Access to Higher Education award

Research carried out by Maria Dawson which was funded by the Cultural and Regional Studies Beacon has helped the university win the Quality Assurance Agency's 2013 Access to Higher Education Provider of the Year award. Maria's research on students' understanding of the notion of 'employability' informed the development of a ten-credit module called 'Step Up to HE', aimed to ease the transition from Further to Higher education. She will be giving a conference paper entitled ‘Graduate Voice: My Personal Employability Skills Portfolio’ at EDULEARN13 in Barcelona in July 2013.

Katharine Reed (Student Recruitment), Maria Dawson (CAS),
Lesley Griffin (Student Recruitment)

Laurence Eagle at the Higher Education Academy

Cross-institutional dialogue can enhance the learning and teaching experience for students in both participating institutions, according to a paper which will be given at the annual conference of the Higher Education Academy in July. Dr Laurence Eagle (CSP) and Dr Peter Lumsden (University of Central Lancashire) will report on the enhancements made to the students’ learning and teaching experience as a result of dialogue.

Maria Dawson joins international advisory board

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Maria Dawson has accepted an invitation to become a member of the advisory board for the annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, to be held in Barcelona in July 2013. She will join a selected group of academics and teachers from around the world.

Maria Dawson in Madrid

Maria Dawson (Combined Subjects) has recently given a paper entitled 'Student voice: "Personalize my learning"' at the 5th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation in Madrid (19th-21st November 2012). The paper reports on a project which explored students' understandings of the notion of 'employability' and encouraged them to build the relationship between HE and graduate employability in a way that makes sense to them. Maria's findings revealed that transition from undergraduate status to graduate 'work-ready' status requires high-intensity support by academic and student-centred staff teams.