UK Centre for Materials Education
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Working with you to enhance the student experience
This project had as its aim the recruitment of students into Materials Science disciplines, a concern of national relevance and particularly important in the PI’s role as Admissions Tutor at the University of Bath. The aim of the project was to produce case studies that would be relevant to Materials as a whole, as well as to allied areas which were becoming increasingly important, such as Biomedical Materials and Sports Materials. The project was not initiated with any hard and fast idea about the topics of the case studies, and the aim was to encourage diversity and individual approach.
An advertisement was put out to entice students to come up with ideas for case studies, and a monetary benefit was also offered. However, it was discovered that other factors were affecting the implementation of this project. The University of Bath had moved from a term-time to a semester system, with increased emphasis on course-work rather than end of term examinations. Thus students had deadlines and time constraints to contend with, which led to reluctance to get involved in anything else, despite a monetary benefit.
Five case studies were subsequently commissioned from UG students and recent graduates. These were:
These case studies were aimed at school leavers and were used for recruitment purposes by the Department for about a year. They were made available on laptops in the recruitment area so that people could browse through them, and were available in hard copy/ pamphlet format so that interested candidates could take them away for a closer look. They generated a lot of interest when they were in use, but departmental change and overhaul rendered them a stagnant resource. The policy of single-entry requirement followed by the department earlier was replaced by a combined entry policy, which entailed reduced visibility of Materials students in the first and second years. All this curtailed the scope for recruitment of Materials students, the original purpose for which these case studies were designed.
However, though the case studies are a stagnant resource for recruitment, they have been recently re-used as 'taster' material aimed at school audiences, which is available on UKCME’s Why Study Materials website aimed at schools:
http://www.whystudymaterials.ac.uk/casestudies/index.asp
