Access/Barriers to PGT Study (Faculty of Arts)

Lead: Dr Aysu Dincer Hadjianastasis (History)

This project aims to gain a clearer understanding of UG students’ expectations from PGT degrees on offer in the Faculty of Arts. It focuses on identifying potential barriers to PGT applications in the Faculty, in order to enhance and maintain Warwick’s leadership in PGT provision and WP. While there is plenty of (justified) emphasis on removing barriers to access to university education at UG level, access to PGT courses is under-researched and poorly understood. Warwick’s Arts Faculty’s PGT intake varies from year to year, and diversity of intake we observe at the UG level is not necessarily replicated within the PGT cohort. The project aims to understand the reasons behind this, with a view to improve processes and policy, as well as provision.

Embedding coaching practices in student-supporting roles

Lead: Dr Gioia Panzarella (GSD)

This project investigates the synergies between coaching and educational settings with a focus on student supporting roles. Working closely with a Research Officer, we aim to identify some core principles and techniques to be tailored to align with specific educational priorities and practices, at institutional or departmental level. As a starting point, we will use the design of a workshop open to Warwick staff members as a case study. Ultimately, this will help us start a research project committed to promote a wider understanding of coaching among educators, and contribute to a wider range of initiatives designed to promoting a coaching culture at Warwick and in the HE sector.

Intercultural insight: reflective practices for GTAs

Lead: Dr Zi Wang (Student Opportunity)

This project, consisting of two repeated two-hour workshops, aims to enhance GTAs’ reflection skills by getting them to apply some useful models, and to investigate their intercultural experiences in their teaching. While reflective practices are highly valued in the professional development of novice teachers such as the APP PGR programme at Warwick, the level of GTAs’ reflexivity and the quality of their reflection could be improved due to their lack of experience and lack of training. We would particularly like to draw GTAs’ attention to the intercultural aspect of their experience, because intercultural encounters make a large part of their teaching experience at Warwick and can be challenging.

Student focus groups to support disability-linked inclusion

Lead: Dr Romain Chenet (GSD)

Inclusion is and will remain at the heart of this pilot project, targeting needs for a rounded and student-led view of where barriers or impediments to undergraduate student inclusion may exist amidst complex phenomena: varied administrative, pedagogical, and societal dimensions that result in multi-layered and diversely embodied experiences amongst learners affected by students with Specific Learning Differences and/or neurodiversity conditions (SpLDs-ND) whilst undertaking undergraduate degrees. The project will advance via focus group sessions led by a staff member and student researcher, with 5-6 attendees per session. The researchers involved have personal experiences with SpLDs-ND statuses, and we commit to a compassionate, learner-centred, and generative approach in pursuing this project.

'Teaching in a Time of Crisis' workshop

Lead: Dr Simon Peplow (History)

In a world of global pandemics, political unrest, environmental collapse, the cost-of-living crisis, and the financial devastation of Higher Education, educators and students are navigating a shared sense of precarity. As educators, we must adapt our methods, rethink pedagogies, and explore innovative ways to engage students, while addressing the complexities of the present moment. We will hold a one-day workshop at the University of Warwick on 29 May 2025, titled ‘Teaching in a Time of Crisis’, which will bring together educators, researchers, and students to collaborate on developing approaches for how education can navigate and respond to contemporary crises.

Warwick Belonging Framework x Disabled Student Champions Network

Lead: Dr Mark Pulsford (Education Studies)

This project will fund departments to use the Warwick Belonging Framework to understand their disabled students’ sense of belonging. In doing so, it will support development of the Framework itself. The funds will allow colleagues in departments to partner with disabled students to jointly complete a belonging evaluation and planning document.

Assessed Groupwork Scoping Activity

Leads: Dr Tom Greenaway (Student Opportunity) and Dr Mujthaba Ahtamad (WMG), Designing and Assessing Group Work

We currently do not know the extent to which assessed groupwork is used across the university, how many students experience it, and what the different assignment creation and assessment practices are currently being used. As such, we do not have clear examples of best practice or certainty on what the most common practices are. We need to research current practices across the university to help establish best practices and find ways of improving existing practice. Getting an overview of how assessed teamwork is used across the university will enable us to identify areas of excellence and areas where we can target for improvement.

To operationalise and strategically integrate the Warwick Belonging Framework across the University

Leads: Dr Tom Ritchie (Chemistry) and Inca Hide-Wright (Leadership and Management Development), Building Belonging Framework

This funding request supports the continued collaborative development and implementation of the Warwick Building Belonging Framework. By funding student participation in learning circle activities, we can:

• Sustain Collaborative Development: Maintain the collaborative approach that was instrumental in creating the framework by paying students for their time and expertise.
• Enhance Framework Effectiveness: Enable students to actively engage in testing and refining the framework through hands-on application and user feedback.
• Promote Framework Dissemination: Support student participation in the Warwick Education Conference, facilitating the sharing of knowledge and best practices related to the Warwick Belonging Framework across the University.

Belonging and Inclusivity: A Space for International and Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education

Leads: Naveera Abhayawickrama (Law), Dhvani Patil (Liberal Arts) and Youn Affejee (WMG)

This project aims to examine the inclusivity of informal spaces at the university, focusing on sports societies and departmental social areas. The primary focus will be to assess the accessibility of these environments, particularly for international and neurodivergent students, who face unique challenges navigating such spaces. By identifying specific problems encountered by this demographic of students, the project seeks to escalate concerns for further action.

Doctoral Values - Culture Cafes

Lead: Josh Davies (Chemistry) and Betty Fekade (Biology)

This project will establish a set of Doctoral Values co-created by PGR student partners to be included in the University's PGR strategy. It will enable students across disciplines to share experiences and values, where they often lack the platform in the underrepresented PGR space. Through a series of in-person and online facilitated focus groups, PGR students will share and discuss their experience of their PGR journey, the values upon which their journey is built, and what values they identify as important to them.

Understanding University Students’ Perceptions of Using AI to Enhance Study Skills: An Exploratory Study

Leads: Yanyan Li (Applied Linguistics), Meifang Zhuo (Applied Lingustics) and Gunisha Aggarwal (Economics)

The growing recognition of AI to optimise students’ skill development and support learning in higher education (HE) is transformative. Its impact on academic activities including writing and speaking, as well as interactional skills is significant and unstoppable. While existing research largely discusses the use of AI within limited disciplines and levels of study and from the educator’s perspective, there remains a gap in understanding how students themselves perceive and utilise AI in their study process. Specifically, little is known about students’ accessibility to AI tools, what academic practices that they employ AI for (e.g., academic writing, conversational practices) and how, and their motivation and concerns for incorporating AI into their study routines. Therefore, this exploratory study will explore students’ perceptions of AI as a tool for enhancing study skills across the University of Warwick.