Hello everyone.
My name’s Gary Kinchin from
the Southampton Education School
and I am the Programme Director
for the undergraduate programmes
within the Southampton
Education School.
I hope you are safe
and well and thank you
for taking the time to listen
to this presentation,
which is about our two degrees
that we offer within
the Education School.
The BSc in Education
and the BSc Honours in
Education and Psychology.
So, I’m going to disappear
for a while and show
you a few slides
that will give you a little bit
of introduction into the program
and hopefully will help you
as you are starting
to navigate your way through
a number of universities,
hopefully with a view
that you’ll come to Southampton
and study education with us.
You may be wondering why
I’m getting you to think
at this point about
where you might be going
in terms of your trajectory.
Possibly, you’re thinking
about some sort
of leadership role in education.
Maybe something within
a managerial context.
You might be possibly interested
in working with young people
or possibly going on
from the undergraduate
degree to do a master’s
or a PhD. Or working
for a specific society
that is interested in
the learning and opportunities
of our population,
as in the National
Autistic Society.
Or, possibly thinking
about being a teacher.
These are just some of a number
of trajectories for our students
in terms of where they
have gone after completing
their degree with us.
So, here’s the team.
Myself.
I was a former teacher.
I have a background
in physical education
and I’ve been working
in education for about 28 years.
I’m assisted by James,
who oversees our Joint
Honours program and is able
to answer all questions
in relation to Joint Honours,
and you can see
his email address there.
And my other colleague,
Jo, supports me
in the Single Honours programme,
and we make up a leadership team
of three in terms of oversight
of the BSc Honours in Education,
the BSc Honours in
Education and Psychology.
So, this presentation
will address four things;
making decisions,
some information about us,
some information about
the degrees, questions,
and importantly,
some contacts information.
And that slide
that I’ve just shown you,
I will be showing you
that slide at the very end
so you know exactly
who to contact about the courses
that we are talking about today.
You may be familiar
with Southampton,
but you may be not.
Here are just a few images
of Southampton and life
that goes on in
and around Southampton.
Top left is from Oxford Street.
A number of coffee shops,
restaurants, and places
to spend time with classmates
and other members
of the university.
We have a very active theatre,
called the Mayflower,
that has a very rich diet of
shows and performances
that are put on each year.
We also have a Premier League
football team at Southampton.
I managed to go and see
two or three games this year
before the lockdown.
And then there’s West Quay
where you can shop,
if you wish.
And then we have Ocean Village,
which again is a waterside area
where there are restaurants,
places to walk,
places to visit,
and very close to the campus
is Southampton Common.
A large open green space
for congregation, relaxation,
walking, and so on.
And then close by to the west
of us we have the New Forest
and then we have within an hour
South London by train.
So that’s a little bit
about the city
of Southampton and hopefully
when we’re able to,
you’ll be able to come and visit
Southampton and see much of
what it has to offer.
So, a little bit
about the university.
As you’re aware,
it’s a top 100 university
globally and a member
of the Russell Group, a group
of research-led institutions.
The university has an excellent
graduate employment rate and,
as you can see,
96% of our graduates enter
employment or further study
within six months
of leaving university.
We’re a top 20 UK university
in terms of league tables.
We have some 24,000 students,
including 17,000 undergraduates
and representation of students
from over 130 countries,
which makes us an incredibly
rich and multicultural
and diverse community.
We’re very proud
of the societies
that are available,
with some 300,
and the general feeling is, is
that if the university
doesn’t offer a society
then they will do everything
they can to support students
who wish to create one.
So, there’s an
invitation for you.
And importantly, is
the availability of learning,
which you would expect
from a modern university,
and that also includes
the opportunity to study for
a Minor alongside your degree.
So there’s considerable
flexibility within study
and I’ll get to some
of that a little bit later
in the presentation.
So, what makes
our programme special?
Well, I’m proud of the staff
that I work with.
We have incredibly diverse staff
of background and experience
and educational undertakings,
both in terms of teaching
and also in terms
of research and development.
Our programme is special
because of its design
from a progressive
and developmental point
of view and as you will see
when I get to the structures
of the two degrees,
the flexibility that
is available in terms
of you being able to study
both within education
and also outside of education
in terms of other parts
of the university.
As an education school you would
expect the quality of teaching
and learning to be
extremely high and indeed it is
within the education school.
And we are consistently
praised for the range
of opportunities and support
through our programmes.
And lastly,
what makes our programmes
special are our students.
Both our current students
and former students
that have gone on to do
some wonderful things,
which I mentioned
at the beginning
of the presentation in terms
of their destinations.
Be that full-time work,
be that part-time work,
or going onto other study
academically either with us
or possibly at
another university.
Here are our staff.
Just some of them
that you will hopefully meet
if you come to join us.
They’re a super bunch.
Again we have staff
that work principally within
the education degrees but many
of the staff here contribute
to undergraduate degrees,
they contribute to
our teacher training programmes,
they contribute to Masters,
and also contribute to PhDs,
as I do myself,
as the leader
of the undergraduate programme.
So, they have
a wonderful wide array
of experience and knowledge
and they look forward
to hopefully meeting
you at some point
over the next year,
if we have a chance to return
to the institution
and actually see
each other face-to-face.
But you can see
from the montage here,
the many individuals
that hopefully you will come
into contact with in the future.
I’ve put up a few things here
from the league tables
which are an important indicator
and something that you
may be looking at very closely.
You can see that education
was ranked in the top 10
for the last five years.
The most recent REF,
the university was 7th
for research impact
in terms of education.
Our satisfaction rates
for the National Student
Survey are strong
and we are particularly praised
at explaining things and
making concepts understandable.
And we are silver ranked on
the Teacher Framework in terms
of the quality of teaching.
I’m going to move onto now
to some of our real
distinctive characteristics.
As I mentioned in the beginning
of the presentation,
it is important
that you may have some idea
of where you are going
in terms of your career.
It’s not uncommon
that some students aren’t sure,
but they’re interested
in education and quite often
that pathway emerges as they go
through the programme.
But clearly, the wish
to obtain employment
at the end of the degree is
something that you may be very,
very curious about.
And so, therefore,
employability is very much
embedded into our programme.
There’s actually a particular
module in Year 2 that actually
looks at employability
and we work really closely
with our Careers Team.
And the degrees here
also have the possibility
of a year of employment,
so that you can step away
from study for a year,
go into an employment sector,
and then return
and complete your degree.
Another distinctive
characteristic of the degree is
what we call Critical
Observation modules
and these are available
in Years 1, 2 and 3.
And they have both input
at the university in concert
with experiential learning
where you spend some time
in an educational setting,
be that early years right
the way through to post-16.
And that’s something
which many of our students
find incredibly valuable
and allowing them to look
at the relationship
between theory and practice.
And all of our modules address
very much generic skills
around employability and those
important intellectual skills
that are very much part
of an education degree.
Reflection.
Analysis.
And so on.
In terms of year
of employment, here’s Imogen.
Imogen is about to return
to us in September
having spent a year in
a clinical psychology context.
In an email to me,
Imogen said it was everything
I ever wanted in terms
of my year in employment.
And so, this is
available to students
and this is undertaken
through the help of our careers
and employability services,
and if that’s
something you want to find out
more about I would encourage
you to make contact
with those services here
at the university.
So, here’s an example
of a student, very recently,
who chose to actually
spend a year
between the second and third
year in an industrial setting.
In terms of destinations,
you can see that as a university
the vast majority of students
following degree classification
and exit from the university
are working full
and part-time and again,
in terms of full-time study.
So that is
an excellent employment rate
for the Southampton University
community and again,
I hope that’s something
that is important to you
as you’re making those decisions
about where you wish to study.
Okay.
Some more information
about the degree itself.
Some universities will offer
a BA in Education,
but the University
of Southampton sees
itself as a BSc.
And the principle
reasoning behind that is
that we feel the degree
does have a strong
focus upon scientific,
numerate and analytical aspects,
and that the degree
itself has a heavy emphasis
upon understanding research
and research methodology,
and how to undertake research,
which will be
important to students
when they actually arrive
at the dissertation stage,
which is done in Year 3.
And the courses around research
will address both quantitative
and qualitative aspects.
So, we do pride ourselves
in being a BSc.
So, the degrees themselves,
we are of the view as a staff
that understanding is
a key aspect of study here
at Southampton and in
the context of education,
that’s understanding
the processes of learning.
Understanding where learning
takes place in terms
of its contexts
and also understanding
the particular perspectives
and methodologies
that are used in terms of
understanding educational issues
and the complex
interactions that happen.
So, in terms of studying here
at the university,
we will attempt to help you make
sense of educational issues
by studying them systematically,
giving you opportunity
to look at and critique
current educational policy,
and then looking at the latest
principles and new knowledge
around educational issues
and applying those
across your modules.
What I’m going to do
now is I’m going
to actually take you through
the two degrees themselves.
The first three slides
will look specifically
at the BSc Honours in Education
and the next three will look
at the BSc Honours
Education and Psychology.
And then I will talk
about how you will study,
how you will be assessed,
and those important
entry requirements.
So, for the BSc
Honours Education Year 1,
these are the modules
that are currently being taught.
You will see
that there is a module called
1060 Researching Learning.
It’s a double module.
So, that’s taught
across the whole year
and then the year is broken up
into two semesters
and the modules are there.
So, semester one looks
at contemporary issues,
teachers and teaching
and 1059 Digital Society,
which recently won
an education award here
at the university
for a digital platform
that it used.
And then you can see in semester
two that there are modules
that you must take
that are compulsory,
but also you can look
at some options
and there are those Critical
Observation modules there.
And also something
which we call at the university
free elective and so therefore
that gives you the choice,
if you wish,
to take another module
from across the university.
So, many of our students
will look maybe taking
something in languages,
something in management.
So, the chance
for you to explore other aspects
of learning through
this free elective opportunity.
Year 2.
You can see that there is
the double module in
research methods and education.
Again highlighting
the importance of research
that I mentioned earlier on
and here you can see
the emergence of some choice
in terms of on the left for
semester one you choose three,
at least two must be education,
and there you can see the free
elective opportunity is there
and the same in semester two.
In Year 3,
also there is the dissertation
which again is a double module
and you will have
a dedicated supervisor
that will support
you in your project
and once again you can see
that there are
a range of modules
that are available
of which there is some choice
and again you can continue
to look at those modules
in other parts of the university
that we loosely call
the free electives.
So the degree itself has modules
that are required but, also,
there is a definite
degree of choice,
particularly as you move
through the degree itself.
Our BSc Education and Psychology
unit have particular modules
that you must take to accrue
BPS society status,
British Psychological Society.
BPS Society status.
As you would do for a BSc
in Psychology course.
And as you can see
on the slide here,
it does allow you to look
at possibly career paths
within education and psychology.
Important to point out
that some of our students
are interested in
education or psychology
or becoming an
educational psychologist but
that will involve further study
and my colleague, James Hall,
on the first and last
slide is someone
that you might wish to contact
if you have ideas
or questions around possibly
moving in that direction.
So, because of the BPS
requirement you will see
that there are modules
that must be taken
for you to accrue the credits
to secure that BPS,
both in terms of semester
one and semester two.
And there will be
some modules here
that you might recognise from
the single Honours programme
that will be taken alongside
our single Honour students.
The psychology modules you
will be taking alongside
the psychology students
from the School of Psychology.
In Year 2, you can see
that there is EDUC2045,
which is specifically
a double module
around research methods
in education and psychology.
And then again you can see
there are particular modules
that you must take
and also opportunities
for some flexibility in terms
of your curriculum and electives
that might be available
and you can see
that there are certain choices
that you must make and
whether those choices are
in education or in psychology.
And finally, in Year 3,
where you can either do
the dissertation in terms
of a single Honours dissertation
or you can do
the psychology dissertation,
which has two elements to it,
the literature review
and then the research paper.
And once again,
you will see that there are
some psych modules
here that, again,
you must take to ensure
that you have those credits
to allow you to secure BPS.
So, those are our two degrees.
I’m going to talk
a little bit more now about
how will you study?
Well, in the current context,
we’re doing an awful lot
of work remotely right now.
But, we hope that by the time
that you join us
that things may have moved
forward in terms of lockdown and
that actually there will be
more face-to-face contact
for your teaching,
which will allow us
to offer you lectures
and seminars and workshops.
And in a typical programme,
that will be around
12 hours a week across
a 12 teaching-week period,
and you will be
taking the equivalent
of four modules per semester.
And feel free to back
and have a look
at the course outlines again
in the previous slides
and you can see
how those modules come together.
But there will also
be other opportunities
for you in terms
of undertaking observations,
reading, completing revision,
and peer support
with your colleagues.
And we would normally
expect for a module,
for a student to be spending
around 125 hours in terms
of independent work; reading,
preparing for seminars,
preparing for
assignments, reading,
and reading, and reading.
So how will you be assessed?
We offer a range
of assessment modes
at the university.
So we’re not just
all about exams.
There will be some exams
but we also have modules
assessed using essays,
using reports, presentations,
and posters which are also
done with groups, so,
giving you experience
of doing group projects.
And also, you can see there
that there are open book exams,
tests, digital artefacts.
So, we’re trying to ensure
that we present a range
of ways in which students can
demonstrate their achievement.
There are our entry requirements
for the Education
single Honours degree
and the Education
and Psychology degree.
Dr James Hall is
the admissions officer
for the School of Education
undergraduate programme
and I would encourage
you to contact him
if you’ve got questions
about entry requirements.
So, in terms
of the degrees themselves,
we see the option module
as a particular strength
of this degree,
allowing you to build
some flexibility in
and possibly pursuing a sequence
of modules in another school.
We had a student this year
that actually is seeking to
secure a Minor in anthropology.
But you can take four
or five free electives
across those three years and you
might dip into archaeology,
you might dip into languages.
So, those choices can very much
fit with particular interests
that you might be developing.
You will have a dedicated
supervisor for your dissertation
who will support you through.
And for Years 1
and 2 in particular,
you will have
a personal academic tutor
that will be there to support
you from both an academic point
of view and also
from a pastoral point of view.
Important to point out
that the option choice modules
could be capped
and so the university tends
to offer a first come,
first serve basis.
But there is a window
of opportunity each year
when those option modules
become available and then
students can make those choices.
In terms of
learning opportunities,
you will see
that we have strong links
with our employability
and careers department
and our careers officers
will come and speak
to students each year.
Not only in terms of talking
about possible destinations,
but importantly the transition
from Year 1 to Year
2 and to Year 3.
As I mentioned earlier on,
the university has
a thriving clubs and societies
and some 12,000 members
of our university community
are involved in those societies.
We have some very
active student ambassadors
who assist on open days
and visit days and are important
links between the university
and prospective applicants.
Because sometimes it’s
really nice to sit
and have a talk with a student,
and I hope that you
will take up that opportunity
during the virtual day to link
in with our current students
and former students
and ask them questions
about their experience, too.
There are some internships
available and you can see
that we’ve had a recent
education student gain
an internship at MENCAP.
I mentioned earlier
on about possibly trajectories
from the programme here
and teaching is one of those.
So if you are thinking possibly
about teaching afterwards we
offer the PGCE in primary,
secondary and further education.
Some of our students go on
to do master’s programmes,
either full or part-time,
and we have a number of pathways
within our postgraduate
taught programmes,
our master’s programmes.
And more recently,
we’ve had some students go on
from their undergraduate degree
into a funded PhD.
So, again, those are pathways
that some of our students
might follow and continuing
to be interested in research
and trying to actually advance
their own academic abilities.
We have an agreement
with the University
of North Finland,
so there is the possibility
of spending a single
semester exchange in Year 2.
Hopefully by the time
that you might start with us,
those sorts of
opportunities have returned,
but it’s important to point
out at this stage is
that that is available
for students who might wish
to spend a semester overseas.
And as I’m finishing
the presentation,
I think this clip
captures it all for me,
in terms of our students.
They’re happy students.
They’re active students.
They’re engaging students.
They give us really
helpful constructive feedback
and that’s important
as we monitor and continue
to tailor the degree
towards their needs
and interests and
these are three
of our quite recent graduates
who were absolutely
wonderful to work with.
So, if you like the sounds
of these programmes
and it offers you the structure
and flexibility that
you are looking for,
then Southampton could be
an option for you.
If you like the sound
of the staff and who they
seem to be and the feel
that you have
from their abilities and from
their research interests
and their teaching abilities,
this might further strengthen
your interest in Southampton.
If, from a virtual
point of view,
and let’s hope in time
from an actual coming
to campus point of view,
you’ve got a feeling
about the place because people
and place are important
when we’re thinking
about a university decision.
If you see that there’s more
to just getting your degree
at the university
that you can enrich
your opportunities,
you can join
clubs and societies,
you can become an ambassador,
you become a representative
for the course,
you can look at other
study opportunities either here
or possibly thinking
about taking that gap year
and if you think
that we’re standing out and
that it might be somewhere
that you really would like
to come and join us,
then we hope
that you will place
us first on your list.
So, back to those
important contact details.
So, I’m Gary.
James, who supports me
on the Joint Honours,
and my other teammate Jo,
who works with me
on the Single Honours.
You can see that our email
addresses are there.
We are in the current climate
working home remotely,
so the chances are we’re
on our email an awful lot.
So, please, take
every opportunity to contact us
if you’ve got questions and I
hope that this presentation
has been helpful.
I’m back again.
In this particular climate.
So, there we are.
That’s the degree.
Single Honours and Joint Honours
that are here.
And I wish you well.
Stay safe both you,
your families and
your loved ones
and please make contact with us
if you’ve got
questions and I hope
that this presentation
has been useful.
The School of Education has
an active website and, again,
you can find that
through your browser
if you want to again
drill into anything
more about the school and about
the university in particular.
So, on that note,
I will say thank
you and goodbye.
