Author: sshwayli

On the 12th of August, I discussed with  Study Support and library  Team this article titled “A Safe Return to Campus in Times of COVID-19: A Survey Study among University Personnel to Inform Decision Makers”. I was interested to link this article topic  which focuses on staff return to campus as it links us with our thoughts, and experience of return to campus with our students in the current term of 202260. It is our first term to have students on campus after more than two years of online learning. The centres took the hybrid approach to deliver services. Staff shared positive sides as well as negative sides of return to campus. Social interaction, seeing colleagues and students, work on a physical spaces, safety preparations on campus were some of the positive things we have discussed. On the other side we looked at challenges that staff facing when working on campus such as travelling, waste time and money and other health issues such as winter waves of COVID.

Back to the article details: the data were collected between 11 June and 28 June 2021. This study showed that, while most personnel (94.7%) were already vaccinated or willing to do so, not all personnel did feel safe to return to campus in September 2021. Over half of the respondents (58%) thought that the university is a safe place to return to work when the new academic year starts. However, the remainder of personnel felt unsafe or were uncertain for various reasons such as meeting in large groups or becoming infected. Moreover, when returning to campus, employees stated that they would require some time to reacclimate to their former work culture. The group who felt relatively more unsafe indicated that returning in September was too risky and that they worried about being infected. They wanted the safety guidelines to still be in force. On the other hand, the “safe” group stated safely returning to be “certainly possible” and trusted that others would still stick to the prevention guidelines. The findings led to practical recommendations for the University Board as they were preparing for organizing research and teaching for the upcoming academic year in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief intervention was developed: a webinar in which the data were linked to the board’s plans for safe returning. This study demonstrates that university boards may use research among personnel to develop adequate measures promoting safety and feelings of safety among personnel in similar future situations.

More information about the discussion about return to campus can be found in the recording here:

Recording

On Friday 1.4.22 the study support and library team met in the learning and growing session. The article we discussed tittles: As international students return, let’s not return to the status quo of isolation and exploitation. Points discussed, Links to article , research, recordings Points  summarised below:

• The article focuses on findings from research conducted by India Institute (based in Melbourne Uni) researching international students’ motivations to study in Australia. 11 universities involved in the research and interviews were conducted with students and stakeholders.
•  Research shows helping Indian students to build strong connections with other students, as well as employers, makes them more likely to have a productive and fulfilling time in Australia and to find suitable work when they graduate.
• Research shows Int students are much more likely than domestic students to experience social isolation, financial insecurity, and mental health issues.
• One of the most striking findings was that those who had strong social connections with other Indian students had a much more productive experience than those who did not.
• When students with strong social connections did experience hardships, other international students were usually their most crucial supports.
• During COVID-19 lockdowns, these students shared vital information through WhatsApp about where and how to get financial support and food.
• International students who were connected with each other were also more likely to build connections with domestic students.
• Challenges and opportunities
  • The report argues that international students’ experiences will be much more productive and fulfilling when they have strong connections with each other.
  • Another key finding is that international students with a strong social network are much more likely to find suitable employment while studying and after graduating.
  • Some students reported being underpaid and exploited in part-time jobs and felt there was little they could do about it. This was especially true of those who had recently arrived in Australia and did not have strong social connections.

  Graduates with strong social connections also had more success getting jobs related to their degrees.

• Actions and recommendations

• Study Support will organise a meeting with career team to discuss ways of connecting students with employers
• Study support is in the process of discussing retune to campus , services and activities and better ways to reconnect with students on campus as well as online
• Student engagement team should inform their plan to rebuild the students’ relations ships with each other and with staff.
• Taking in consideration the rise of COVID cases in Australia, focus on social cohesion and engagement strategies for all students studying in different modes
• Find ways to improve international students’ experience of building new skills that match their interests and Australian skills needs.
• Australian universities and VET institutions should align social media, websites and other digital platforms to create opportunities for prospective, current and former students in Australia and India to connect to strengthen the recruitment process.
•  Australian universities and VET institutions should provide pre-departure pathways for enrolled students to link into digital networks to facilitate their arrival in Australia. 3. Australian universities and VET institutions should support Indian student mentorship programs to assist new Indian students navigate the challenges of living and studying in Australia.

Australian universities and VET institutions should work with the Indian business diaspora to assist Indian students to connect with potential employers and gain work experience.

Recording is here

On 14th of January the Study Support Team and Library Team discussed the Conversation Article titled “Australia’s strategy to revive international education is right to aim for more diversity” .

The main discussion of the article is the new Australian strategy for international education 2021-2030 announced by federal government on the 25^th of last Nov (links are below). The main focus of the discussion is on how will Australian international education providers meet the five pillars of the plan especially diversification of students’ cohorts. Many points were discussed here. I will summarise these in the following points :

On this Friday the 17th of September, I discussed with Study Support Team and Library Team this article: Up to 80% of uni students don’t read their assigned readings. Here are 6 helpful tips for teachers. I was interested in  looking at why uni students are not engaged with reading their textbooks and how educators can overcome this difficulty. Here are some extracts from the article:

Why are readings so often left unread? 

I have highlighted these are the main reasons for not reading textbooks:

unpreparedness due to language deficits

time constraints

lack of motivation

underestimating the importance of the readings.

We discussed also the strategies that might be used by educators to help students’ engagements such conducting workshops that teach student how to read effectively and pre class and in class activities.

More to be found in this session recording:

https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/VQd6a6iP3YB1wTdD9qWY0NkWGknu95w6xr2DtPNjaFK_c3K977sFhbwU7ihnlQfc.ZC_PULITzegKIL1v?startTime=1631838817000

On May 21st, the Study Support Team and the Library got together to share different perspectives and points of views they have read in the article provided from the conversation under the title:

(When students fail, many do nothing about it. Here’s how unis can help them get back on track).

Article selection was based on the concept of the roles of study support and library through helping students who fails. The article discusses the research has been done at Swinburne university to understand reasons of failure, roles of academic advisors as well as the roles of students to improve academic progress after failure. The research has been conducted with 230 students who have been notified of their unsatisfactory academic progress.

Here is some of the main points discussed  in this meeting to help our students who are at risk of academic progress:

• Making sure understand their roles in the academic progress process and a suggestion has been raised that raising student awareness of the importance of academic progress in the orientation week would help students understands their academic responsibility to avoid an early failure in the first session.
• All universities have procedures to identify students who fail multiple units in a semester or fail the same unit multiple times. These processes would pick up students who fail half their units, especially in their first year.
• Study Support Team aims at changing behaviour and developing new study habits as well as building a personal support network.
• Most students named multiple and compounding reasons for failing, including financial struggles, disability, and care or work responsibilities. These underlying issues cannot be resolved quickly, by students or universities
• Everyone has a role to do helping students achieve well.

Recording can be accessed here:

https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/mQIrT8FDZST3na7VrV3BDD8LzSc2is3oKxAm43GbsUIczZBJ8dIJ34rJ5BJPlH4r.SA1Hau2olPaYJ5SM