewed and got the students to assess their own goals and progress towards them.

The Diary has considerable potential to become a "Logbook", something which is being widely recognised as a potentially useful tool for PhD students to help them to set goals and assess progress.

In the informal atmosphere of Classics, postgraduates and staff meet very regularly. It is very easy to sort out minor problems, review progress, and give advice. There was no point in attempting to record all such meetings. Instead, a more formal set of review meetings was instituted, in which tutor and student concentrated on reviewing and planning. The PAR forms are to be adapted to provide a more specific agenda for these meetings.

The Skills section was the least successful. Postgraduates felt it was too general and was not closely linked to the two modules Faculty Research Training and the Skills of Classical Scholarship, which are a required part of all postgraduate courses. This section will be rewritten for next year. There will be a separate section on career development.

Potential for transfer/dissemination to other courses/disciplines/ institutions

PAR for postgraduate courses to be adopted by the Faculty of Arts 1999-00. Progress to be monitored by University Teaching Committee (UTC). The University is committed in its Institutional Plan to the creation of a PAR system for all students at Newcastle by September 2002. This includes postgraduates and research postgraduates. Work on the development of a PAR for PhD students will be undertaken in 1999-00 by UTC, Graduate Council and the Academic Quality Enhancement Unit. It is clear that the PAR system is applicable at postgraduate level.