Transitions

We have a number of roles within our university support set up, employed to support students through and beyond known transition points.

Global Opportunities Office With a student body representing over 140 nationalities, students will be part of a vibrant, multicultural learning community at the University of Wolverhampton. The Global Opportunities Office is responsible for identifying opportunities, developing and implementing the University’s international strategy for student recruitment and international partnerships.

The Global Opportunities Office is the starting point for all international students and focusses on helping international students navigate through the different stages of their applications.  This includes everything from pre-application advice through to helping students integrate into their new life abroad.  The office aims to make the international student application journey as smooth as possible and are equipped to answer questions from students ranging from entry requirements to applications and accommodation to scholarships.

The pre-entry transition working group brings together colleagues from across the university with a link to incoming student transition and has five linked work streams.

Its guiding principles are:

• Work across services, faculties and departments to bring together pre-entry transition across audiences (e.g. apprentices, international, UK, APP linked cohorts)
• Link into other university central projects (e.g. student campus project, Induction Group, APP workstream)
• Ensure a comprehensive and consistent programme of pre-entry transition support is coordinated, delivered, and impact-measured for incoming students across levels and types of study, tailored to student backgrounds.

Academic coaches (AC) act as personal tutors to level 3 and 4 students and to level 7 international students, providing academic support and pastoral care, to improve engagement and facilitate independent learning whilst enabling students to gain transferable skills for future employment.

Student transition teachers (STT) support applicants through their transition into study through bespoke nurturing events, working closely with ACs to provide differentiated and inclusive small group teaching and support to level 3 and 4 students.

ACs and STTs work together in an anticipatory and experiential manner to encourage early disclosure and help-seeking. Nurturing and induction activities are personalised to develop relationships and to foster cultures of trust. Individual Learner Profiles (ILPs) support students to share their origins, stories, cultural contexts and aspirations, their confidence and strengths, and areas in which they require further guidance and support. This early sharing and acknowledgment is followed by nuanced referrals and meetings that focus on the student. The relationship creates spaces for the student to reflect upon their capabilities and needs, and together the AC and student construct a personalised action plan that is reviewed and refined over time. The meeting portfolios that emerge from these interactions are a rich transition tapestry and narrative that allow the student to see and take ownership of their development over time.

Interventions are anticipated and calendared relating to pinch points in the year of study. STTs and ACs are aware of the risks and barriers that may leave some students behind. To further support transition anxiety and create a sense of belonging, STTs plan and teach sessions in safe and brave spaces that invite the student to share their lived and living experiences, cultures and communities, to share their transition experiences, to engage in meaningful and respectful group work that values and listens to the experiences and opinions of others through thoughtful turn-taking. 

The development of assessment literacies and practices are anticipated and embedded in sessions and reinforced through meetings with ACs who carefully suggest training and support opportunities which are then followed up in later meetings.

The development of student agency and autonomy underpins the STT and AC roles as they act to provide a secure and safe transition landscape and experience for students which allow them spaces to flourish, spaces to be vulnerable and spaces to be honest about the support that they might need.

For our degree apprenticeship students, there are a required set of skills and behaviours that each apprentice must be able to demonstrate and evidence. To assist with this development and evidence capture need, each apprenticeship student will be assigned to a skills coach within their discipline. Skills Coaches will meet with apprentices on a quarterly basis, and engage in a workplace review, to ensure they are on track with their degree requirements and if not, to discuss actions and support that might be needed to get there.

All level 5, 6, and 7 students will be allocated a personal tutor. Personal tutoring is the provision of support to a group or individual students by the named personal tutor, with a focus on personal and academic development and progression throughout their programme of study and not on individual module studies exclusively. It is not the provision of subject support by module tutors to students undertaking their module. 

The personal tutor will have an understanding of, and commitment to, improving student learning. The Personal Tutor Policy (2020) sets out a series of commitments to every student enrolled on our undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes. The defining principle of the policy is that all students on taught programmes, including postgraduates, will be assigned a named member of academic staff who is responsible for general academic, pastoral and career support throughout the entirety of their programme, via a series of structured tutorial sessions.

All level 5, 6, and 7 students will meet their personal tutor at least three times a year if they are a full-time student, and twice if they are studying on a part-time basis.

Personal tutors provide a consistent and focused source of support for students in developing the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and habits that are essential to achievement in their studies and to their future success. 

Successful personal tutoring comes from developing a strong and respectful relationship between tutor and tutee. To build that relationship there should be clear roles and responsibilities on both sides that are communicated to personal tutors and tutees. These are set out in our Personal Tutoring Principles in the Personal Tutor Handbook.

It is recommended that all students should complete an initial Individual Learning Profile (ILP) or revisit their level 3 or 4 ILP, prior to the first meeting with their personal tutor. The personal tutor should use this profile as a basis for discussion in their first tutorial with the student, in order to consider individual needs. This should include formal disclosure of any pre-existing mental health and wellbeing difficulties, learning, and social needs.

The transition to level 8 studies is akin to the transition from level 3 to level 4.  All prior learning experiences are different to what is expected at level 8. Learning expectations can differ considerably. 

Postgraduate research supervisors work with PGR to develop and deliver their research, identify their researcher development needs, and deliver and defend their doctoral thesis. PGR supervisors also provide pastoral care and signpost PGR to University support opportunities.

Postgraduate researcher pastoral tutors provide pastoral advice and support where a student does not want to or cannot approach their supervisory team for pastoral support. PGR pastoral tutors provide advice on the research process, signpost to University support mechanisms, and where appropriate mediate between a PGR and their supervisory team.

The Doctoral College: Where support and communication with faculty fails, students can approach the Doctoral College for support. The Doctoral College will liaise with Faculties, offer advice, and ensure that the PGR is supported appropriately. In addition, the Doctoral College provides PGR-specific workshops or resources on resilience and health and wellbeing, dealing with imposter syndrome, developing resilience in research, having assertive conversations, and managing supervisory teams. 

The support with the journey from student to graduate is one that the Alumni Association supports and encourages, with a number of benefits and services open to recent graduates to help with that transition.

Our Alumni Mentoring Scheme is where professionals give back as mentors by providing one-to-one career support, inspiration, and guidance to mentees. This service is open to both current students and recent graduates. Our mentors are University graduates who have volunteered to support, as they know from personal experience that the transition between university and professional career can be hard.

In addition, recent graduates also have access to the careers service. This is provided for up to three years post-graduation and offers both support and guidance into their professional careers. Services which graduates have access to are all run through our careers team and include the following:

• One-to-one careers appointments to help with application forms and CVs
• Mock interviews to help practice answering difficult or sector-specific interview questions
• Research further study options
• Information on Graduate schemes and internships
• Advice on options and professional qualifications they might need to successfully meet their career aspirations
• Careers advice and information once employment has started

The student and education sub strategy and our vision for 2030 are ambitious and challenging. They identify that we have foundations and existing initiatives, but also that we have much work to do if we are to ensure inclusivity, equity of outcome, remove barriers, and add value to our students’ experiences. Transitions are everybody’s business (Kift 2010) and transitioning is complex. We recognise that a relationship between transition points and holistic interventions are required and that unsuccessful transitions are painful.

• All students will expect and experience coherent and personalised transition support into, through and out of their university study and then into employment or further study. With a continued commitment to co-explore lesser known transition points that students navigate.
  
  
• Transition activity will recognise and value students’ wealth of lived experiences, social and community interactions, and external commitments, forging intentional links to support students to ‘find their places, be inspired and excited’ (Kift et al. 2010, p.3).  
  
  
• Students will feel valued and a sense of belonging and connectedness to their friendships, their subject and peer groups and to their subject and the university. It is within the warmer/closer layers of friendship and connection that student’s focus. This is their protection – through this level of belonging they begin to understand the rules of HE learning, navigate the systems, normalise experiences, develop academic resilience, and is critical to their retention, progression, and in part their success. So it can be extrapolated that this layer of belonging is critical to their mental health and wellbeing (Cureton, 2017; Cureton and Gravestock 2018). It is also worth highlighting that students from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds experience belonging differently to their white counterparts (Cureton and Gravestock, 2019).
  
  
• A students sense of belonging and ‘mattering’ (Flett, 2018; Flett and Nepon, 2020) will be further enhanced, with the aim of enhancing an additional layer of connection, supported by a named academic coach, personal tutor, or postgraduate research supervisor who will understand, support, and enhance their students’ transition and life cycle experiences, their personal and social wellbeing, and their professional development.
  
  
• All students will have the opportunity to experience pastoral and academic support built around the specific needs of each student, recognising the differences in life histories and journeys into higher education (S and E strategy).
  
  
• Interventions to support transition, attainment and progression will be personalised, timely, and targeted, and students will feel able to confidently engage with wider pastoral and academic support services
  
  
• The University will consider adopting a case management system in order to effectively track student interactions across all transition points. This would be available to academic coaches, personal tutors, and postgraduate research supervisors to help build the student picture. This would enable all interventions to support transition and attainment, and for progression to be personalised, timely, and targeted. Students should feel able to confidently engage with wider pastoral and academic support services.
  
  
• A new opt-in nominated contact procedure will be introduced, whereby students will be asked at the beginning of each year of their academic programme, to appoint a trusted person who will act as an emergency contact for the university, in the event there are ever any significant concerns about their mental health and wellbeing.
  
  
• Students are currently communicated to through a significant number of departments and mediums with little oversight of what is being sent, when, and by whom. In addition, there is not a recognised governance framework for communication that aims to align outgoing communications to desired principles around tone, content, and timing. This will possibly contribute to poor mental health and wellbeing. The University will undertake a project to engage in a review of our existing state and to establish and realise a desired state. The outcome of the project will offer the University a holistic view of ‘push’ communications that will enable concise, understandable communication that is delivered in a tone-appropriate, recognisable, and coherent manner. One such example will be the development of a categorisation tool for communication, which will offer levels that reflect importance and potential wellbeing impact.
  
  

The Global Lounge is for all students looking for an opportunity to learn about and share different cultures. It is a friendly space for conversation around a 'theme' that we announce ahead of time. You’re welcome to attend with a story or images prepared to share, or to just listen in to what others have to say.

People with interest in practising their English speaking and listening skills have the opportunity for everyday practice and mentorship to build language confidence, and we also get to celebrate our hugely diverse student and staff body by learning about each other and our backgrounds.

Enrol onto this Canvas topic to receive regular announcements and updates about upcoming Global Lounge events.

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