MicroCPD Library

Easy, accessible forms of MicroCPD on Teaching and Learning. Please navigate our YouTube playlist to access all of our recent videos.

Video transcript: Transition and Community in the Summer Term

As part of the series on the Summer Term Programme, in this week's MicroCPD, Dr Eleanor Dobson (EDACS / English Literature) discusses Transition and Community in the Summer Term

Fostering community-building and a sense of belonging among and across undergraduate cohorts has positive outcomes in terms of student satisfaction and attainment (HEFCE and OFFA 2014; Thomas 2012) and as such should be one of our key priorities. Engaging students in the summer term, however, comes with its own challenges. The pause in timetabled lectures and seminars, the lull while students await marks and feedback on assessments, students’ increasing need to support themselves through paid work, and the all-too-understandable want to prioritise quality time with friends and family means that encouraging students to engage at this point in the year can prove particularly challenging.

In the Department of English Literature, we’ve developed an intensive programme of activity that avoids competing with these aforementioned priorities, where we can, but which suggests itself to students as worthwhile even outside of the predominant motivational imperatives of assessment. The lack of formal timetabled teaching in the summer term means that we can plan intensive activity over a full day or a few full days, enabling students to streamline their diaries in a way that they typically can’t in the autumn and spring, when they tend to be on campus more frequently but for shorter periods at a time. 

We maximise this opportunity in the summer by taking students down to Stratford-upon-Avon, where the University’s Shakespeare Institute is based. The Stratford Residential, our annual three-day trip in June, is open to all second-year students on programmes that incorporate the study of English Literature, and if spaces are left over these are offered to our finalists (who typically had such an excellent time on the Residential the year prior they jump at the chance to do it again!). The social aspect of the university experience is key for undergraduates (Wilcox, Winn and Fyvie-Gauld 2005), but we know that while ‘students want to meet other students […] they want structure and purpose behind those interactions’ (Bedford). Our students’ time in Stratford is therefore balanced between informal and often creative workshops led by academics, a trip to the theatre, Q&A sessions or acting workshops with Royal Shakespeare Company practitioners (thanks to the University’s longstanding collaboration with the RSC), structured socials (typically quizzes and ceilidhs), and free time for attendees to explore Stratford at their own pace. Our students often praise the Residential as the highlight of their degree; it rekindles their enthusiasm for the subject after the pressures of the assessment period and allows them to forge stronger bonds with their tutors and peers. You can get a sense of previous residentials on the University’s YouTube channel here, and last year’s event as vlogged by one of our current undergraduates here.

Our other major summer event, ‘Focus on the Future’, takes place over a single day, and encourages students to think about the upcoming academic year or, in the case of our soon-to-be-graduates, the world of work or further study. The day begins with our first-year students focusing on the feedback they’ve received over the past couple of terms and study skills they might look to develop in response to this, second-year students thinking about the preparatory work they might undertake in advance of final-year dissertations, and finalists attending CV workshops, with student-led Q&As facilitating discussion between cohorts and fostering a sense of departmental cohesion and identity (Thomas 2012). After an informal catered lunch, and scheduled time for students to stop by colleagues’ offices, the day is rounded off with a dissertation showcase, whereby current finalists present their work using PowerPoint slides or a research poster. Current second-year students see concrete examples of successful projects, hopefully find some inspiration to fuel their self-directed research over the rest of the summer, and vote on their favourite presentations, the afternoon’s events culminating in the presentation of staff- and student-choice awards to formally recognise our finalists’ achievements. While we are used to celebrating our students’ hard work in the summer at graduation, it’s wonderful to be able to do so in such a way as to bring our various undergraduate year groups together and to guide students at different stages in their academic journey in thinking about what comes next. 

If you would like to propose a MicroCPD topic, please fill out this form and send to hefi@contacts.bham.ac.uk.