Past Themes

The Evidence for Enhancement: Improving the Student Experience Theme ran from 2017 until 2020. The Theme considered:

What information was useful to help us identify and understand what we do well and what could be improved? This information, which includess qualitative and quantitative evidence, can be used to identify the issues that would benefit from intervention, help prioritise interventions for improving the student experience, and evaluate the effectiveness of those interventions including reporting on the ways in which the student experience has been improved.

The work was managed by QAA Scotland along with the Theme Leaders Group (TLG) which comprised of  members from each higher education institution plus student members. 

Post Graduate Taught Student Experience

The theme covers all levels of students including Taught Post Graduates. An article prepared for the Enhancement Themes TiPZone webpage can be found here.  

2011-2013

Developing and Supporting the Curriculum: Year 1

• Case Study 1: Graduate Attributes Longitudinal Study
• Case Study 2: Engaging School Pupils in University Study
• Case Study 3: Employer Engagement - An Institutional Approach

Developing and Supporting the Curriculum: Year 2

• Case study 1: Engaging School Pupils in University Study
• Case study 2: Self assessment to enhance employability in postgraduate students
• Case study 3: Graduate Attributes: Academic & Employer Perceptions Study

Developing and Supporting the Curriculum: Year 3

• For an overview of the work that Aberdeen University undertook for the Quality Assurance Agency (Scotland) Enhancement Theme 2011-2013 please go to 
  https://prezi.com/ldmticz4tlnn/aberdeen-dsc-overview-final/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Integrating the Enhancement Themes (2008-11)

The Graduates for the 21st Century Enhancement Theme ran from 2009 until summer 2011. It encouraged Scottish Higher Education institutions to evaluate previous Themes and consider how these can be integrated into programmes and courses. It has also encouraged HEIs to reflect on what the attributes of a graduate of the twenty-first century in Scotland should be, and how the achievement of these graduate attributes can be supported.

Activities across Scottish HEIs have focused on building upon and integrating the work done on previous Themes, and how these can be achieved in Scottish Higher Education today with the diverse needs of both learners and society in general.

At an institutional level, the Curriculum Reform project has provided an opportunity to engage with this Theme directly, particularly through the development a nd embedding of Graduate Attributes in courses and programmes.

Other activities have also taken place, including two Learning and Teaching Enhancement Programmes to fund staff directly with the embedding of Graduate Attributes into courses and programmes, a University Symposium aimed at identifying the challenges and opportunities of 21^st century learners and the development of an online resource for students - ACHIEVE - to help them understand the development of Graduate Attributes.

• Research-Teaching Linkages: enhancing graduate attributes (2006-08)
• The First Year: Engagement and Empowerment (2005-08)
• Integrative Assessment (2005-06)
• Flexible Delivery (2004-06)
• Employability (2004-06)
• Responding to Student Needs (2003-04)
• Assessment (2003-04)

Further information on completed themes is available from the Enhancement Themes website.

The detailed material produced by the Enhancement Themes has been collated in an easily accessible guide to the Outcomes of the Themes.  For ease of navigation, the Guide has been divided into the chronology of the student journey, from application to graduation and beyond.

• Guide to the Outcomes of the Themes 

The most recent Enhancement Theme, Student Transitions, ran from 2014 – 2017 and focussed on transitions into, out of and during university. This group was chaired by Professor Roni Bamber, Queen Margaret University.

• Full institutional Plans and Reports
• Student Commentaries on Case Studies 
• Examples of Student Transitions Practice
• End of Theme Multimedia presentation (including those from other HEIs)
• Annual Academic Symposium 2015: Student Transitions
• Annual Academic Symposium 2016: Student Engagement
• Sector-wide Work
• Inter-institutional Collaborative Projects
• Student Transitions Map

• University of Aberdeen College of Arts and Social Sciences: Academic Writing
• Automated student engagement analytics: a short cut to transition monitoring
• School of Medical Science Skills Support Centre: an online resource for medical science undergraduates
• Transition management case study: creating a transition tool box
• The Role of Career Mentoring in Graduate Transitions
• Individualised Self-assessment to Enhance Employability (I-SEE) in postgraduate students
• Students 4 Students: a transitional mentoring scheme for first year undergraduates
• S6@Uni: Helping students make the transition from school to University

• Students 4 Students: a transitional mentoring scheme for first year undergraduates -
  (http://prezi.com/ignmohn6dk7g/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share)
• Aberdeen University Students’ Association Leadership Academy
• LEVEL-UP! Student-led Conference - http://bit.ly/2nzTPmh
• Using Facebook to help aid the transition to University

• Full Institutional Plans
• Annual Academic Symposium 2015: Student Transitions
• Student Transitions Posters
• Resources from the Enhancement Themes website

• The LEVEL-UP! Conference
• Aberdeen CityLab! Where the city is the classroom
• Using Facebook to help aid the transition to university
• Aberdeen University Students’ Association Leadership Academy
• Student-led Careers Conference in the Medical Sciences