Cross-school collaboration: Supporting PGT students through the Dissertation Buddies Programme

Photo of Dissertation Buddiesm 2024 group celebration event
Photo credit: Amanda Campbell (Creative Content and Marketing Officer)

In this post, Lianya Qiu, Emily Birtles and Julie Smith, from Moray House School of Education and Sport, along with Aubrey Li and Rie Shigemori, from School of Economics, share their experience of co-developing the Dissertation Buddies programme, supported by the Student Partnership Agreement grant. This post is part of the Student Partnership Agreement 2024 series.


Bridging the gap: The launch and expansion of dissertation buddies

Navigating a one-year Postgraduate Taught (PGT) study in the UK presents unique challenges, especially during the dissertation or major project phase (Huang, 2007). Previous studies have highlighted difficulties for both domestic, EU and international (non-EU) students (Evans et al., 2018). However, there is limited evidence of effective peer support approaches for PGT students, and PGT students have been described as the ‘overlooked cohort’ (Coneyworth, et al., 2019).

Addressing this gap in research and practice, the Dissertation Buddies (DB) programme was developed at Moray House School of Education and Sport (MHSES) and implemented in academic year 2020/21. The programme has been developed and enhanced each year and regularly has around 200 students participating. Details of the design and implementation of DB are in our previous blog post, where we also discuss our initial evaluation of student experience.

At the University of Edinburgh Learning & Teaching Conference 2023, Julie Smith, Emily Birtles and Lianya Qiu presented the model, and highlighted PGT student experiences from MHSES, which sparked interest from a number of schools in piloting the peer support model in their one-year PGT programmes. To widen DB peer support across disciplines, in the academic year 2023/24, a collaborative effort was initiated among academic staff, students, and student experience staff from MHSES and the School of Economics to co-develop the Dissertation Buddies programme, supported by a University of Edinburgh Student Partnership Agreement grant.

Tailored to Context: Integrating the DB Programme in the School of Economics

The integration of the DB programme within the School of Economics was built upon the successful experiences at MHSES while adapting the activities to suit our specific context. We adopted themes from previous DB activities, including academic learning, mental health maintenance, and preparation for future careers. Many of these activities were jointly organised between the School of Economics and MHSES, fostering collaboration and community across the two schools.

Recognising the unique needs of our PGT programme, we made several adjustments. One significant change was the timing of events. For instance, students at School of Economics have exams in May, whereas students at MHSES typically begin drafting their dissertations around that time. To accommodate this, we rescheduled our events to better align with the students’ academic calendars. Additionally, we introduced new events tailored to the students’ learning cycles. For example, two weeks before the submission deadlines for research proposals and thesis abstracts, we organised sessions where professors provided valuable writing tips and guidance.

Despite differences in subject areas, many PGT students face the challenge of writing their first major academic paper within a short timeframe of two to three months. For events that benefitted students from both Schools, we ensured they were held jointly to strengthen community connections. Joint events covered topics such as using research tools, developing writing skills, and addressing visa issues. These interactions between students from different disciplines were particularly valuable, as they often highlighted common challenges and offered new perspectives that students might not have considered on their own.

This year, around 25 students in the School of Economics participated in DB events. Events held before the submission deadlines for proposals and abstracts attracted particular interest. The combination of in-person and online participation options also contributed to higher engagement levels.

Looking forward: A flexible framework across disciplines and schools

The DB programme has shown potential in addressing the academic, social, and wellbeing needs of PGT students across different disciplines. While the programme initially centred around the context of MHSES, tailoring and piloting it to the School of Economics revealed the importance of flexibility in timing and content to accommodate specific students’ needs and programme schedules. For example, aligning event timetables with exam and dissertation timelines and customising the content to reflect the students’ priorities of Economics students has proven crucial for engagement and success in implementation.

Looking forward, the DB model offers a flexible framework that could be tailored to other schools within the University. The key is to start by recognising and identifying the distinct differences in academic cycles and requirements, as well as student needs. Then, map the academic calendar and key events tailored to the students’ needs and the available resources. The selected DB activities aim to provide comprehensive support for students during their dissertation phase.

While some activities may overlap with those already offered by the school, it is essential to maintain frequent communication with faculty to ensure DB complements existing schemes. For example, the School of Economics hosted a session for students interested in pursuing a PhD, a topic also included in DB. Rather than duplicating the formal guidance on PhD applications, DB took a different approach, inviting current PhD students to share their personal experiences. These discussions focused on real-world challenges, such as contacting potential supervisors and demonstrating research capabilities. By highlighting these unique aspects in DB promotional materials, we encouraged student engagement and ensured the distinct value of our peer support activities was clear.

To further scale the DB programme, we also suggest creating a collaborative approach that includes input from academic staff, students, and student support staff from various schools, fostering both inter- and intra-school connections. We believe this partnership approach will provide a sustainable peer support structure for PGT students across the University. If you would like to know more about the Dissertation Buddies peer support programme, please contact Julie Smith, Lianya Qiu, or Emily Birtles.

References

Coneyworth, L., Jessop, R., Maden, P., & White, G. (2019). The overlooked cohort?–Improving the taught postgraduate student experience in higher education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International.

Evans, Nguyen, T., Richardson, M., & Scott, I. (2018). Managing the transition from undergraduate to taught postgraduate study: perceptions of international students studying in the UK. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 23(2), 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2018.1444386

Huang, R. (2007). ‘A Challenging but Worthwhile Learning Experience!’Asian International Student Perspectives of Undertaking a Dissertation in the UK. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, 6(1), 29-38.


photo of the authorAubrey Li

Aubrey Li is a Tutor and PhD candidate at the School of Economics, specializing in the theory of social learning in networks. This is her first year serving as the Dissertation Buddies Coordinator. She came across the opportunity in an unexpected way—after winning a pub quiz with friends, two of them redeemed the prize and learned from Rie that the program was seeking a new coordinator. They passed the word on to Aubrey, leading her to this role.


photo of the authorRie Shigemori

Rie (they/them) works as the Student Experience Assistant at the School of Economics since October 2022 and alum of MSc Education (Philosophy of Education pathway) at Moray House School of Education and Sport. Rie has worked in the education sector for more than seven years and offered academic, pastoral, and career support to 100+ students in secondary education. They are actively engaged in educational activities within and outwith the university with a strong passion in questioning assumptions (“philosophising”).


photo of the authorJulie Smith

Julie Smith is a Lecturer in Developmental Psychology in Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport.  She is also currently the School’s Director of Quality Assurance and Enhancement.  Julie has previously worked in the area of mental health with children and young people as well as with students at the University Disability Learning and Support Service.  It was this latter experience that developed Julie’s keen interest in supporting a holistic learning experience for students through collaboration and co-construction, with a focus on supporting wellbeing through the curriculum.  Julie is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.


photo of the authorEmily Birtles

Emily Birtles is the Student Experience Officer at Moray House School of Education and Sport, based within the Student Experience and Support Office. Emily is committed to organising and supporting school wide events that enhance the student experience. Additionally, she focuses on improving communication with current students to keep them well informed and actively engaged throughout their academic journey.


photo of the authorLianya Qiu

Lianya Qiu is a Tutor and PhD candidate in Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport. Her PhD research focuses on the curriculum design and development of Polish and Chinese complementary schools in Scotland. For the past three years, she has also been working as the Dissertation Buddies Coordinator. Her interest in higher education and her previous experiences as an MSc student at Moray House inspired her to support and collaborate on the Dissertation Buddies project.




Ways of thinking about teaching and learning

woman staring at a blank black board
Image Credit: Pixabay

In this post, Prof Noel Entwistle introduces crucial insights gathered from his research into student learning dynamics at The University of Edinburgh. Exploring how teaching environments influence the study approaches of students, the findings reveal the pivotal role of teachers in fostering deep connections among concepts and enhancing overall comprehension. This post belongs to the Oct-Nov Learning & Teaching Enhancement theme: Engaging and Empowering Learning at The University of Edinburgh.


The university has been adjusting to the patterns of teaching and learning both before and since the experience of COVID, and during that process has drawn on ideas from many sources. Some of these came from research into curriculum design, ways of teaching, and the learning experiences of students. Much of this research, however, is hidden away in research journals and often makes the findings and their practical implications unclear for university teachers. I thought it might be useful to bring together a set of ideas couched mainly in everyday language, looking at teaching and student learning and influences on them. The research I have been involved in is mainly related to the academic aspects of student learning, but there are important links to be made with other aspects of the student experience.

Some years ago, an educational research project in this university (ETL Project) set out to explore the students’ experiences of teaching and learning in eight universities and four contrasting subject areas, and how different teaching-learning environments influenced students’ approaches to studying. The starting point was to find out what university teachers expected their students to have learned by the time they graduated. Obviously, there were very different specific answers across the disciplines, but most teachers seemed to be looking beyond ‘taken for granted knowledge’, towards the distinctive ways of thinking and practising in their discipline, crucial to using that knowledge. And, for this, students will need to become aware of the effects of their ways of studying.

 

Modes of thinking

Research had described two very different modes of thinking – deep and surface – but interviews with students showed that most of them also had a distinctive intention when approaching their studying. Students either adopted a deep approach, looking for a personal understanding, or a surface approach, geared to remembering knowledge in exams. This research gradually influenced teaching practice to put more stress on understanding and help students see how to develop a personal understanding of topics. For students, the nature of an academic understanding is often far from clear, but research interviews showed how visualisation could be used to bring ideas together into a satisfying personal understanding, as this final-year student did in her preparations for Finals.

Reading and re-reading and going to different sources of information, patterns become familiar, helping you make sense of new things that you haven’t met before, getting to see why this question is important while another one is not, or that this theory is more likely than another. Then, I [must] see the ideas in my visual space, according to how I know them, how I can picture them.  … In the end, I come to realise how everything is really related and I’m able to connect everything together and, when it comes, it is not as if I were looking for it – it just happens.

Other students also used mind-maps to organise their thinking before exams or writing an essay. Encouraging students to draw their own mind maps in a class or tutorial, followed by discussion among other students, helps them to see connections in developing an understanding. However, there are some theories or concepts that students find particularly difficult. These often involve important breakthroughs in thinking within a discipline, called threshold concepts. If students don’t grasp such ideas, they are likely to struggle with later parts of the course. This effect has implications for both teaching and course design in making sure such concepts are given sufficient teaching time and attention for students to make sense of what comes next in the syllabus.

Effects of teaching

Looking more broadly at recent changes in approaches to teaching, like those being introduced in this university, we see the importance of engaging students more actively in lectures and tutorials, with the involvement of tutors being particularly important. As a psychology student explained:

[The tutor] keeps my interest alive by presenting, not only the content, but also what matters for her. Experiences, personal understanding, knowledge – it’s all there. Teaching is about her relationship with the subject. Such tutors make me feel that studying this subject is worthwhile and I’m following her perspective to join in these explorations, to let my see, through her eyes, the issue at hand – a ‘meeting of minds’ perhaps?

Of course, a single extract from an interview cannot be convincing, just illustrative, but the ETL project also gave a lengthy inventory (scored questionnaire) to all the students taking part. Groups of items provided scores on five different experiences of teaching and three aspects of their own approaches to studying. These were then compared with self-ratings of the knowledge acquired and interest and enjoyment. ‘Knowledge acquired’ was shown to be linked with higher deep approach and lower surface approach scores, as expected, and there was a closely similar pattern for ‘interest and enjoyment’, suggesting that these aspects are equally important to the students. The following items show examples of what students were responding to.

  • I was prompted to think about how well I was learning and how I might improve.
  • We weren’t just given information; staff explained how knowledge is developed.
  • This unit encouraged me to relate what I learned to issues in the wider world.
  • Staff tried to share their enthusiasm about the subject with us.
  • Staff were patient in explaining things which seemed difficult to grasp.
  • Students’ views were valued in this course unit.

Bringing together more of the interview responses with the inventory findings provides support for the ways in which teaching and learning are being developed over the last few years in Edinburgh. Running out of blog space now… but it is important to keep in mind that the effects of teaching on learning depend on many other factors than those mentioned here, as can be seen in the mind map, below, while an article covering the same topics is available as complementary to this blog.

intended learning outcomes for graduates

Image credit: author


photo of the authorNoel Entwistle

Noel Entwistle is Professor Emeritus of Education at The University of Edinburgh and previously was the Bell Professor (1978-2005). Before that he was Professor of Educational Research (1970-1978) at the Lancaster University. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Scottish Council for Educational Research, and the Society for Research into Higher Education and has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Gothenburg and Turku. He was Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology and Co-ordinating Editor of Higher Education. He also served as President of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction.