Student Destination Showcase

Student Destination Showcase

In the final year of students’ undergraduate study, we turn our attention to the transition to the world of work or further study. At Stirling, we support students in developing both the personal and professional skills that employers are looking for. Students will leave with strong transferrable skills that help with the transition into work and make them attractive to a wide number of employers in a range of fields.

We do this in a number of ways:

  • By providing internship opportunities and creating connections
  • By giving references and reviewing students’ CVs to help them begin a successful career
  • By teaching students important presentation and communication skills that they can use in any future position

For more: see the information on the right-hand side.

Peer Mentoring in Statistics

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Peer Mentoring in Statistics

Psychological research is a process for asking questions about the world and ourselves and getting the best answers we can. One of our staff members and a student developed BrawStats to make it easier for fellow Psychology students to understand statistics within the research process that is an essential part of their studies.

BrawStats is an accessible, easy-to-use digital system that makes the psychological research process less intimidating. Using the system, students can try out lots of different ideas to build their confidence and understanding before committing to a hypothesis and carrying out their research. BrawStats will then help students analyse the final data from their research and generate statistical results.

For more: see the information on the right-hand side.

Supporting Student Transitions into Placement

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Supporting Student Transitions into Placement.

Students undertaking Initial Teacher Education programmes face different transitions as they move between the University and school spaces. We’ve written a paper on the complexity of these transitions, exploring how we could better support our students in the future.

Using feedback from students returning from placements, focus group findings and drawing upon socio-material theory, we’ve mapped the main student transitions and identified a number of key themes to address. We’re currently producing a series of films that involve short conversations on each of the issues identified.

For more: see the information on the right-hand side.

Digital Bootcamp

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Digital Bootcamp

Some Digital Media students start directly in the third year of the course. We carried out scoping meetings, a survey and focus groups to see how we could help these students feel more confident as they transition into Stirling University.

The focus groups helped us identify that students entering the course in the 3rd year may feel that they are ‘behind the curve’ when it comes to academic theory and would like more support to understand the expectations the University has of them. Communication and coaching is key to easing the transition and helping students to feel engaged and confident. The outcomes suggest there would be great benefit in setting up a Digital Media Bootcamp which gives students a general orientation into the campus, an introduction to production staff and digital production facilities, and an understanding of our learning and teaching culture here at Stirling University.

Read the poster on the right for more information.

Upping the Ante

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Upping the ante

Honours students are expected to study independently, be multi-skilled, intellectually curious and committed to their development. This project focused on what students find challenging about getting ready for their Honours year to identify how we could make this transition period easier. We spoke to pre-Honours students, year four students and staff to get their views on transitioning into the fourth year of study.

Our findings will support students to feel more prepared for Honours study; it’s important to establish early in a student’s programme how they can prepare for their Honours year. We’ve set out several different ways to make this happen, for example through special events and an Honours induction programme.

For more: see the information on the right-hand side.

Transitioning to a positive and sustained post-school destination

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Transitioning to a positive and sustained post-school destination

Created by The University of Stirling School of Nursing, the aim of the Pre-nursing Scholarship (PNS) was to provide health care experience for pupils in secondary education from remote and rural areas of the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. The impact of this scholarship was then assessed to find out if it had an impact on school pupils who were considering a career in nursing.

Initial evaluation of the two-year PNS pilot found that immediately after participation in the PNS there was an increase in the percentage of pupils who indicated that they ‘definitely’ wanted to pursue a nursing career. Most pupils also strongly agreed that the PNS had put them in a ‘better position’ to decide whether nursing was right for them.

Going forward, it is important to understand whether and how the PNS aided school pupils’ decision-making and transition into post-school destinations, and their perceptions of whether involvement in the PNS prepared them for entry to education or employment, as a student nurse or in another discipline or career. Understanding this long-term effect will aid the future development of the PNS and its adaptation by other Schools of Nursing.

For more: see the information on the right-hand side.

Transitions from workplace to academic study; facilitating criticality in masters level professional learning

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Transitions from workplace to academic study; facilitating criticality in masters level professional learning

The Professional Education and Leadership team in the Faculty of Social Sciences delivers a successful masters programme aimed at supporting the professional development of qualified teachers. The defining quality of such learning is often said to be criticality, but we know from our experience and from research, that nurturing the development of criticality is very difficult. The aim of this project was, therefore, to develop a masters module explicitly aimed at developing the criticality of qualified teachers for academic learning and professional practice.

The new module is based on the widely accepted idea that collegiality is a key aspect of teachers’ professional development. This can be achieved through engagement with a range of colleagues within the scholarly environment of the university, which encourages the questioning of received norms and gives rise to new and enhanced understandings and practices.

For more: see the information on the right-hand side.

Going Global

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Going Global

We take part in the International Student Barometer (ISB) survey which tracks and compares the experience of international students with an academic institution from application to graduation. In the last survey, students from 196 academic institutions across the globe, including 42 from the UK, took part. At The University of Stirling, we’re committed to providing as warm and supportive a welcome as we can to our international students. That’s why we’re delighted that the ISB survey ranked us first in Scotland for the welcome we provide to our international students.

We have used the invaluable information from the ISB survey to identify where we are getting things right and take action where there is room for improvement. Our unique, beautiful campus was ranked first in the UK for the environment it provides. However, some issues around the quality and cost of accommodation were identified and the University now has an improvement action plan to address them.

For more: see the information on the right-hand side.

Come on in

Come on in

Come on in is designed to ease the transition of new students into life at the University. The project focuses on the different challenges faced by students coming from school or college, advanced entry and access courses, those taking part in an international exchange programme or those starting a postgraduate qualification. We spoke to new students from each of the different groups to find out about their experiences and to ask how the University and Stirling Students’ Union can do more to help ease the transition into student life.

The key finding of the project emphasises the different needs of students depending on the route they have taken to study at the University. School and college leavers, exchange students and postgraduate students all have different requirements and we’re committed to providing the tailored transitioning support they need.

For more: take a look at our video to hear the students’ own experiences and what they think will help others make the best start at Stirling.