The second Student Success (EDI) Staff Symposium was held Wednesday 26th October 2016. All the presentations can be found on the staff only section of the Student Success (EDI) website.
The Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, David Nightingale, gave an overview of the project’s origins. Jan Moriarty then updated delegates on how the project has developed since the June 2016 “Closing the Gap: Research and Practice on Black and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment in Higher Education” conference. Sharon Smith, Research and Evaluation Manager, delivered an update on institutional and national data, providing an insight into sector wide trends that may affect the university. Dr Alex Hensby, Project Researcher, presented preliminary qualitative data regarding the university’s Academic Advisor System.
Next delegates heard from four of the nine two-year pilot schools: Kent Law School, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, Kent Business School, and the School of Engineering and Digital Arts. Delegates were impressed with the valuable insights the schools provided:
“Finding out about how different schools are using separate approaches was very useful. It was beneficial to find out which methods have been successful and which have been unsuccessful. I also gained a better understanding of the different issues faced by schools. It simply isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ scenario.”
Finally, Professor John Baldock, Pro Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching and Student Experience presented an outline of TEF2 (The Teaching Excellence Framework) setting out the purpose of TEF2, and how the university of Kent can use the Student Success (EDI) Project in its submission.
More information about the symposium, including videos and power points can be found on the staff only section of the Student Success (EDI) Project website.