Getting Foundation Year Students On-side

“I don’t feel like the areas that are more oriented towards other disciplines help or benefit me”

The Integrated Foundation Year provides an additional year at Higher Education prior to transitioning onto Level 4 study, typically feeding onto a collection of degrees within a school, college or institute. In this case the Foundation Year (FY) feeds 8 different degree routes within the Sheffield Creative Industries Institute (SCII) and what is currently the FY in Art and Design. The FY is advertised to students as a degree with a Foundation Year, as such the students read the information for the degree course and can be forgiven for thinking that the FY is for their specific degree. For some students their experience is evaluated through an expectation that they will be taught foundational skills and knowledge specific to their degree route. The quote above encapsulates the challenge we face in reaching some students when their expectations are not being met.

To address this problem which we encounter every year I focussed on ‘bringing the degree into the FY’. Over several years, I have tested and rolled out different interventions which have had a positive impact on teaching and learning on the FY in Art and Design.

Interventions: what has worked to get Foundation Students on-side?

Relationship Building – Being able to confidently discuss the degrees with FY students helps build trust. Before restructuring, I attended Course Leader (CL) meetings and always had a slot on the agenda. This helped hugely to keep the Foundation Year present in CLs minds. Having the traditional Degree Shows provides a wonderful opportunity to understand what the degree routes offer and chat to students who are graduating.

Figure 1 shows some art and design students at their graduation degree show as part of Sheffield Hallam Future Now festival of creativity.

Degree Take Over – I asked all CLs to provide 2 sessions, 1 in each semester, which FY students could attend. Nearly all the degree routes provided an experience for their students in both semesters. A comment made by one student “It was the best lesson I’ve had since I started university, I really felt like I was on my way to becoming an architect” shows the positive impact these sessions could have. A possible downside is the perceived fairness of these opportunities as shown by this comment “More product design stuff since the other groups are having a lot”.

Degree Route Briefs in Semester 2 – In Semester 2, I wanted to offer students a degree specific coursework brief to help students feel more connected to their chosen degree route. I set up a framework and drafted a coursework brief for each of the 8 degree routes. I asked CLs for feedback on the ‘level-ness’ and appropriateness of the briefs. Each brief has some common criteria, stipulating other criteria which is specific to the degree route. A typical comment from student feedback when asked about the coursework briefs, “I much prefer having designated briefs as it means we can fully focus on our skills in our subject area” indicates that students perceive this approach as more relevant and are possibly more engaged as a result.

Impact and next steps

The interventions above have contributed to students feeling more connected with their degree route and what they see as developing skills directly relevant to them. It enables me to set the scene for the students when they first arrive by communicating how each semester leads onto the other and what to expect. There is a clear rationale and curriculum which contribute to a strong identity for the Foundation year in Art and Design. At the core of this identity is the relationship and collaboration with each degree route the FY leads onto. Students have been overwhelmingly positive about their learning experience on the FY so far this year with 92% saying overall they are satisfied with their learning experience.

Figure 2 shows a screen shot of results from a recent module evaluation questionnaire, the results show 92% of students who answered the question agreed that overall they were satisfied with their learning experience on the module.

I will build on these interventions by running a workshop with CLs to review and plan ahead for the coming academic year.

Author

Marie Judge, Senior Lecturer, Foundation Year in Art and Design Lead, Sheffield Creative Industries Institute, Colleges of Social Sciences and Arts