Into the inner circle: a case study of embedding academic skills into PGT provision

This presentation aims to outline and discuss the embedded academic skills and EAP provision in the Education department at a Russell Group university. This department has large numbers of taught postgraduate (PGT) students from overseas, with limited experience of the requirements of academic study at PGT level. Since 2020, these students have received bespoke academic skills provision; this presentation will explore how this provision has adapted to student needs and how teaching staff have also adjusted. The provision is taught by a small team of academic skills lecturers working primarily in a single department and initially followed what Fenton-Smith and Humphreys call an “adjunct-strong” (2015, p.42) model, with general academic skills topics aimed at a specific group of students but not explicitly targeted at course or assessment needs. This approach proved successful in terms of attendance, engagement and student satisfaction. However, in 2024 a decision was made by senior staff to provide embedded provision following the Contextualisation, Embedding, Mapping model (Alexander et al., 2017; Sloan & Porter, 2010) as well as the adjunct provision. This required a lot of adjustment and new materials, but it also led to closer collaboration with module and programme leaders and led to greater integration of the academic skills staff into the department. This paper will evaluate the success of this embedded provision using three metrics: student engagement, student satisfaction, and the responses of skills tutors and academic staff.  It will also consider the relationship between the embedded and adjunct provision: how our adjunct provision became more embedded alongside the explicitly embedded sessions. It will conclude with advice and recommendations about how to successfully embed academic support - and academic skills staff - into PGT programmes. Ethical guidelines will be followed when seeking feedback from students and colleagues.