July 2015

Citizens, Employees and Entrepreneurs
More than 110 delegates braved tropical showers to join us on the day and participated in sessions run by colleagues from across the University and partner colleges. Useful discussions took place to consider how different approaches to employability can be translated into our curriculum developments. Participants then listened to a very inspiring keynote delivered by Dr Paul Redmond, Director of Student Life at the University of Manchester.
Presentations will be uploaded within the next week or so on the Conference webpage.
Very positive comments have started to feed back and we would like to thank all presenters, delegates and support services for making the event such a success!
We hope you have in your diary Wednesday 6 January 2016 for the next University Learning & Teaching Conference with the theme of digital literacies!  

Thank you to everyone for your support so far with the SED, however we are now heading into the crucial period of evidence-gathering and need your support more than ever in the run up to submission at the end of August. There is no small amount of evidence needed to underpin the claims we make in SED and it is your expert knowledge that will make this stronger. The annual Learning and Teaching Conference included some great material on HER theme of Student Employability and will have given you lots of information on others’ practice and deeper insight into your own - we need you to contribute this in support of the SED. There is a lot to do and everyone will need to be in contact with the process as we move into the final stages of submission - remember, that’s less than 7 weeks away!

Our preparations also take a more formal turn next week with the visit of our QAA Review Manager for the Preparatory Meeting, the first formal meeting of HER. We will be discussing arrangements for the review, in particular the University’s Self Evaluation Document and HUU’s Student Submission. Unfortunately it will still be some time before we have a detailed schedule for the review or know who the reviewers wish to meet – these decisions will be made by the reviewers at their first team meeting, approximately 4 weeks before the review visit – check your emails w/c 26 October, you could be on the list! Their visit is w/c 23rd November. 
For more information visit the HER area on SharePoint.

We are delighted to inform you that four projects were successful under the 2015 ISL scheme as listed below;

• SpLD eLearning Programme (ELP) - Julia Rafferty, Student Services with Andy Marston, Julie Dodsworth, Bob Burwell, Barbara Kelly, Ian Hutchinson & the EFL Team
• Forum Theatre: A pedagogic tool to examine, debate and act upon resistance - Karin Cooper, Social Sciences with Dr Maria Chatzichristodoulou
• Digital Playtime: Embedding digital literacy into the archaeology curriculum - Helen Fenwick, History
• Caring Behaviours: Effects of blended approach using high fidelity simulation learning and podcasting - Jennifer Loke, Faculty of Health and Social Care with Dr Carol Purcell, Dr Clare whitfield and Emma Bush.

Work will be carried out during the next academic session and we will report on their progress in our newsletter - congratulations to all colleagues on their success!

The Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP) programme is recruiting well for the 2015/16 session. Two cohorts will run next year, one in September and a second one will start in January. If you need to apply, please don't delay and send in your application form. Full information on the PCAP webpage. 

We would also like to take this opportunity, following a recent PCAP programme board in the Faculty of Education, to congratulate all colleagues from the 13-14 September and January cohorts who completed PCAP - well done all!

This spring the University of Hull participated in three HEA surveys:  the UK Engagement Survey (UKES), the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) and the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES). With the help of administration staff in departments across the University, along with academic staff, we were able to get a 16.1% response rate for UKES, 24.3% for PTES and 41.9% for PRES. Thank you to all members of staff who helped remind students or explained the surveys to other members of staff and students. 
This week, the results for these surveys are being distributed to Heads of Department, Faculty Deans and Associate Deans of Learning and Teaching with a memo from PVC Education Professor Alan Speight.  National benchmarks will be made available from the HEA for all surveys this autumn.  Please contact Head of Department, Faculty Deans and Associate Deans of Learning and Teaching with any queries related to your area’s results in the first instance, otherwise please contact us.

All information regarding Curriculum 2016+ is available from SharePoint; this includes the latest news as well as development consent and validation paperwork. Any queries can be sent to the C2016+ Team via email.