My tale of me - Chris Jenkinson

Periodic reviews

I have taken part in two periodic reviews since my last report, for the schools of Dentistry and Environment and Development. Both went well, and it was each panel’s feeling that both schools are performing well, with some excellent practice but some improvements still to be made. Before the next meeting I will be reviewing the School of Law, which I will be happy to answer questions on.

Course representatives

I have finished the final set of meetings with course reps by school, where the main topics of discussion were discussing ways to pass on their knowledge to their successors next academic year as representatives, and the best suggestions will be taken forwards. They include a short end-of-year report and including outgoing reps in the course rep training. We also discussed the Union’s support this academic year and ways to improve the support for next academic year.

I held a discussion with two course reps developing some guiding principles for schools to follow regarding student representation, which was productive and these suggestions will be consulted more widely with course representatives, before being taken to the University. My aim for this project is to have these principles adopted by the University, improving the involvement of course representatives and students more generally within discussions of teaching, learning and the student experience.

I met with staff in the University to discuss ways in which the University can help support course representatives, which was a productive meeting and I believe with increased awareness of the Union’s work in this area at an institutional level the course representation system can be more effective in future.

University meetings

I attended my final meeting of Senate in my capacity as Academic Affairs Officer, where the statistics for appeals, complaints and disciplinary hearings were discussed. The figure for international students was disproportionately high, and I took the opportunity to recommend extra support for students who have previously studied in overseas institutions, as they are often not used to the British system of referencing.

I attended teaching and learning meetings for Engineering and Physical Sciences and Humanities, and contributed a student perspective on several issues, particularly anonymous marking, improving feedback, academic advisors and personalised learning.

I attended a meeting of the Exchange Project Board, which is overseeing the upgrade of the email system for students. The system being proposed is a ‘cloud’ system by Microsoft, meaning if the Board decides to do so, Microsoft will host students’ email externally. There are a few particular criteria that I am keen the solution meets, such as data protection and privacy.

I attended, with several course representatives, a session reporting the findings of a survey the School of Social Sciences conducted into teaching and learning, which was useful as it added to the evidence base for many of the improvements I have been arguing for, and in a sufficiently robust way.

I went to the University’s inaugural teaching and learning conference, and attended sessions on novel assessment techniques, academic advisor implementation, peer mentoring, online formative assessment, and curriculum mapping, and contributed my thoughts on them.

Other activity

I chaired the open meeting with the President and Vice-Chancellor, which had a disappointing turn out. I thought the questions were generally excellent and I hope they continue in the future, with more effective communication so students are aware of the event.

I have been continuing to prepare the handover for my successor and work with her to ensure she can be an effective officer from the start of her term in office.

After a long Law School meeting this afternoon I am pleased to report that the earlier decision to reduce the number of lectures by 10, per 20 credit unit, and replace them with ’surgery hours’, has been reversed. The lack of involvement of course representatives in the working group, and the lack of consultation with students more generally was also recognised.

There will be a review of teaching quality in the Law School in the future - as there rightly should be - but it will be less rushed, engaging more people, staff and students. I hope that next year’s law students do take part and contribute critically, in the way that the law course representatives I have known this year have done so since the proposals first became public.

I took the opportunity today to talk to many Heads of School across the University on the importance of involving students in these debates, as partners. Students I have known who have contributed to discussions about improving student support or feedback have made insightful comments which have often led to major changes when those students’ views were listened to properly.

I am very hopeful that there have been major lessons learned from the past few weeks and that students in the future are not consulted in a tokenistic manner but will be an intregral part of future discussions around teaching and learning across the University.

“Dear Tony Lloyd,

As an officer in the University of Manchester Students’ Union, I was shocked at the recent announcement by two-thirds of vice-chancellors, speaking anonymously, calling for an increase in the cap on tuition fees to at least £4000 per year, with some calling for it to be £20,000.

I strongly believe that this would be a very regressive move for Parliament to take, and will put off many people from applying to university. Students already graduate with thousands of pounds of debt, and the National Union of Students have estimated that if fees were to rise to £5,000 per year, students would graduate with upwards of £30,000 of debt, a magnitude of debt which is really only on a par with a mortgage on a house!

I am also disappointed that the vice-chancellors are speaking anonymously on this issue, and are not coming out publicly to ask for funds. I support their argument that higher education is underfunded, with class sizes out of control, underpaid staff and a lack of learning resources, but the solution cannot be to pass on the cost to the students.

I would like a debate on funding for higher education, but its terms of reference cannot just be ‘how much more should students pay’, and it cannot be conducted anonymously.

I urge you to oppose any plans by vice-chancellors to increase the cap on tuition fees or pass on costs to students, and I call on you to push for increased funding, from general taxation, for higher education, which must be a priority for this country in times of economic recession.

Yours sincerely,
Chris Jenkinson”

Please write to your MP about this issue as well. Feel free to use some or all of my letter for inspiration or the financial facts within.

As a life sciences student at the University of Manchester the way I was assessed in almost all modules I studied was through exams, and only exams. Yesterday, in my capacity as Academic Affairs Officer, I had the opportunity to talk to course representatives from life sciences and one of the topics we spent a fair amount of time on was whether exams are really the right way to test someone’s understanding of the subject matter, and if not, how they as representatives could go about changing the assessment system so they do test understanding.

I’ve already got strong opinions on the issue, so I sat back and enjoyed the discussion, occasionally clarifying some facts or asking some questions. It was significant that no one was that in favour of exams, other than in recognition that other methods of assessment take longer to mark and staff time is limited.

The two preferred methods suggested (though there were others) were more coursework essays spread throughout the semester, and more assessed group work or presentations. Someone made the point that in most careers, when people are asked to research a topic they are unlikely to spend crazy hours close to the deadline frantically cramming and then write a report in two hours without reference to the subject. Others talked about how, upon reflection the day after an exam, they’d already forgotten a fair amount of what they had just revised.

I’d be interested to hear what other students think about exams as a method of assessment. Do they work? What are they for? How would you prefer to be tested on your understanding of a subject?

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?

Last week I had the first eight out of twenty-three meetings with the course representatives at the University of Manchester. I’ve been meeting them on a school-by-school basis, as schools have a great deal of autonomy in educating their students. It’s been highly interesting listening to course reps from right across the university, and discovering just how widespread some of the problems are.

While I’d expected that some personal tutors were better than others, with some being very knowledgable, full of useful advice, and eager to give it, while others being rather apathetic, not bothering to show up to introductory meetings or declaring they were “here for research and nothing else”, I was not quite ready when it turned out that the tutors’ lack of engagement with their students seemed to be the norm. While the average tutor was generally helpful if approached, and may have reached out to their tutees once or twice over the course of study, there was nothing near the appropriate level of academic advice that students should be receiving.

If Manchester is to embrace a learning culture which is personal to the student, allowing students the flexibility to choose units they wish to study, in the learning environment they work best in, and getting feedback on work they have done rather than on the work the group has done, and to get advice and support tailored to their needs, the tutorial system needs to change to reflect that.

Late last academic year a policy was passed at University Senate,  introducing “Academic Advisors”. Academic advisors are required to make weekly contact with their advisees, and the role includes providing information and guidance on academic choice, planning targets for development, monitoring performance and identifying fulfilment of the “Purposes of a Manchester Undergraduate Education” (a set of attributes all graduates from the University should possess). This policy is a good one - part of a personalised education is developing personal relationships with members of academic staff. It is important for so many reasons, not least in that the academic a student gets to know the most is probably going to end up writing a reference.

I’m not pretending that all academic advisors will be brilliant. There will still be apathetic ones, who do not care about their students. But by making it more of a two-way street, with the academic advisor required to be more proactive and not just leaving it to the student, the safety net is increased, all students will get more support, and a major step along the pathway to a personalised education will be achieved.

I think Shamir Patel, in his article “An apathetic attitude”, does a disservice to the hard work the several hundred course representatives do across the university. Being a course rep does not lead to infamy with your photo on the front page of Student Direct or many column inches, but it does lead to respect, experience, and most importantly change.

Finding out what students want changing is simple – persuading the people with the purse strings to agree to that change is a lot more complicated. It’s not whinging to sit in meetings, argue with staff and win improvements for students.

Hardworking course reps in the past have won changes to teaching to make it more personal, changes to the feedback we receive on the work we do, and the 24 hour library we’ll have at the next exam period.

I’m proud of the course reps at this university, and students should be too.

I’ve just come across a blog by the Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning in the Faculty of Medical & Human Sciences at the University of Manchester, Professor Kevin O’Brien. It’s well worth reading - especially for students within the faculty, but also for those outside who now may be looking on with envy at what MHS is offering!

I’d be interested in hearing from other students/staff at the University of Manchester who blog or are aware of other blogs from students/staff - please leave a comment!

Last Thursday I was interviewed by a researcher working for the Open University’s project on the impact of universities on local economies, for around an hour. The discussion was interesting and thought-provoking, and gave me an opportunity to consider the positive work done by the University of Manchester and the Students’ Union as institutions, and work done by individual students.

The University of Manchester is one of the best universities in the world, leading in many research fields, and only accepting students with high academic performance. It is also one of the largest in the world, with around 40,000 students and 10,000 staff. It is surrounded by some of the most deprived areas of England, including Longsight and Moss Side, which means it is possible to walk in a very short space of time from the imposing and well-kept site of Whitworth Hall to boarded-up housing and roads strewn with potholes. It is a stark difference.

It is little wonder that there is resentment from some sections of local communities towards the University and students - the priorities of local residents and students coming to study are very different, which is perfectly acceptable. An institution with the footprint the size of the University of Manchester can create shockwaves and have a major impact on decisions taken by the council, which may again be different or even conflicting with the priorities of local residents. This has to be managed; and usually it is managed well. The economic benefits a university such as Manchester brings to the city are significant.

But universities are more than just about economic benefits from increased traffic in shops, and more than just the research conducted. It is about the people at the university as well. Staff and increasingly many students have children which attend local schools and are very much a part of the community. Students, while their time in Manchester is often short, and their time in one area is often even shorter, are still part of the community. Students, just like any other group, take part in civil society, through volunteering in hundrds of different ways, and the entrepeneurship of many students in starting and maintaining small businesses. It would not be possible to list all the types of volunteering students take part in - so here’s two which I have involved myself in.

In June 2007 I applied to be a school governor to a secular high school in south Manchester. My application was, to my surprise, accepted. Governors are the largest volunteer force in the country and in addition to learning more about accountability, budgets and openness I have had the opportunity to ensure that the benefits of the new school buildings for pupils shortly to start construction are maximised. It has been a fantastic experience for me.

My second type of volunteering is part of a university-wide programme of volunteering in schools. For my final-year project I had to spend two hours in a school in Levenshulme teaching pre-GCSE children about ants. While the amount of time I spent teaching was short the amount of preparation I put in was much longer. My supervisor warned me that if I didn’t get them onside in the first five minutes I could write the whole hour off. The teachers really value students coming into engage their pupils, and hopefully the pupils will have been inspired by other young people teaching them - which may lead to them attending university when previously they had not thought about it.

Education is its own reward - a university is something to be proud of and so are its students. Students are a part of the community and shape the community, not just improving the local economy but improving local society.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

– Thomas Jefferson

“We’re here to improve the quality of education at the University of Manchester through open debate.”

Hi all,

Please come to the launch of the Education Assembly, on Wednesday 8th October, from 2-4pm. The event will be in the Council Chambers (top floor), Students’ Union, Steve Biko building, Oxford Road.

We’ll be discussing the University’s teaching and learning review, assessment and feedback, and finish off with higher education funding.

Teaching and learning review.

In September 2007 Alan Gilbert, the Vice-Chancellor, launched a massive grassroots review of how education works at the University of Manchester. The review looked at all aspects of education including the curriculum, personalised learning, the library, and student support, producing several recommendations on changes that must be made.

Student involvement in the process has been and will be crucial. Students have an excellent opportunity to contribute to how their education is delivered and we must take it.

Assessment and feedback.

Students across the university feel they are not given decent feedback, and the feedback they do get is late. The National Student Survey, filled in by final-year undergraduates, show this as one of the biggest problems students have.

The University recognises there is a problem. How do we, as students, help solve it?

Education funding.

Currently British and EU students contribute just over £3000 per year towards their degree, in addition to living costs, with non-EU students paying substantially more. The Government is launching a review of education funding in 2009.

The current system is unfair – we have an opportunity to challenge and put the case for an alternative funding model. What are the principles of education funding we believe in and how will we win our case?

Look forward to seeing you there,

Chris Jenkinson
Academic Affairs Officer