Breakout session- "Harnessing the vibe"; case studies in writing cafes and peer support
We work within the Post-Entry academic skills team at the University of Southampton and rather uniquely sit within Widening Participation Department. Our roles involve creating interventions to develop students’ confidence with academic skills including writing, study skills and maths and statistics. This work feeds into our Access and Participation Plan (APP) but benefits students of all levels and disciplines. Education development is a term that covers a wide range of work within Higher Education (Little and Green 2022) and working in this “third space” between academic colleagues and professional services is a distinctive and challenging place to exist. Our presentation will discuss some of the ways we are flexible to student needs, outlining some of the challenges we face and seeks to explore collaborative opportunities to enhance student communications. We will be presenting two case studies, both of which were new to the students engaging with them. These projects began with a theory of change, a tool to ensure constant and rigorous evaluation of the success of our interventions. Combining this with our proximity to students, we were able to ensure our communications were inclusive, authentic and relevant. These case studies will look at our Writing Cafés, which provide protected time for students to build a writing culture and our Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Scheme which supports both academic and non-academic transition to HE. Our communications are integral to removing barriers to participation for students from underrepresented backgrounds as well as the wider student population at Southampton.