What to do with feedback to improve your grades – with FASS Learning Developer Joanne Wood  

The second session for our first years was the opportunity to learn how to use assignment feedback to improve grades.  Joanne Wood our faculty’s dedicated Learning Developer, introduced our students to a variety of academic support services which will be available throughout their degree.  Of particular interest among the students on the day,  were one-to-one tutorials on aspects of study, individual diagnostic readings of marked coursework and The Writing Space facilitated by PhD student writing mentors. 

 

 

Job Hunting – Applications, Interviews, and Assessment Centres 

In partnership with the University’s Careers Service, second and third year students were taken on a virtual tour demonstrating all career resources including software that will support them through each stage of the recruitment process.  This was followed by a workshop on how to create an effective CV and Cover Letter and advice regarding video interviews, psychometric tests and assessment centres. 

 

What’s it like to do a Master’s or PhD?  

Following feedback from our final year students, we organised a bespoke session about post graduate opportunities facilitated by Dr Stanley Blue and current MA and PhD students from the Department.  

Our wonderful PG students shared their experience of further study, tips and advice on how to apply for a Masters programme and how to put together a PhD proposal.  They also gave helpful guidance on researching and applying for funding.   

 

How To Get a First*  

Another favourite session, this year our second year students took part in an online workshop with programme Director Dr Stanley Blue.  They looked at advanced essay writing strategies and techniques; developing structure, using their sources better and discovered tips and tricks to help take their writing to the next level.  

* Please note – taking this session will not necessarily result in you getting a first! (But students who took it last year said it really helped them improve their work!) 

 

Kick starting Your University Career:  Online Careers Marketplace 

Our 2020 first year Sociology students joined us online this time for a bespoke careers event where speakers from across the University presented information about the careers, employment opportunities and services available to them at Lancaster.  Using Microsoft Teams the students joined virtual break out rooms where they could ask questions and collect info from each of the services.  Even thought the format was different, all agreed it was a really useful session.

 

 

Second Year Online Marx and Engels Tour

Fast becoming a favourite ESP event, we would usually join tour guide Ed Glinert in Manchester for his Marx and Engels walking tour.  This year Ed took us on a virtual journey – a Marx and Engels Sociological Tour to Manchester and London on Zoom.  Highlights of the tour included, Marx, Engels and their political activities in London, Last days of Marx and Engels and Marx and Engels’ influences.

Hopefully we’ll be back with Ed in Manchester Autumn 2021.

 

The new second year schedule of events got off to a great start with ESP’s first field trip.  Alongside staff and students from our SOCL200 module, we travelled to Manchester for a walking tour to learn more about the life and work of Marx and Engels.  

Marx arrived in Manchester from Germany, and it is here that they conducted much of the research that fuelled their ideas about capitalism and society, resulting in some of the most influential books ever written, including The Condition of the Working Class in England.  The tour took us around key locations and sites of 19th century Manchester, helping us to see the city through the eyes of these early theorists. 

We had a brilliant afternoon… in the words of those who came: 

‘The history of Engels and Marx was brought alive. The descriptions were vivid enough to imagine Marx walking around’ 

‘The fieldtrip put Marx into his biographical, historical and political context, and it was fascinating to learn about his relationship with Engels’ 

‘[we learnt] new, exciting information on Marx’s background and biography’  

 

 

The 2019 academic year has begun and our new first year students started their Experiencing Sociology Programme, by attending the ‘Kick-Starting your University Career’ session.   This was followed by our hair-raising Halloween social.  

Students were greeted by staff from across the university who were waiting at a variety of stalls offering a marketplace of activities beyond the degree programme that are available to our students. This was a bespoke event where Sociology majors and combined majors could get one-to-one and face-to-face advice about opportunities and experiences they could get involved in while studying at Lancaster. 

Our careers marketplace gives students the time to talk to staff about the significance of building in particular opportunities to a degree specifically in Sociology. 

This year students could chat to (among others):  

• the Careers Service about prospects and pathways specifically for Sociology graduates; 
• the Global Experiences team about the fine details of what it would mean to build in a year studying abroad; 
• the FASS Placements team about how to fit in a period of work placement or do our third-year dissertation by placement. 
• The Employment and Recruitment Service about part-time and temporary work opportunities on campus and in the local community  

Following the hustle and bustle of the stalls, students went on to discuss all these new possibilities over Halloween snacks and refreshments.  Little did they know we had a spine-tingling teaser of a challenge for them – to represent a sociological concept through the medium of pumpkin carving! 

Teams were formed, pumpkin, pipe cleaners and glitter were tossed around and all that was left was for each group to present their pumpkin.  Each team did a great job with some extremely inventive creations.