Bridging the gap: online materials to equip graduate entrants to a law degree with essential subject knowledge and skills

Graduate entrants to law degrees can be disadvantaged by being exempted from Level 4 modules. Many lack the law-specific knowledge and skills that they would have gained from their first-year studies, making it more difficult for them to achieve mastery of higher-level modules. This poses risks to their retention and progression. The Open University Law School sought to bridge this gap by providing optional online “catch-up” materials, including 12 sessions of knowledge-based learning. Each session was followed by a brief Moodle poll so that we could ascertain that session’s fitness for purpose, and which students had studied it. The sessions were highly rated by respondents, and most had been studied in the target time of around 15 minutes. Studying the sessions was statistically associated with academic success. This finding does not prove that the sessions contribute towards student's attaining higher grades, but it is encouraging. Only a small percentage of students studied any sessions, and most of those did not study all of them. Since the sessions met their intended purpose for those who studied them, the Law School has now decided on a range of initiatives designed to increase the number of LLB students who study most of them.     

My Career as a Teacher and a Political Scientist: If I Knew Then What I Know Now

This article addresses my professional development as a teacher and political scientist throughout the span of a 15-year career in political science. Also included are reflections on graduate education and the compatibility and necessary dual focus on both political science and teaching in the academy today as it relates to my present-day professional position.     

Student Success and Failure in a Graduate Criminology/Criminal Justice Program

Despite the burdens that students and institutions assume when underwriting educational careers, very little is known about completion rates, risk factors, and successful strategies of criminology/criminal justice (CCJ) graduate programs. Consequently, the present study tracks 287 master’s and 70 doctoral students who entered the Florida State University CCJ program during the 1991–2000 academic years. Almost two-thirds of this cohort earned an advanced degree. Younger students with higher GRE scores were more likely to complete the master’s program. Successful doctoral degree recipients tended to have lower GRE scores, be non-White, and earn their master’s degrees in-house. In terms of time-to-degree, it took over two years to earn an M.A. and slightly more than six years to negotiate the Ph.D. Implications are explored for the program, the university, and the discipline.     

Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential

This paper considers whether the adoption of a subject-specific, classroom-based, voluntary extra-curricular student mentoring scheme could provide an effective mechanism and andragogic approach to enhance higher education students’ employability potential pre-graduation.Over the three-year pilot, 26 more advanced (second to fourth year) undergraduate students actively mentored nearly 400 first year undergraduate students during workshops delivered annually within forensic and policing focused courses. In total, 17 mentors anonymously completed online, post-scheme surveys. Survey data was quantitatively analysed to evaluate the scheme, establish which skills and attributes mentors had developed and investigate whether mentors could appropriately identify example skills within professional terminology used during employer recruitment. In addition, this paper reflects on the implementation of remote student mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic and its adoption within a blended learning framework.The results from this research strongly support mentoring as an effective mechanism to develop undergraduate employability skills, significantly developing mentors’ self-confidence and self-efficacy in their interpersonal and communication skills. Although mentors were aware of university graduate attributes and thought they could evidence these with appropriate examples, in practice this was not necessarily the case. As a result, a framework is proposed to enable mentors to identify their skills and how they may align with competencies sought by relevant forensic and policing employers. However, other andragogic practices may need to be implemented to maximise the potential for successful graduate employment.     

研究生志愿服务探析

随着社会的发展进步，志愿服务越来越需要有文化素养、有技术专长的志愿者参加进来，研究生的科技志愿服务正满足这一需求。专业性和高科技含量是将研究生志愿服务与一般志愿服务区别开来的一个标志。新时期的研究生志愿服务应树立走进社区、走进学校、走进企业的思想，通过研究生科技帮扶和项目开发为中小型企业提供智力支持和技术保障，利用有偿志愿服务给企业带来经济效益同时为研究生就业提供广阔的空间。     

就业视角下的中国高校改革反思

当今，我国大学生就业形势日益严峻。大学生就业的外部环境并不是很理想，这就进一步加剧了大学生就业的压力和难度。高校扩招带来的就业人数的增加是直接原因；但是，高等教育的功利主义倾向和传统人文精神的缺失才是根本原因。可持续发展为我们反思高等教育改革提供了契机，在此基础上我们需要弱化人类中心主义，实现对传统伦理的回归，最终实现高等教育的和谐发展。     

促进大学生就业的对策分析

大学生就业难已成为全社会广泛关注的问题。大学生就业难有体制、机制等多方面的原因。解决大学生就业难的对策有：建立引导就业的政策激励机制、形成通过市场配置高教资源的良性竞争机制、形成不断扩展社区服务的就业促进机制、完善高校就业工作考核评价体系、加强大学生职业发展与就业指导等。     

硕士研究生培养质量评价方法探析

近年来,随着社会进步,我国经济不断飞速发展,不仅带动了硕士研究生教育的发展,也对硕士研究生培养质量提出更高的要求.自恢复硕士研究生教育以来,我国就非常重视硕士研究生培养质量,强调“质量是学位与研究生教育的生命线”,“高水平、高质量的硕士研究生是国家和社会急需的较高层次的人才”.伴随着硕士研究生招生数量的增加,社会进步与经济发展对研究生的期许也越来越高.纵观硕士研究生培养的发展方向,以及社会发展、经济建设需求,提高研究生的培养质量已经成为研究生教育与人才培养的重要内容.建立科学、合理的评价方法是一个值得高校、社会及政府认真思考的重要任务.应当从评价指标和评价原则的确立入手,具体分析如何确定评价标准、如何量化评价标准并确定不同评价标准的权重比例.最终构建一套量化的硕士研究生培养质量评价方法.     

SoTL as a Subfield for Political Science Graduate Programs

This article offers a theoretical proposal of how political science graduate programs can emphasize teaching in the discipline by creating the subfield of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Currently, these programs neither prepare their students for academic positions where teaching is valued nor participate in a disciplinary trend that emphasize SoTL. Furthermore, the recent political pressure for political science programs to demonstrate their public worth might be alleviated by the scholarship in teaching and learning, which is more understandable to the public than traditional non-SoTL work. The article concludes with some of the challenges political science programs may confront in institutionalizing a subfield of SoTL and how they can overcome them.     

高职计算机软件专业毕业设计的实践及思考

毕业设计是计算机软件各相关专业理论教学、实验、实训等有机结合的最佳途径之一。选题是毕业设计的第一步,也是非常重要的一步。选题的基本原则是题目的综合性和新颖性。