A presentation from the STEM Annual Conference 2014.
The popularity of taught postgraduate programmes is growing particularly with international students. The UK one-year masters programme intensifies issues faced by international students. The national surveys of taught postgraduates highlighted that whilst students were happy with many aspects of the organisation and management of programmes and with the quality of teaching and learning however some aspects were less positively commented on. Little research has been done into how to address the challenges raised. We have investigated aspects of the taught postgraduate experience in more depth using students on five bioscience masters courses as a model. The aim of the project was to identify aspects of the student experience which could be improved on by considering the student academic and support staff experiences and to suggest ways in which this could be done. Clearly some of these issues affect both home and international students however here we focus on the special challenges of the international student. The rapid transition required at the beginning of this type of course presents issues relating to induction teaching assessment and feedback. This paper describes a questionnaire and interview-based study conducted over 5 years to identify some of these challenges . Following the initial investigation approaches to address the issues were identified and some interventions were made within the constraints of the existing course structures. We will discuss the effectiveness of these approaches which included changes to the induction programme introduction of more formative assessment and additional support for overseas students.
