The carousel invites half the participants to form a standing circle facing outwards with their backs to each other. The other half form a circle around the first group and face inwards so that you have two circles of pairs facing each other. A question for discussion is offered and each pair discusses the question for 2 minutes before a bell sounds and there is a pause to check in (body and mind). The outer circle rotate to the right so that a new pair is formed. At this point the question can remain the same or change for a new focus of discussion. This rotation can continue until all students in each circle have had the opportunity to speak with each student in the outer circle.

We have made an executive decision as a department to actively select tutor and lab groups in a measured and appropriate manner that can provide an even distribution of international students. This has been a decision made by the Chemistry department committee as an active attempt to improve intercultural and international integration. This will require selecting students work groups prior to the start of each year and making sure that there is the opportunity for student engagement with different cultures and ethnicities within the learning environment. We hope this can negate the propensity for ‘cliques’ of international students to form, which is a natural reaction to studying abroad. However, we feel that the best engagement with the student experience and with the course is by embedding individuals within diverse settings.

At the end of the introductory day the new group is consulted to see whether they would like to be included in the formation of a WhatsApp (or other social media type platform) group. The purpose of this group will be for the group to support each other in between taught elements of the programme. It might be a place where the students can informally discuss the teaching content and assignments. We also suggest that it can be used as a platform for setting up a buddy system for assignments where the students pair up to proof read each other’s work prior to submission (eg: checking referencing and typos, critiquing etc) It is also suggested that it is an opportunity to practice the attitudinal qualities of mindfulness in particular compassion for all members of the group.

In the Chemistry department, every student in their 1st year has compulsory intercultural training as part of their core modules.

In the Chemistry department they are recruiting Chinese project officers to help with the attainment gap and with other situations relating to integration.

Allocating reading material is a strategy that can promote co-production, peer-to-peer learning and alleviate workload for students in a seminar setting. The idea is to allocate a proportion of the articles or research papers from a week’s reading list; then create small groups (3-4) and divide the reading responsibilities equally between the different members of each group. At this stage, invite each member to provide a condensed series of notes for each of the readings they’ve been assigned to be brought in for the subsequent seminar. In the next seminar, you invite the groups to go through their notes and engage in a peer-to-peer learning exercise. This helps build on class integration, interpersonal skills and access to a wider range of reading material for class discussion.

This approach is for use in anticipation of a short to medium term project in which students are to work together in a team. It affords the team the opportunity to identify and agree to a set of ground rules in the form of a social contract which they will all respect in order to facilitate optimal teamworking and consideration of one another’s wellbeing.

In order to improve student inclusion in teamwork, student experience and learning from the outcomes associated with group work, and student access to help and support, team formation methods should be considered. This pedagogy advises the use of personality profiling, and consideration of student’s ‘minority status’ to form well-balanced teams.