I have cross referenced by questionnaire and focus group responses to identify the key points that summarise my project findings:
- Transition Tutors
65% of students hadn’t heard of a Transition Tutor. Comparing this with the focus group feedback, the role of a transition tutor has not been made clear, and students are not aware of what they do. 59% of students did not know what the role of Transition Tutor is. - Progression
Students seemed clear on what this means: ‘Careers. next steps, further education’. 38% of respondents mentioned ‘Future’ in their comments. 94% of students found the workshops useful (16 out of 17 students.) Those students all wrote comments about why they were helpful. These are the most common words used in those responses:
- Progression Workshops
35% of students noted that there were missing elements from the progression workshop. Half of these suggestions were related to staff or alumni examples. This was supported by the focus group responses and my own observations during the Progression workshop. The main elements that were found useful included: Assertiveness technique, pushing students to think about the future, reduced feelings of stress about the future, demonstrated a variety of choices for careers, group activities gave better sense of community.
Suggestions for improving the progression content was to include: ‘Real-life’ experience from Tutors and Alumni, practice interviews, CV writing, networking events, business guidance for employed and self employed, job awareness and 1:1 sessions. When asking about progression needs, students mentioned: increasing students knowledge of job roles available to them, more live brief opportunities, and awareness of outside connections to UAL.
Feedback also indicated that the progression workshops were not relevant to all students, especially those who have progression plans away from illustration. International Students noted that they need more time to catch up with the workshop content and that the advice given during the workshop was not suitable for international students moving back home after graduation.
A majority felt that they would benefit from more progression workshops (88%).
Other wider areas of feedback: - Tutor Roles
Transition Tutor: Students were unaware of our roles throughout course and don’t remember being introduced to them. They didn’t know they could approach transition tutors and not sure what they would ask them.
All Illustration Tutors:There were positive response for how tutors can support progression , that included: Talking to tutors about plans for the future can offer more detail or make plans more clear, group conversations with tutors were helpful for sharing ideas.
Negative views included: Disconnection with tutors and difficulty building relationship, approachability of tutors is hard. Tutors are punitive and not constructive and need to be kinder. - The Studio
When students were asked about what might prevent them from accessing the studio, the responses encompassed the feeling the studio was not welcoming, comfortable or cosy. Noise was reported to be an issue and requests for quieter spaces was also made. A communal space was mentioned, that would help students feel that they belong on the studio and would be an incentive to stay longer throughout the day. - Student Needs
When asked about feeling comfortable speaking up in the studio, those who didn’t mentioned their anxiety was the reason. Many students brought up the topic of neurodiversity and how that has been addressed in the studio space: creating a space for those with SEND that is consistent from year to year.
Students have expressed that the situation of international students needs to be taken more into consideration. This needs to be explored further, particularly in relation to making progression workshops relevant.
In terms of studentship, students found the following situations helpful in the studio: - Sharing common problems and searching for the way out [progression plans]
- Share suggestions with other students is very useful for my work.
- Talking to students from different countries provides different view[points] for me.
- Talking to others who share same passion
- Social Desirability Bias
I am now more aware of this as a term and how it may affect the authenticity of a student’s response when asked for feedback from a Tutor or person in position of power. It is my aim to make students feel as comfortable as possible in the studio environment and when talking to tutors. - Flexible role of Transition Tutor
Transition team meeting discussed the need to define roles for each year in adapt with each new cohort. Each cohort brings new challenges. When speaking to students through focus groups and questionnaires, I noted some conflicting ideas and opinions; this means that as a transition tutor we need to carefully listen to students voices and seek out the ones we can’t hear to understand the needs of the group. Students also seemed unclear on what they wanted from a Transition Tutor, and so this means I need to be more assertive, along with my team to define the role and take suggestions from the students – we need to co-create the role together.