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Pathways, Process and Design to Enable Student Success

This project brought together two institutions - Dundee and Angus College and Abertay University - to systematically and procedurally review how students are enabled to succeed as they prepare for and transition from college into and through university. The partners were tasked with delivering a cross-institutional consultation and development process that could be shared with others so that they might adapt the learning within their own partnership process.

 

Are we understanding of the challenges and obstacles that students face today, and do we see these challenges not as reflecting students’ deficits, but as reflecting the deficits of our institutions?

(McNair et al 2016:81)



The project team have published an article about their work in the Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice (JPAAP). This is available for download at the link below and also directly from the JPAAP website.

 


Initial meetings

A series of initial meetings were held that brought key partner staff together to unearth shared ambitions and challenges. This included staff from:

 

  • Institutional leadership
  • Curriculum areas that related to Additional Funded Place (AFP) students
  • Students’ Associations
  • Student and Academic Services
  • Recruitment and Marketing
  • Quality Enhancement.

Themed discussions

Development work then split into two themes as the partners decided to separate the leadership and professional services activities from curriculum focused work. This resulted in half-day events being held for each group at various points in the year.

 

In September 2024, Abertay University hosted a morning session that focused on institutional leadership and professional services discussions. The afternoon saw curriculum areas (Sport, Engineering and Computing) in debate. Arising out of that meeting, attendees were charged with continuing the conversation and sharing the ambitious ideas that had been surfaced.

 

In January 2025, Dundee and Angus College hosted the curriculum teams, who gathered together and progressed those conversations. The leadership and professional services teams met later in the month at the same venue. 


Deliverables

At the half-way point of the project, the partners were focused on deliverables. These included:

 

  • Data transfer agreement to support registration processes and student support plans.
  • New curriculum opportunities: 2+2 etc., shared delivery of programmes, shared use of resources and expertise.
  • Refining the AFP process and offer to show added value to students.
  • Supporting AFP students with SAAS and finance challenges.
  • Abertay Associate Student status and opening up to all 16+ college students.
  • Varsity and sporting connections.
  • Students’ Associations shared activities and access to societies. Collaborative work on representation to assist College.
  • Shared recruitment approaches.
  • Building on existing recognition of College qualifications (NPAs) by Abertay through increased awareness among university staff and college students.
  • Staff development. Dundee and Angus College staff were invited to attend the PgCAP at Abertay, and to deliver workshops at Abertay on meta skills and other areas; Abertay assisted the College with knowledge and approaches around AI.
  • Office and other working space for staff at each other’s campuses.
  • A mentoring project to begin to support AFP students – a three-year activity starting in summer 2025.
In the second half of the project the partners moved from the discovery phase of what was and was not working to a collaborative piece around how to enact those changes. All of those proposals for change have either been enacted or now part of a business process to review and implement. These included many of the points above as well as joint funding bids, publications and dissemination.

Future plans

The STEP funding established such strong connections that work between the partners is continuing. In particular, the partners will continue to resolve existing plans and will then work to explore and create:

 

  • Formalised structures – a Strategic Partnership Board with relevant and effective representation that will meet termly (one at Abertay University, one at Dundee and Angus College, and one online).
  • Curriculum opportunities around:

    • Health and Social Care
    • Leadership and business development, with an initial focus on Entrepreneurship
    • Green skills and Engineering.
  • Admissions alignment to support student transitions and widening access (the partners wish to explore recovery opportunities for students lacking credits/skills).
  • Student support systems and supporting the trauma-informed learner journey. This continuing work includes wide-ranging student support issues from disability through to more traditional academic and pastoral support.
  • Mentoring project implementation, evolution, evaluation and growth.