February 1, 2011, by Teaching at Nottingham

The Nottingham Advantage Award

Video >>
Paul Greatrix: “Students, when they graduate, will want to feel confident that the skills, the learning, the knowledge they’ve acquired, the experience, the personal development they’ve gone through at University is something that will enable them to be more ready for work, whatever kind of work that may be, whenever they choose to take it up.”

Fran Ebling: “We’d like to think that the skills that they learn in studying neuroscience are good general training for any kind of career whether they go into teaching or on to do medicine or even more distant fields. They’re learning an approach to solving problems. They’re learning critical skills. They’re learning practical skills – communicating their research, written dissertations, in oral presentations.”

Will Bowden: “If you train people’s minds, if you teach them a certain amount of critical rigor, I think they will just bring that to any professional situation that they’re in.

“Most students won’t become academics, they won’t become archaeologist, but those sort of broader skills about how to question the world around you and how to understand the world around you, I think those are, you know, very transferable things that can be brought into any — brought to bear in any situation.”

Daniel Bernhofen: “The University has to play a role also I think in the holistic approach towards letting them develop and mature as adults, because these are critical years in the lifespan when they are at university.”

Paul Greatrix: “So what we’ve done in the Nottingham Advantage Award, I think, is seek to build on that and provide additional opportunities outside of the formal curriculum to enable students to reflect on what they’re learning both in their studies but also outside of their studies, be that through volunteering, student activities, sports clubs, societies or through work experience. Reflect on that, articulate the learning that they gain through that and then have that work assessed to get additional credit and then lead to an award which will make them, I believe, more sought after by employers.

“Employers like our graduates and that, I think, is hugely important to the future reputation of the University.”

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn