Learning Experiences and Innovation (LXI) at the Success for All conference!

Success for All is a major strand of our Education Strategy which aims to widen participation, close gaps in student outcomes and build a diverse and inclusive learning environment. The annual Success for All Conference is an opportunity to share good practice, and celebrate the contributions and commitment of the University community.

This year’s Success for All conference included contributions from across the LXI team, including the following workshops.

 

Facilitating Inclusive Groupwork: Embracing Neurodiversity in Student Collaborations – Rachel Griffiths, Senior Educator Developer, Dr Steph Comley, Head of Learning Design and Sarah Paddock, Senior Learning Experience Designer

In this experiential workshop, Rachel, Steph and Sarah explored some of the barriers experienced by neurodivergent students to navigating groupwork successfully. They looked at the most common scenarios of groupwork, and brokedown and reflected on how educators can support groups to reflect, reframe and recover. As a result of the workload, Rachel, Steph and Sarah have been invited to join a researcher from the University of Plymouth to see how they can link up their research on groupwork with the workshop!

You can download a copy of the Facilitating Inclusive Groupwork PowerPoint slides.

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Nothing about us without us –  Dr Karen Kenny Senior Educator Developer, and Flo Bessé-Jones, Educator Developer

In this session attendees heard about the co-created Exeter Experience Week with care-experienced young people, designed to support personal development and to inform tutoring practices. Grounded in the principles of relational pedagogy and “nothing about us without us”, this intervention aligns with the widening participation agenda. Using Empathy Mapping, participants reflected on this initiative and explored adapting this model for future iterations with other student groups, for use within their own discipline.

Here are examples of two of the empathy maps developed during the session:

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Skills Development, Graduate Outcomes and making the implicit, explicit – Heather Haseley, Director of Education Innovation and Rachel Sloan, FHEA, Employability and Careers Consultant (Skills)

Beginning with an exploration of the relationship between Widening Participation criteria and Graduate Outcomes, participants were invited to consider how they support students to understand, demonstrate and articulate the skills they are developing throughout their time at university. Acknowledging that the development of different skills is often implicit in teaching and learning, participants were encouraged to consider how they can make this more explicit for students and will be introduced to the work Curriculum for Change (C4C) is doing to support this. Heather and Rachel presented a range of work that is already happening in the Universiyt that will be drawn in to C4C, including the Skills to Thrive Framework developed by Nicky Thomas in UEBS, and is use as part of our Create Your Future programme.

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How to build a diverse academic community – Kelly Louise Preece, Head of Educator Development and Director EduExe and Shraddha Chaudhary, Assistant Director and Institutional Lead for Culture and Inclusion

Shraddha and Kelly Louise presented and reflected on data on our recruitment pipelines, our review of promotions and retention and the initiatives the University has introduced to create and sustain a diverse academic community and build representation within academic leadership roles at the University. Our initiative around 100BWP now, Exeter Future Leaders and Graduate scheme were well recieved as well.

The workshop provoked some interesting discussions around the tension between process change and culture change – whilst we have been working hard through Exeter Academic and Exeter Professional to improve our processes for recruitment, promotion and career development there are wider issues around institutional culture and gatekeeping that need to be addressed ‘on the ground’. Attendees also discussed the actions they could take as individuals on recruitment, and how they could support individuals with their promotion and career progression. Again, the tension here with the focus on individual support and the need for institution wide change was acknowledged – with the understanding that, by supporting more individuals in to leadership positions, we are diversifying out senior management and creating further scope for institutional change.

You can download a copy of the How to build a diverse academic community PowerPoint slides.

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Strategies to engage and integrate diverse and hard-to-reach students – Professor Alison Truelove – Business School Lead Academic Tutor & Chair of the Success for All Transition and Induction Working Group, Jess Johnson – Head of Learning Piloting and Scaling, Becca Barnard – Pastoral Mentor (Physics), Hannah Jordan – Pastoral Mentor (HASS Cornwall)

This workshop offered the opportunity to hear about some current initiatives to encourage engagement in academic studies and student life amongst those who, according to our data, are least likely to thrive at university. The team provided an overview of the role of Pastoral Mentors and shared some examples of activities designed to promote a sense of belonging, before supporting attendees in thinking through potential new approaches within their own context and/or role. An initial pilot in HASS Penryn and Physics at Streatham was run in the 23/24 academic year and received positively by academic staff and students with numerous benefit and success measures identified including:

• Pastoral Mentors proactively and consistently reach out to students to offer academic and pastoral support.
• Academic and professional services staff work collaboratively with Pastoral Mentors to support students.
• Students receive and/or are signposted to ac
• ademic and pastoral support that allows them to progress in their studies.Students report increased satisfaction and reduced variability with their experience of academic support.
• Departments report increased student engagement, a reduction in non-continuation / withdrawal rates and improvement in student outcomes (with a focus on under-represented, disadvantaged, and international students).

Since the pilot in HASS Penryn in October 2023, the Pastoral Mentor community has grown to half of all departments across our Streatham, Penryn, and St Lukes Campuses. By September 2025, students from all departments will have access to Pastoral Mentor support. Students and staff can learn more about the role of Pastoral Mentors and how to contact them via our new webpage.

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The conference concluded with the Success for All Awards, for which a number of LXI colleagues were nominated, shortlisted and highly commended.

 

Sean Porter, Senior Educator Developer was Highly Commended in the category Unsung Hero of the Year. Sean was recognised for his wide ranging work in Transformative Education, including but not limited to the Transformative Education Curriculum Enhancement Guide, LGBTQ+ toolkit for educators, and workshops and resources on degree awarding gaps, micro-aggressions, trigger warnings and free speech. Sean is deeply committed to working collaboratively with students to embed the Transformative Education Framework in education practice across the University.

Fatuma Mohamud was shortlisted in the category Champion for Student Experience and Support. Fatuma was recognised for her unwavering support, advice and guidance working with the student-led projects funded by the Wellbeing Inclusive and Culture Committee (WICC) and delivered through the Educator Incubator. Her commitment to support and advocating for students of colour

Rachel Griffiths, Senior Educator Developer was nominated in category Champion for Student Experience and Support. Rachel was recognised for her work promoting inclusive educational practice at the University, alongside her crucial work on the university’s response to the tragic case of Natasha Abrahart, and the implications for HE. Rachel continues to be the institutional champion for Universal Design for Learning, and the support and experiences of our disable staff and students.

The Student Academic Support (SAS) project was Highly Commended by judges in the category Best New Access, Participation or Progression Project. The SAS project is implementing a new model for proactive, data-informed and digitally enabled student academic and pastoral support. At the heart of the model are the Pastoral Mentors- new academic staff embedded within departments who are fully allocated to providing student support and signposting to services across the institution. The award celebrated the work of Professor Nicky King (Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor Education, ESE) Professor Adam Watt (Depty Pro Vice-Chancellor, HASS),  Jess Johnson (Head of Learning Piloting and Scaling) Ciaran Stocker (Education and Student Support Special Projects Programme Manager), Jack Liversidge (Education Projects Coordinator) and Helen Cameron.