Action for Specific Student Groups

The Warwick PATHWAY Programme involves several different schemes:

Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS)

Although open to all students, there are 40 URSS bursaries of up to £1500 available each year for Black students. This enables them to carry out a non-assessed, self-directed 6-10 week research project in the summer, supervised by academic staff at Warwick.

PhD Studentships

This is for prospective students who would like to pursue a PhD at Warwick and who self-identify as Black or of Black heritage. There are up to 3 scholarships available each year, and students can be hosted in any department, and research any topic.

Early Career Fellowships

This is for doctoral candidates at Warwick in their final year of study who self-identify as Black or of Black heritage. There are 2 fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) available per academic year - Early Career Fellows receive a bursary, training to develop their academic leadership skills, and support to produce career enhancing outputs from their thesis.

Postdoctoral Awards

This is a newly-stablished funding scheme for Black postdoctoral researchers at Warwick. It is designed to fund development activities, e.g. training courses, travel for networking, developing applications for independent research fellowships.

The Warwick PATHWAY Programme also includes talks and research career information opportunities for students and researchers. You can find out more on their webpages.

DCWG is student-driven with the support of PAIS staff and provides guidance for the department as a whole. The group has so far focussed on two key areas: the curriculum and the classroom. They have worked on decolonising the curriculum itself, with students leading reviews on PAIS modules and proposing changes to them. We have also focussed on gathering student’s views of their experiences in the classroom, with the aim of promoting inclusion and decolonised pedagogies within PAIS teaching spaces.

They recognise decolonisation to be an on-going and multi-faceted process and therefore seek to maintain a continuing conversation about the importance of this in higher education, with the aim of bringing about positive change.

You can read their latest annual report here, see their webpage here, and contact akinyemi.oyawale@warwick.ac.uk for more information.

Although 1 in 10 students at Warwick identify as being Muslim, this important group within our community experience barriers to their learning through current educational practices, environments and systems.

This project focused on enhancing the Muslim student experience, running multiple interactive taster sessions throughout the year, providing a case-based introduction to the experiences of Muslim students within the SEM Faculty, and drawing on real-life scenarios. Facilitated by medical students Linta Nasim and Hafsah Ba, alongside Emily Róisín Reid, Director of Student Experience at Warwick Medical School, these small group sessions provided an opportunity for open discussion, reflection, and exploration of practical ideas for promoting inclusion in everyday teaching and support practices.

Alongside these sessions, the project team produced a handbook for Muslim medical students, helping them to ease into the process of starting medical school.

To find out more information about this project, including their achievements so far and next steps, you can few their presentation here and student resources here.

Inspired by the University's resource, 'How to Be Trans at Warwick', this guide was made as an additional, more informal, guide for students within the School of Cross Faculty Studies. Created for students, by students, the resource covers areas such as changing your personal details on the university IT systems, members of the department to contact about different issues, dealing with transphobia, and getting involved with LGBTQ+ friendly societies.

You can view the resource here.

More info coming soon

Based on the success of the current Thrive programme, open to female UG and PG students, the Student Opportunity Skills Team have put together a Thrive programme specifically for:

• Warwick Scholars
• Recipients of the Warwick Taught Masters Scholarship
• Students who are independent through Estrangement and Care Leavers
• Recipients of the Warwick Undergraduate bursary.

The themes covered in Thrive, including self-awareness, overcoming self-doubt, increased resilience, and networking, are areas of development that can benefit students from all genders and backgrounds, including WP students. This iteration of Thrive will also focus on several new areas, including building confidence, overcoming imposter syndrome, and developing assertiveness. The programme will also offer networking opportunities with other students.

The programme is currently in development and should run in the 2024/25 academic year. It will be available to eligible students of all genders. To learn more, please visit the Thrive website.

Building on more recent research into the day-to-day experiences of mature students in higher education, e.g., Gregerson and Nielsen (2023), we are now keen to explore in more detail the ‘lived experience’ of mature students by exploring their daily routines and challenges they face, their motivations, self-esteem, perceptions of study and the ways which they manage a complex array of ‘life’ challenges.

The method will be to use focus groups to discuss themed questions, e.g., motivation for study; daily challenges; and then to follow up with individual, semi-structured interviews.

Researchers will employ a thematic analysis to categorise the data, with an additional examination of the discourse that sits underneath such themes, e.g., the ways in prevailing societal discourses and constructions make an impact on learners’ motivation for study and self-esteem. To achieve this, the department will use research assistants and/or existing academic staff who have experience of qualitative research.

Output: A report will be produced to develop further CLL’s strategies and provision as well as offering potential for dissemination across the university and beyond.

The Widening Participation Lifecycle Team supports current and incoming students who are care leavers, estranged from their families or UG/PGT Sanctuary Scholars (usually seeking asylum).

Students from these backgrounds are eligible for additional financial bursaries, 52-week on-campus accommodation and pastoral support from the Widening Participation team.

The team also helps signpost students who are refugees or asylum seekers, or students with caring responsibilities, to internal and external support services.

Outputs: The following webpages are useful for staff signposting students as well as to find out more about supporting independent students.

• Independent students who are Care LeaversLink opens in a new window
• Independent students who are EstrangedLink opens in a new window
• Sanctuary ScholarshipsLink opens in a new window

Next steps: The Lifecycle team is reviewing its offer of support for care leavers, estranged students and Sanctuary Scholars and is speaking with other teams across the university about additional opportunities to offer support, particularly in relation to the OfS’s Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR).

The team is also looking for opportunities to develop support for students from other groups, such as young adult carers. If you would like to discuss this work, email:lifecycleteam@warwick.ac.uk

Over the past three years, a sub-group dedicated to decolonisation in social sciences has made strides in reshaping the academic landscape. The past three years have witnessed acollective commitment to faculty change. The sub-group has advocated for the alteration of academic structures, policies and practices. Themes chosen as the focus of the sub-group include:

• Addressing awarding gaps. By actively confronting and rectifying these gaps, the sub-group seeks to redress historical inequities, ensuring that students from diverse backgrounds receive the recognition they deserve.
• The production of theHow to Start Decolonising Social Sciences workbook.Curriculum reform has been another pivotal area of focus. In the past three years, the sub-group has championed the incorporation of a broader range of perspectives, theories and methodologies into academic programmes.
• The sub-group is now looking at the implementation ofvalidation strategiesto ensure a fair and equitable recognition of achievements. This work is ongoing, with departments looking at different activities such as theSay My Name campaign, curriculum developments and supporting networks for students, as a few examples.

Outputs:

• How to Start Decolonising Social Sciences (2022): Read the workbook
• Understanding Awarding Gaps in Social Sciences (2023): Read the report
• Year 3 work 'Validation Strategies' is ongoing.

The Positive Digital Practices project was a collaboration with The Open University (lead), Bradford University, Student Minds, JISC and UHMAN (University Mental Health Advisers Network).

The aim of the project was to develop, scale up, embed and sustain positive practices that proactively consider mental wellbeing in learning for part-time, commuter, distance and mature learning students. Warwick led on the Positive Pedagogies work area, with a targeted intersectionality focused on mature students.

Resources were created in the areas of Digital Literacy & Wellbeing, and Wellbeing in Assessment. This involved carrying out listening workshops, surveys, co-creation workshops and subsequent resource creation and evaluation.

Digital Literacy

All students reported feelings of frustration and anxiety related to digital literacy and described the negative impact this had on their confidence. Outside of formal IT support, students identified that some of the best digital literacy assistance was found among fellow peers. There were some simple workarounds shared by the students, but there was no forum for wider sharing.

At the same time, the challenge of juggling study, work and family commitments prevented supportive peer connections being made. To overcome these issues, a webpage of peer-created digital literacy content was created to provide advice and encouragement from peers and to destigmatise the anxiety and worry caused by a lack of digital literacy.

Assessment Guidance

Students reported a wide variety of links between wellbeing and assessment. It was clear through the discussion that not one type of assessment was preferred over others. Instead, anxiety relating to assessment fell into three categories:

• Assessment Design & Feedback
• Provision of Continuous Preparation and Scaffolded Instruction
• Peer Inclusion & Connection

The range and scope of these challenges led to the development of aBest Practice Assessment Guidance for Part-time, Commuter, Distance and Mature Students. This is aimed at practitioners and is filled with links to the Warwick Wellbeing Pedagogies Library, and to wider sources of support, providing clear and immediate help to staff looking to implement its guidance.

Outputs: Explore the Positive Digital Practices project webpage to find information on Assessment Guidance, the Warwick-specific Digital Literacy Journey Map and other useful Student Resources.