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Supporting 2021 entrants to higher education in Scotland - contribute to our Mural

Date:	March 1 - 2021

Everybody working in higher education is aware that embarking on a programme of study can be challenging at the best of times. Students joining our institutions in academic session 2021-22 will be doing so after a period of intense disruption, meaning that they may be dealing with specific challenges in addition to the ones usually faced by new students.

We are fortunate in the Scottish sector to be able to draw on a wealth of previous experience and expertise about supporting transitions in to higher education (links to supporting resources can be found below). We would now like to invite colleagues to share their thinking about the coming year.

Contribute to our new Mural

We have set up a Mural - a simple collaborative whiteboard - which will be open until Monday 15 March 2021. This space is an opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges we are likely to face in 2021-22, and to share ideas for how we might meet those challenges and more effectively support our students. The outcomes from this may also inform sector-wide follow-up work.

Before visiting the Mural, you may wish to consider the following questions:

What have we learned to date about students' transitions in to higher education in Scotland that might help us support 2021 entrants? This might include points of learning from the Student Transitions Enhancement Theme.
In terms of approaches to supporting new entrants, what have we tried before? What has been effective (or not)?
What challenges are this particular cohort of students likely to face? What additional needs might students have, and what number of students might have those needs? What are our concerns?
Based on what we know and what we have tried before, what ideas and suggestions do we have for supporting our incoming students? What adaptations are being considered? What more do we need to do to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to succeed?

We recommend Chrome or Firefox to use the Mural. When you first visit the site, you will be prompted to enter your name or choose to contribute anonymously. The site will also offer tips to get you started. If you see a message at the top of the page that says ‘Trying to reconnect’, please refresh the page.

You should see a column entitled ‘Outline’ which contains a series of numbered boxes. These contain further instructions, along with the prompt questions above. Click on each box to expand. If you need further support, we recommend watching this 50-second tutorial video.

Supporting resources

Student Transitions Map
Transition Skills and Strategies resources
Collaborative projects from the Student Transitions Theme

Access the Mural

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Upcoming events

At the moment, there are no scheduled events. Please revisit this page at a later date for updates.