Enhancing the Student Academic Experience

The Degree Awarding Gap Team

The degree awarding gap is the difference between the percentage of UK Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students awarded a first or 2:1 degree and those who receive other grades. Nationally, this is a recognised problem although there are many factors that are not yet fully understood. This cross-campus team have worked tirelessly to analyse address some of the underlying issues that contribute to the awarding gap, including a positive intervention programme to identify students struggling with assessment so that they can progress and succeed.

Martin Mejia-Tamariz

Martin has been nominated for his exceptional work on the module "Tectonics”. His teaching style has received personal praise from students, who have expressed their appreciation for his dedication and innovative approach. For example, Martin displayed samples of building construction materials in the classroom, enhancing the learning experience with tangible examples. Martin pre-recorded all the module content and made it available in advance, providing students with the flexibility to learn at their own pace and access materials as needed. This has been particularly beneficial for students with learning disabilities.

Soukaina Bahsoun

Soukaina is an outstanding University Teacher known for her innovative and inclusive approach to teaching complex subjects like Biochemistry, Cell Biology, and Cellular Signalling and Transport. This is evident in her innovative teaching methods, such as the "cartooning in biological sciences" seminar, in which students illustrated their understanding of a key signalling pathway via a concept cartoon. Soukaina collaborated with other module leaders across the programme to extend this into a pedagogic research study, the results of which she is presenting at the upcoming Horizons in STEM conference.

The Teaching Support Team

The Teaching Support team have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to develop and support so many of the University’s core strategic and operational activities. this year the team have extended their remit to cover all in-room technologies. This has been a significant development for the team extending their responsibilities, and technical skillset to computer labs, in room computers and software as well as the audio-visual equipment. Teaching Support have also been instrumental in the DigiLabs project leading on the design of sector leading AV solutions.

The ‘Let’s Communicate’ Project Team

Master’s courses in the School of Design & Creative Arts are popular with international students, but some students clearly lacked confidence in their English language skills, even when they met the English language entry requirements. To address these challenges, SDCA colleagues collaborated with ALSS (Academic Language Support Service) to create an innovative set of English language support interventions, which were then refined with input from the student body. Supportive measures included weekly design-centred discussions and bookable 1-1 slots with English language tutors from ALSS.