Dr Carol Spencely

A timely manual in the current climate of increasingly underfunded departments and institutions, this book offers insight into how to secure, manage and effectively research funding in the changing order of global economy and competing research priorities. It gives you the perspectives of those who seek, and those who award research funding, such as governments, companies and foundations. Examining the full cycle and elements of influence of research funding, this book comes with: • Practical case studies, • Lists of potential funding sources that you can use to enhance your funding generation efforts, and • Explanatory videos Clear and digestible, this text delivers systematic guidance for early career researchers and students in Graduate Schools, Doctoral Colleges, Research Methods Programmes, Academic and Research Staff Development Programmes.

This paper reports on two questions posed by our Foundation Year teaching team, “Are students interacting with our teaching?” and “Do all students find they can access our teaching and resources?” We introduced Microsoft Teams within two settings: a whole cohort academic module and small group-based assignments during Semester 2 of the academic year. Access to and activity within the newly introduced Microsoft Teams platform was investigated using the 90-day analytics window built into Microsoft Teams. Importantly, data were compared before and after the imposed remote-working situation due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). Students’ opinions surrounding the use of Microsoft Teams within these settings were elicited through a questionnaire which helped to contextualise the benefits and challenges in introducing and embedding this tool into an existing teaching environment.Students reported that this platform was easy to use and that they were confident in using it in the future, but exhibited clear inertia to change, preferring existing communication channels. This effect was also situation dependent; in the whole group situation, students liked to read what others had posted but were reticent to post things themselves. In the small group Teams, levels of activity were generally higher, with some groups using the tool for real-time collaboration. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in activity and engagement observed within the analytics window before and after enforced remote working. Overall, this paper shows that the adoption of Microsoft Teams in a hybrid teaching approach has merit in specific settings. However, careful consideration of the size of groups and how it is used within a setting should be given to elicit the desired effects.

Hybrid approaches to teaching, where there is a proportion of online (asynchronous or synchronous) teaching as well as face-to-face synchronous teaching, were adopted almost ubiquitously by UK higher education institutions throughout the 2020/2021 academic year amidst disruption caused by national and international Covid-19 restrictions. One example of this was the introduction and use of software such as Microsoft (MS) Teams as a learning tool and platform to continue education provisions. As such, this study reports on the implementation of MS Teams to deliver a foundation year physical science curriculum within a hybrid learning context over the 2020/2021 academic year and within multiple learning contexts. In-built data analytics from MS Teams were used to measure student engagement and activity on the software. Additionally, a questionnaire was used to capture student perspectives of MS Teams and their use as a learning tool. These data show that the like-for-like replacement of face-to-face teaching with an online alternative within this hybrid approach did not produce a clear like-for-like learning environment for students, except in the case of small-group collaborations where students found clear utility for the platform. Significant thought needs to be given to the use of online and hybrid alternatives to traditional face-to-face instruction and, in order to facilitate student learning and engagement effectively, a bottom-up approach to redesign may be required instead of simply substituting teaching tools.

The 2023 Foundation Year Network conference focused on an important theme: failures, mistakes, missteps and meanders in the foundation year context. It provided an important impetus for reflection: after all, the relative institutional ‘success’ of a programme of study will often be judged on a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data collected from, or about, students studying on the programme, for example, attainment, progression, and satisfaction. It is, therefore, too easy to overlook how the teaching staff view the processes, iterations, and risks taken in designing, teaching, assessing and iteratively improving programmes of study which are deemed successful within product-oriented metrics, achieved only through reflection on the intervening failures, mistakes, missteps and meanders by the ‘insiders’. Herein, we detail a case study on a core component of our foundation year programme, the ‘Conference Project’, and provide a narrative on how it has iteratively developed, why specific decisions were taken, and the next iteration currently in development. The challenges of operational restraints and the triad of tensions between the expectations of teachers, students, and the academy will likely resonate with our colleagues’ experiences, or, at the very least, highlight some pitfalls to be avoided.

Academic and mathematical skills development is built into the curriculum in all modules on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Foundation Year programme at a university in England, with all teaching team members involved including our Lecturer in Learning Development. Two specific academic support initiatives are outlined in this paper to provide a small-scale case study of approaches to developing learning communities. The first is a ‘Peer-Assisted Learning Scheme’ which involves the mentoring of groups of students by a previous Foundation Year student. The second is the ‘Engineering Business Case’ involving a group design project with a financial incentive supported by the Engineers in Business competition. In both cases, the student voice, through the lens of creating communities of learning, was sought through questionnaires. There are indications that both mentees and mentors reported benefits in terms of learning and development and engaging with other students in their participation with the Peer-Assisted Learning Scheme. For the Engineering Business Case a contrasting view was seen: whilst the students agree that components of this project were valuable for their learning and/or future studies, meeting new people, and developing strategies for group work, there were mixed responses about whether the project helped them to feel part of the student community. The data evaluated in this work do not lend themselves to any generalisations. Rather, we seek to report on the framework and implementation of these schemes which, as they mature, will lend themselves to more quantitative and qualitative data collection for interpretation.

This book examines the importance of exploring the varied and diverse perspectives of student experiences. In both academic institutions and everyday discourse, the notion of the 'student voice' is an ever-present reminder of the importance placed upon the student experience in Higher Education: particularly in a context where the financial burden of undertaking a university education continues to grow. The editors and contributors explore how notions of the 'student voice' as a single, monolithic entity may in fact obscure divergence in the experiences of students. Placing so much emphasis on the 'student voice' may lead educators and policy makers to miss important messages communicated - or consciously uncommunicated - through student actions. This book also explores ways of working in partnership with students to develop their own experiences. It is sure to be of interest and value to scholars of the student experience and its inherent diversity.

Thinking of starting a postdoc? Want to know how to move on from a postdoc? Or simply want to make the best of your postdoc years? Being a postdoc is not a career... but it can be the pivotal point in the making of one. This friendly, practical, and occasionally humorous guide to all things postdoc combines the three authors' vast experience of postdoc careers and personal development. This is a guide to developing, advancing and furthering yourself and your career. In working through exercises, learning from the experience of others (including the trials and tribulations of the authors) and seeking out information, we hope you will consider what success means on your own terms. Your postdoc is part of the journey towards a range of career destinations, from industrial R&D specialist to politician, from lecturer to spin-out Chief Executive, and this book is designed to help you get there. Providing indispensable advice on UK-based postdocs for national and international students, it is perfect for those making exciting transitions (student to postdoc, postdoc to the wide world of careers beyond) or for those who simply want to take their postdoc up a gear. This Second Edition includes new material exploring the importance of collaborations, enterprise career routes and research impact.

Other contributors to this book have articulated why foundation year programmes exist and have explained the considerable value these programmes of study have for students. In this chapter, we will focus on how and why foundation years are well-placed to foster the enhancement of teaching and learning development practices in higher education (HE). This can benefit institutions beyond the immediate impact on foundation year students, influencing the pedagogy and practices across other institutional foundation year and undergraduate programmes. We will share the structure, processes, and culture which we feel make foundation years key places for teaching and learning development before sharing some of our institutional experiences as examples, highlighting themes that will be common to many higher education institutions across the UK. We solicited examples, reflections and opinions from colleagues who teach on foundation year programmes at the University of Surrey through a simple survey and followed up with short, informal interviews to better understand the examples presented herein.

This paper discusses the establishment of two new foundation year programmes at the University of Surrey; one in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences and the other in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Specifically, it explores how the programmes have been constructed and how programme teams have attempted to avoid the ‘deficit model’ by adopting a student-centred approach that focuses on the development of successful students when considering staffing expertise and curriculum design. This is followed by an exploration of staff and student perspectives on what constitutes a successful foundation year student. Finally, the paper comments on how success will be measured in the future, suggesting that, whilst specific metrics might serve as indicators of success, no single metric is likely to capture the complicated nature of what success is and what it looks like for the individuals we teach. Overall, the paper suggests that the question, ‘What is a successful foundation year student?’ should be considered carefully in the process of designing and developing foundation year programmes.

The higher education sector is undergoing considerable changes to its working conditions. From regular scrutiny of individual research and teaching quality, audits of individual academic performance, to growing expectations arising from the culture of 'student experience', it is widely recognised that higher education is a turbulent sector. Amongst Early Career Academics (ECAs), initial transitions into this sector of work can have considerable consequences for career development and willingness to remain within the higher education profession. Drawing on a mixed-mode survey exploring the experience of UK-based ECAs, we highlight distinct intrapersonal and experiential factors which relate to variations in the perceived potential for career development and wellbeing. The data suggest that it is not just situational factors such as the departmental environment and job security that relate to the imagined futures' of ECAs; it is also important to gain a deeper understanding of how intrapersonal dimensions, such as an individual's personality, shape the experience of the early stages of an academic career. Our qualitative data shed further light on the experiences that can influence the job satisfaction of ECAs. The findings are discussed in the context of a growing body of international research on ECAs, and the rapidly changing Higher Education sector in the UK.

Thinking of starting a postdoc? Want to know how to move on from a postdoc? Or simply want to make the best of your postdoc years? Being a postdoc is not a career ... but it can be the pivotal point in the making of one. This friendly, practical, and occasionally humorous guide to all things postdoc combines the three authors’ vast experience of postdoc careers and personal development. This is a guide to developing, advancing and furthering yourself and your career. In working through exercises, learning from the experience of others (including the trials and tribulations of the authors), and seeking out information, we hope you will consider what success means on your own terms. In its pages you will find advice on: Choosing the right postdoc for you Maximising your postdoc contract for personal and professional goals Selecting and attaining your next career step (academic or otherwise) Your postdoc is part of the journey towards a range of career destinations; from an industrial R&D specialist to politician, from lecturer to spin-out Chief Executive, and this book is designed to help you get there. Providing indispensable advice on UK-based postdocs for national and international students, it is perfect for those making exciting transitions (student to postdoc, postdoc to the wide world of careers beyond) or for those who simply want to take their postdoc up a gear.