Summary of PG Summer School 14th and 15th June 2016
Maeve Gallagher
27th June 2016
The 20th Student Learning Development PG Summer school took place on June 14th & 15th 2016. It was held by SLD in collaboration with the Student Counselling Service, Graduate Students Union, Careers Advisory Service, Graduate Studies Office, Library Services and Dean of PG Studies.
The PG Summer school took place this June in the McNeill Theatre (Hamilton Building), Library, Arts Block, IT Training Room and Aras an Phiarsaigh. There were 70 attendees this year including Masters and PhD Students compared to 65 attendees in 2015 (which was a PhD rather than general PG Summer School). The atmosphere and feedback this year was very positive with students remarking on the level of collaboration between different TCD support services for PGs and the general approachability of all staff.
“The Summer School was hosted by an enthusiastic, hospitable and approachable group of people from different disciplines. The presentations were relevant, informative and very helpful. The Summer School offered a great forum to meet other people in a similar position and share ideas. It was a worthwhile and enjoyable experience, thank you!” (Quote from participant).
Workshop and attendance figures. Total = 203 across all workshops = 70 individual participants.
Tuesday 14th June 2016 / Wed 15th June 2016General panel session = 25 / Promoting your research (Library) =25
Endnote (Library) = 17 / Endnote (Library) = 11
Student-Supervisor (PAS) =8 / Planning and time management (SLD) =20
Presentation skills (SLD) = 17 / Funding your studies (GSU) = 12
Lit Reviews (SLD/Library) = 16 / Lit Reviews (SLD/Library) = 20
PG Thesis writing (SLD) = 15 / Viva and Oral defence (SLD) = 5
PhD Thesis writing (SLD) = 20 / Thesis production in Word (IT) = 12
118 / 85
21 students completed the post Summer School evaluation form which was distributed online. The feedback was very positive in terms of the content, level of material delivered and mix and choice of workshops.
However, there were mixed comments about the timing of some of the workshops e.g. “Change the timetable slightly so early and late stage students are catered for – e.g. thesis planning in Word and oral/viva preparation clashed”.
Recommendations and comments included the following suggestions:
· Smaller venue for general session to encourage higher attendance/interaction.
· Highlight benefits to students at all stages via flyer and promotional material – even students who have just registered for PG/PhD study as a lot of the information delivered is applicable to this stage of study.
· Promote the event to supervisors to encourage their students to attend.
· Run over 3 days in order to get more out of the sessions.
· Shorter sessions – 1 hour 30 minutes should be the longest.
Summary In summary the event was well attended and feedback and suggestions related mostly to promoting the event and its benefits to students at all stages of the PG/PhD process. This year the Summer School benefited from collaboration with a number of services which was really appreciated by the students, for example the provision of tea and coffee by GSU. We addressed recommendations from the 2015 post summer school evaluation, such as providing a map, information pack and list of additional support services in college. Next year we hope to book and run the event earlier to avoid clashing with other conferences and events which are run when the academic year ends.
Sample comment on benefits of Student Services collaborating on this event:
“It was useful to see all of the services on campus that are available and see some of the people representing the services – being introduced to them makes it more likely that I will approach them.”
Student Learning Development7 – 9 South Leinster St,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2 / Tel: +353 1 896 1407
Web: https://student-learning.tcd.ie/
Blackboard module: Academic Skills For Successful Learning
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