In my new role of the Teaching & Learning Lead in the Department of Accountancy, Finance and Economics (AFE), the Lincoln International Business School (LIBS), I organised this voluntary project in response to the large intake of direct entrants to L3 international students in 2018/19 academic year in the (AFE) department. I initiated an effective collaboration between the programme student representatives and student volunteers from the BA (Hons) Accountancy & Finance and BA (Hons) Business & Finance programmes throughout the academic year to provide extra support to the L3 direct entry students. This project successfully contributed to the AFE Department’s, and wider, to LIBS/UoL initiatives to help our direct entrants during the transition period and to support international students’ learning experience at Lincoln. This project has received a very positive feedback from the international students. I am very grateful for the incredible support from the student reps and student volunteers, and my special thanks go to Hafsa, Michaela, Iqra, Oliver, Josh, Sophie, Jamie, Sneha, Kerrie, and Kelly, who made an amazing contribution to make this success possible.
There were 2 workshop sessions organised, one in each term, along with the ad-hoc support from the student reps throughout the year. Term A workshop run in collaboration with the student reps was focused on social networking. It was an interesting interactive session which was successful as we could create a friendly environment for our international students to talk about their different experiences starting from their arrival in the UK and finishing by their immersion into the most challenging ‘final’ 3rd year of their study. I believe it was an eye-opening discussion for our British students too who discovered many cultural differences in learning and living styles. As a result of this workshop we noted some potential improvements we can implement to support direct entrants next year, such as additional assignment and language support as well as extra support from the student reps. For example, this year a dedicated Facebook group was created by the student reps which they used throughout the year to communicate and support international students.
In Term B, I designed the second phase of this project where a workshop was organised not only to focus on the social aspects, but also to add an academic perspective. This phase was run in collaboration with the student reps and student volunteers. In the first part of the workshop, the international students had an opportunity to reflect on their improvements/achievements between Term A and Term B and to share their comments and suggestions in an informal setting. In the second part, all students were split into small groups to work on an exam revision exercise. The groups comprised of International students, 1 student rep and/or 1-2 British student volunteers. It was an incredibly successful and collaborative event for all parties involved. The students from different cultural backgrounds worked together and shared their different approaches by solving a problem. It was also a useful support for the International students for whom the exams in May were going to be their first ever exams in the UK. In Term A workshop, they had shared their fears about future exams and this was the reason why I decided to incorporate this peer support into the workshop in Term B. Hence, the experiences and tips from their British peers were most valuable for the international students.
This project only further highlights the importance of lecturers’ reflection on their own practices regarding support for international students, finding ways to accommodate individual learning needs and to embed necessary support into our friendly classroom environment. As a final outcome of this voluntary project, a video was recorded in May 2019 with a number of direct entry international students. The video is in the process of production and will represent a unique recording where direct entry international students are sharing their real experience, reflections and learning tips. The aim of this video was to support our future direct entry students.
Organiser:
Nadia Gulko
Senior Lecturer
Teaching & Learning Lead (AFE) LIBS
Programme Leader MSc Governance
Testimonials
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“Many thanks to the student volunteers/student reps that enabled this project to be such a success, it is a signifier of the strong relationships that exist between students within LIBS”. – Farhan Ahmed, Principal Lecturer (Teaching), Deputy Director of Education (LIBS).
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“These sessions are useful for me. I can communicate with local students and they enable to share some learning skills with me. It helps me to eliminate some confusion about exam, such as how to prepare the exam, what reference books should I read and how to select the key information. If possible, I think these sections should be organised for the next year, and I hope it could be organised as early as possible” – International student
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“I find it very useful. I am very happy to meet a responsible teacher like you. I feel that I am very comfortable in studying and living in Lincoln. Thank you for your patience and persistence. Those meetings gave me a sense of belonging, and I was very happy to get support from local students. I really like you very much, and I am very grateful for your efforts for international students. Many thanks” – International student
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“I think both activities are really useful for the international students. And I really appreciate everything you do for us such as adding some extra courses for us. These two extra sessions help to access to British students and learn something from them. It is a good chance to share the experiences and ideas. I hope it would continue and maybe next time there are some activities to show “In UK, how it works”(something like that). That can illustrate the difference between countries and mention students how to study in UK. For example, British University need more self-study time and always contact by email. Therefore, international students can understand the why their British classmates and tutor to behave. The two sessions I think are really useful. I have to say teachers in Lincoln University are really nice and always give help for us, and I once again appreciate that you do for international students” – International student
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“l think these events are important for international students because many overseas students’ speaking ability is limited. And more social opportunities are useful for us to make friends with local students. You can increase some time for international students in one semester.” – International student
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“I think the arrangements were useful and helped me to go through some confusions. Apparently, it would be nice to the entrants in the next year. And it would be better to give some help and guidance to the direct entrants who do not attend the English sessions before the start of classes. Because I felt little bit confused about the universities facilities and things when I first came here and the class started very fast then I got few time to adjust everything. It would be perfect to give some guidance for these types of students.” – International student
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“Thank you very much for your help in this year. Because we learned half of courses in China, there are some knowledge gaps in this process. Therefore, the extra sessions are very necessary. If it is possible, add one more extra session in the term A is better, the purpose is to revise the content of first term. In this way, the second semester will become easier. For international students, the biggest problem is to understand the meaning of question, changing one word could produce a new question. If the students could see more possibilities, it will be very helpful for them. Thank you again for your contribution. From my perspective, I learned more and felt that this year is very fulfilling.” – International student
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“I think it was useful for the direct entrants because it gives them a chance to express their feelings about the course and ask questions to students in a relaxed environment. I find that I learn by teaching others as it helps me question what I am doing and why and how. Arranging similar events would be helpful. Additionally, I think it would be good for the University to have a more social event for all students encouraging integration with current students and direct students at the start of the year. I also think it would be good to inform students in the second year just so they know that they will be coming because it was a bit overwhelming to see all these new people and don’t knowing why and that might encourage integration earlier on.”
– Student volunteer
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“From my own perspective, I found both events were beneficial for myself personally as it allowed me to develop my own confidence with speaking to groups, and also attempting to teach/give guidance to the students on how to answer questions, solidified my own subject knowledge. I also found that helping others to succeed made me get to know them better and would help bridge a gap between the direct entrants and the home students in future years. I think you should do these events again, but also I think it is important you ensure that the student reps in the future are engaged with the meetings as they are a critical part of the process, as they ensure the meeting is less like a seminar and more like a helpful meeting where all involved can be relaxed. I think it serves a good purpose of showing that they can ask for help from home students should they need it, and again helps bridge that gap between the students.” – Student representative
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“In terms of session 2 (as that was the only one that I attended), I think that the session was useful for the International direct entrants. This is because it gave them a chance to integrate with other students, feel welcomed and part of the university and be able to ask students for help on the questions given, especially if they do not feel comfortable approaching staff for help. For me, this was a benefit because I got to help International direct entrants with the question given, by explaining any terms that they do not understand and going through processes to get to the final answer as well as talking to them about their university experience. I definitely think that these events should be organised again next year with the help from student reps and other students who are willing to help out. This is so that International direct entrants can integrate with other students, feel part of the university community, give them a chance to have their say on the international experience and ask for help on topics which they do not understand. I am not sure if other courses have similar events but I do think that these events should be scheduled for International direct entrants on all courses across the university, not just Accountancy and Finance and Business and Finance.” – Student volunteer
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“I feel these sessions were exceptional to the community of our business school. It allowed direct entrants to integrate with the other students which I believe became advantageous for their studies. On a personal level, thanks to the sessions, I was a lot more interactive with the direct entrants. I believe these sessions should carry on in order to improve both the teaching and learning dynamics in the business school and throughout.” – Student representative
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“In regards to the extra session you organised, I felt it was very beneficial to not only the direct entrants, but the British students who helped. I liked how it was a chance for the direct entrants to access more help in a calmer environment, opposed to our lectures where it can be very busy accommodating all the students together. I felt it gave an opportunity for both groups of students to mingle, as well as giving the international students a chance to ask different people for help (you being the teacher perspective and us as a fellow student perspective). When speaking to the other British Students, we were all glad we came as we don’t typically get to the talk to the international students as they can be shy, however the session allowed us to understand the difficulties they are facing as direct entrants and how important it is that we should help them when we can. I would definitely support your decision to organise similar events in the next year, and in terms of course reps I think they should acknowledge their responsibility in helping all students, this being an ideal chance to demonstrate those duties. Other students should also be encouraged as it helps them academically, as well as socially!”– Student volunteer
Please click the below link to access our video where our international direct entrant students share their experiences –