ABSTRACT
The ever-increasing diversity of the HE student population and the varying lifestyles of today’s students present different challenges for them and for university staff. For example, one Head of Department in the UK recently said to me, ‘I have no “full-time” students any more’; none of his students are able to devote themselves to full-time study without undertaking paid employment. A common feature across the different higher education sectors is that students need to work in order to help them to progress through their studies, due to increasingly stringent funding and fee regimes. This can result in their not being on campus all day, which has an impact on their ability to access support effectively and to build relationships with staff and fellow students. As educators, we may feel that this is an entirely negative development, and it can be exacerbated further if students participate in a modular system where members of a cohort see each other in classes only once or twice a week. This can lead to difficulties in scheduling group work and encouraging peer mentoring and other types of mutual, student-led support. This may particularly be the case with those on joint honours, combined studies and interdisciplinary programmes. However, there is a positive side to these challenges: institutions are reflecting on and rethinking their modes of academic support and are being creative in developing effective initiatives. Many are using innovative techniques and technologies to facilitate new and exciting modes of support, especially in the area of academic student support and development, which is vital in underpinning the Practitioner Model. The aim of this chapter is to stress the importance of partnership and student engagement in the learning process and to demonstrate how four very different projects have succeeded in encouraging this, with positive effects on students’ confidence, engagement and leadership skills.
