joint honours insight report
Date published: 11/06/2021
This Student Insight Report examines the Joint Honours experience at Royal Holloway. In February 2021, the Students’ Union began work to better understand this area of the student experience. This report highlights students’ positive and negative experiences of undertaking a Joint Honours degree while studying at Royal Holloway.
Report Recommendations
Below is the summary of the recommendations from the report and the progress made so far.
community and belonging
| Recommendation |
Progress |
| 1.1 The University should create a Joint Honours handbook and upload this document to the University website and Royal Holloway app with a view to moving all information to the Royal Holloway app when it has more widespread use by students. This handbook should offer general information on what to expect from the Joint Honours experience when they begin their studies at Royal Holloway. |
Not Started |
| 1.2. The University should offer general induction seminars at the start of Term One for Joint Honours students in their first year of study. These induction seminars should present a general introduction to the Joint Honours programme at Royal Holloway, and list important contact information for Joint Honours Leads in each department. Having a general Joint Honours induction will help those students who do not have departmental Joint Honours inductions and give them a level of support they are currently missing. |
Not Started |
Communication
| Recommendation |
Progress |
| 2.1 Departments should revise their communications to ensure content for Joint Honours students is clearly labelled as such. This could be through utilising course specific email lists or clearly indicating where Joint Honours students are welcome. |
Not Started |
| 2.2 Departments should include Joint Honours updates in their regular communications to students. Modules which have Joint Honours students should reference information which is pertinent to them. Many Joint Honours students feel excluded from departmental communications, and this is one way to increase their sense of belonging in the academic community. |
Not Started |
| 2.3 The University should implement a Joint Honours Lead in every department who would act as the key liaison point between the various departments involved in joint honours provision, as well as acting as a Senior Tutor for all Joint Honours students |
Not Started |
Support
| Recommendation |
Progress |
| 3.1 The University should provide Joint Honours students with Personal Tutors in all the departments they are studying in so that they have access to the same level of support and guidance as Single Honours students in that department. Where this is not possible, a member of staff should be responsible for all Joint Honours students and this should be made clear to all students at the start of the academic year. |
Not Started |
| 3.2 The University should include an option for a second Personal Tutor to be included on Banner. |
Not Started |
| 3.3 The University should create an individual data marker which identifies Joint Honours students clearly for academic and professional University staff. |
Not Started |
| 3.4 The University should build an area within the Student Intranet and the Royal Holloway app to accommodate information with regards to personal tutoring, including specific guidance for Joint Honours students. |
Not Started |
| 3.5 The University may wish to explore the prospect of creating a personal tutoring agreement or minimum standards, for both students and staff, utilising student and staff spaces to get input from all parties. |
Not Started |
Timetabling
| Recommendation |
Progress |
| 4.1 The University should investigate whether the current timetabling software is fit for purpose and assess whether a better alternative may be available for use. As a short term solution, the University should work with departments to identify best practice in this area, such as the use of provisional timetables when selecting modules. |
Not Started |
| 4.2 Departments should ensure that Joint Honours students are included in all relevant module selection processes across their degree programme to allow for the same module choice selection as Single Honours students. |
Not Started |
Workloads and Assessments
| Recommendation |
Progress |
| 5.1 School Administration teams should generate an annual report scrutinising assessment hand-in dates to ensure clashes and deadline stacking is avoided. School Managers should ensure that, where Joint Honours degrees take place between schools, this collated to across the relevant departments external to their school. |
Not Started |
| 5.2 Departments with Joint Honours students should communicate more regularly in regards to teaching, coursework deadlines and examination dates to avoid deadline stacking and timetable clashes from occurring. |
Not Started |
| 5.3 The University should ensure the assessment hand-in scrutiny report is included in the Annual Review process for both undergraduate and postgraduate taught courses. |
Not Started |
| 5.4 Departments should look to include provisional assessment deadlines in the module selection process. |
Not Started |
| 5.5 The University should look to undertake a Joint Honours programme mapping exercise across the University which focuses on consistency of provision, workload balance and ensuring robust learning outcomes. This exercise would likely sit alongside a revalidation event to ensure changes can be made effectively. |
Not Started |
Representation & the SU
| Recommendation |
Progress |
| 6.1 The Students’ Union should work with departments to create a new role within their Academic Representation system for a Joint Honours Course Representative for departments which have Joint Honours students. |
In Progress |
| 6.2 The Students’ Union should provide a space for all Joint Honours course reps to enable effective communication. This could be through the utilisation of the Teams channels created. |
Not Started |
| 6.3 The Students’ Union should provide department and school reps with a briefing to help them to further understand and support the Joint Honours course reps within their role, as well as any Joint Honours students who may contact them. |
Not Started |
| 6.4 The Students’ Union should provide a briefing for the Joint Honours course reps to help them understand the specific channels they can utilise as part of their role to help clarify their position within their departments. |
Not Started |
| 6.5 The Students’ Union should look to ensure that Joint Honours students are specifically included in the implementation of the Academic Societies Review. |
Complete |