Understanding the student journey – from pre-arrival to graduation

1. Understanding the student journey – from pre-arrival to graduation Deborah Shaw 1st BMS Learning and Teaching Forum

2. Why issue a pre-arrival questionnaire? • Enhanced Personal Tutor meetings • Understanding our students views, expectations and aspirations about • The degree programme • The University • Student life

3. Follow-up questionnaires Year 1 14 questions based on the answers given in the pre-arrival questionnaire • Additional questions covering: • The ‘First Year Experience’ • Satisfaction of academic and pastoral support and which source students have used to obtain support • Which skills students have gained/ feel they still lack • What do students value most in formative/summative feedback Year 4 12 questions based on the answers given in the pre-arrival questionnaire (excluding first year experience)

4. 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 P-AQ Yr 1 Follow-up Yr 4 Follow-up Yr1 Follow-up P-AQ P-AQ Yr1 Follow-up P-AQ

5. 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 P-AQ Yr 4 Follow-up (DE) Yr 1 Follow-up Yr 4 Follow-up Yr1 Follow-up P-AQ P-AQ Yr1 Follow-up P-AQ

6. Pre-arrival expectations • In depth knowledge • Stimulate interest • Good preparation for future career • Challenging • Enjoyable • Excellent standards of teaching • Strong research element • (flexibility)

7. Pre-arrival concerns • Workload/ intensity/ too difficult • Direct entry • Making friends/ fitting in • Moving away from home/ new city • English not first language • (getting good results/ finance)

8. How do you think this degree programme will differ from your previous education experiences, for example teaching and learning, support and assessment? • Independent/ self–learning • More responsible/ be pro-active • Harder • Larger classes • Assessed differently (more exam or ICA) • Need extra reading work • Less support/need to ask

9. I think that it will involve much more self teaching rather than being handed information as well as less support for assessments in regards to help before handing them in for grading. I think support will be given when asked for it rather than it being handed out to everyone as it was at secondary school and 6th form. I believe it will be more difficult to work in this independent enviornment, as I am used to emailing and visiting teachers who I have grown up with, at all hours of the day

10. Med Sci v BMS Year 1 follow-up survey 2013/14 year 1 follow-up (Med Sci) 2014/15 year 1 follow up (Med Sci) 2015/16 year 1 follow up (Med Sci +BMS)

11. Med Sci v BMS 2013/14 year 1 follow-up (Med Sci) 2014/15 year 1 follow up (Med Sci) 2015/16 year 1 follow up (Med Sci) 2015/16 year 1 follow up (BMS) Answers were provided on a Likert scale from 1-5. 1= strongly disagree, 2= Disagree, 3= Neither agree nor disagree, 4= Agree and 5= strongly agree

12. My first year of studies on my degree programme has met my expectations with respect to my….

13. How to improve ‘the first year experience’? • I don't think there is a way to improve one aspect without worsening another. I was very happy in my first year as far as my studies were concerned, and would not change much about it. • Less lectures at 9 in the morning • First year has been great, the xxx course could be improved by making it more coherent. • As students we were not sure who to contact after being told off for emailing the 'wrong' person • Provide more support by providing high school advance higher background knowledge for those who haven't done that level of studies to help understand

14. Yr 1 v Yr 4 Year 1 + 4 follow-up survey 2013/14 year 1 follow-up (Year 1 entry) 2013/14 year 1 follow up (Year 2 DE) 2016/17 year 4 follow-up (Year 1 entry) 2015/16 year 4 follow up (DE)

15. Yr 1 v Yr 4 Year 1 + 4 follow-up survey 2013/14 year 1 follow-up (Year 1 entry) 2013/14 year 1 follow up (Year 2 DE) 2016/17 year 4 follow-up (Year 1 entry) 2015/16 year 4 follow up (DE)

16. My degree programme has met my expectations with respect to….

17. Skill development Strong • Written communication • Critical thinking • Teamwork • Independent learning • Presentations • Organisation • Leadership • Endurance Weak • Lab skills • Critical Thinking • Statistics • Too dependent • Presentations • Organisation • Leadership • Confidence

18. I found my studies challenging

19. Year 1 The first year has been quite challenging, getting used to the different teaching styles and also the number of assignments that were due around the same time, but I feel that this was also a good thing to get used to early on. Year 4 I didn't find the degree hard per se (even deadline wise: people who complain are just not good at managing their time; However what I found hard is to excel: I am on a solid 2:1 but I still don't know how to achieve higher grades. I do feel like I learnt a lot at an excellent level but this never came through in assessments.

20. Satisfaction with Academic Support

21. Sources of Academic Support

22. Satisfaction with Pastoral Support

23. Sources of Pastoral Support

24. Overall, I enjoyed my time at University

25. Overall, my expectations were met

26. Matching expectations • I really think, in general, I absolutely loved my study here and I learned to be more professional at work day after day. • thought university would be better than this. That I would feel safe, supported, and cared for. I just felt like another student going through the system who had problems and took up professor's times.

27. Thoughts • Pre-arrival expectations remain stable….flexibility • Year 1 experience matched to pre-arrival expectations seems stable…BMS lower in all categories but with much larger cohort • Year 4 cohorts follow similar pattern to year 1… except career preparation • In general, students use PT more for pastoral support than academic support

28. Every student is different – how do we cater for a heterogeneous group in a homogeneous system?