My tale of me - Chris Jenkinson

Since the 17th December, I have been working on the two key areas of course representatives and the review of undergraduate education, but I have attended a couple of conferences and contributed towards the website and other non-portfolio activities.

Course representatives

I finished the first round of meetings with all course representatives on a school-by-school basis before Christmas. It was a great opportunity to meet and find out what being a course representative, and studying, is like in many different areas of the university. Unfortunately the meeting duration was only one hour and I frequently found myself pushed for time to get enough information on a whole range of subject areas.

Attendance at the meetings varied significantly from school to school. Due to the short amount of turnaround before starting the meetings, I determined meeting times unilaterally, which meant unfortunately there was a short amount of notice and conflicts with academic commitments in some cases. More forward planning is necessary in future to ensure a higher turnout.

Kevin O’Brien, Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, led the sessions with course representatives in the faculty, asking questions about key aspects of being students in the various schools, which I believe was hugely beneficial for all sides. I am encouraging the Associate Deans in the other faculties to take part in similar activities in the next round of course representative meetings.

In addition, a large amount of work is being done into improving the quality of the data about course representatives so a more strategic view in the future can be taken. We are slowly becoming more aware of where the gaps in the data are so they can be filled and we are becoming more aware of the various structures of student representation that exist in the various schools. Being better at record-keeping means that less time can be spent on reinventing the wheel and making the same mistakes in future years and more on better support and more events for course representatives to benefit from.

I have also been planning the first Course Representative Conference, which is occurring on the afternoon of Wednesday, 11th February. I am hoping this will be a success and hope members of the Executive will attend and enjoy the conference as well.

Review of Undergraduate Education

I have attended several meetings regarding the review, in Humanities, Engineering and Physical Sciences, and Medical and Human Sciences, and with the Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), Colin Stirling. I have also been to meetings about the Learning Commons. Progress continues to be made and several changes will be in place for the upcoming semester, particularly around Academic Advisors. Discussions about improving feedback are ongoing and I have asked the course representatives to continue to be vocal on this topic so it does not slip off the agenda.

Other matters

I attended the Executive away day and the Higher Education Conference, hosted by NUS. Both were interesting events (in different ways), covering new areas that will influence the work I do over the next semester. The issue of postgraduate representation and involvement in the Union will be a focus of mine.

I was pleased to notice that several members of university staff are readers of my blog and have started to look into feedback on exams as a result of my blog post on the issue.

I am also pleased at the trial of the 24-hour library, which is going well. It seems more popular than first expected and I will be meeting the head of the library to discuss a way forward after the end of the exam period.

Kate Little, a course representative in the School of Law (with a new blog), is running a campaign called “I’m Hungry for Exam Feedback”, to get the University of Manchester to give personalised feedback on exam scripts - support her and the campaign by joining the Facebook group or emailing her. Here’s my thoughts on the issue of exam feedback.

With the January 2009 exams just around the corner and thousands of University of Manchester students revising for important exams, it is worth reflecting on how exams do and can help students develop. With all the hours spent on revising over the Christmas and New Year period, a great deal of work is put in by students.

What happens after completing the exam? Often, a unit done in one semester will be related to another unit in a following semester, or the next academic year. A good writing style is important for all essay-based exams, whatever the subject. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses helps us improve. Perhaps when revising a particular student knows they need to focus more on one area of the subject matter, but less on another.

If you are a first year, it’s very likely these are your first exams at university. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know whether you’re on the right lines and what you need to do to improve for next time around?

A mark is just an average of how you performed in a particular unit - it is a two-digit number which is intended to summarise a semester’s worth of work. Just a mark does not help that much with helping students develop. Does a mark of 57 mean you’re doing the same in all questions, or does it mean you’ve got a pretty solid grip of one area but are let down by other areas? Does a mark of 65 mean you’re fine for a 2:1? Or does it mean that you’re getting outstanding marks in one section of the exam but are just scraping a pass in another?

It’s difficult to tell what it means - which is why I agree with Kate’s campaign to get feedback on exams. It might be difficult to accomplish, but it is well worth doing. Students want to know how they are doing, not just on coursework throughout the semester but on all work we do - including exams. It helps us learn - isn’t that what universities are all about?