Category Archives: International Education

Journeys of the mind: summer 2023 at King’s College London

Posted on by

Dr Sarah Williamson is Executive Director of Summer Programmes at King’s College London.

People | King's People | King's College London

Escape through travel works…Seat-belt signs lit up, problems switched off. 

The Beach, A. Garland 

Travel is often key to finding proper time away from the endless rush of everyday busy lives. Although travel in the mind is frequently facilitated by that of the body, physical removal of oneself from one place to another is a wonderful, but not intrinsic component of travel of the mind, as we all discovered through pandemic lockdowns.

This week, I welcome many who have travelled physically to enrol in a summer course King’s College London. But many others too who have only travelled a few yards to join our learning community as visiting summer students. Together we will all be taking our minds on a journey. New ideas, new friends, new architecture. Not to mention new lunch options, new nights out and new memories to be made.

Some of those summer students joining King’s today made an important journey before they applied to study with us. To come to this country as a refugee or forced migrant from war and trauma. Our scholarships in partnership with @UNHCR are especially for those students now living in England and looking for opportunities to take an academic course and become part of a learning community.  

Others coming later in the month will join us in England due to King’s relationship with  Aare Afe Babalola, the Nigerian lawyer and philanthropist who has also recently made a visionary gift to establish a new centre for transnational education to enable talented young Africans to make an ever-greater impact on the world on the foundations of access to stellar higher education. 

Summer schools need all the perspectives they can gather in order to be the most interesting, challenging academic ride into mind expansion. Over the coming weeks, summer students can expect to find their usual points of reference challenged as our large, hugely diverse student group comes together to learn in classrooms and out and about in London. Filling up mind and body with new knowledge, understanding ideas and ambitions before heading onwards to the next stop of their life journey after the summer.

Tour of Strand Aldwych: A work in progress

The home of Summer Programmes. Picture: London Architecture Diary

 Diversity finds a particular space to flourish in the short courses of summer programming. Our courses fit into and around people’s wider lives. There is something for everyone with courses for learners from 16 to 80 (and beyond! there is no upper age limit!) 12,000+ learners from 85 countries have studied with King’s Summer Programmes over the last few years. ​ Some are at the start of the good stuff in their education journey; others are nurturing a life-long interest. Some spend months with us; others spend a weekend. Many are enriching consolidated professional experience; others are only just deciding on careers.​ The programmes we teach marry market interest to King’s specialist knowledge and produce a programme that is the right content, for the right people, at the right time and place (- ​If there is not already something for you, tell us and we will build it!)

These days King’s surroundings are a haven right in the beating heart of the city. The newly pedestrianised Strand is a shady garden, putting peace and a space for reflection back where once a busy highway ran. Some years ago, Londoners started reclaiming public spaces from the machinery – both mechanic and bureaucratic – of the city and with that has come a common realisation of the vitality that quiet human spaces bring to a metropolis. Quiet powerhouses of thought and being, which are fundamental in any journey of the mind to new realisations and therefore growth.

Welcome to all who start their classes this week.
Thank you for giving us this chance to both teach you and learn alongside and from you.
We feel fortunate that you are now part of our lives as we are part of yours.
A precious gift indeed. 

Summer Programmes shares expertise at international education conferences

Posted on by

For the first time in years, international educators have come together in person at the key global conferences in Asia and the US this spring. King’s College London has a strong voice in these fora in the areas for summer schools and short-term international programming.

APAIE (Asia-Pacific Association for International Education), The Forum on Education Abroad and EAIE (European Association for International Education) are world-shaping international education network-led conferences and gatherings. We are pleased to report that following events by these three international organisations, the future of international education once again feels more open, fluid and rich in opportunity.

From left: Gorka Hernandez and Ben Jones at the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education conference in Bangkok.

Interacting with hundreds of participants, highly experienced teacher, Gorka Hernandez Ortiz, Programme Development Manager, and Ben Jones, Programme Developer, presented papers and held talks at APAIE’s conference in Bangkok on sustainabilities and the continuing case for short term mobility, in addition to focusing their practice-led contributions around Summer Programmes’ art-education based approach to pre-departure programming.

From left: Dr Alexander Heinz, Melissa Torres and Fahema Ettoubi at The Forum on Education Abroad conference in Seattle.

Dr Heinz subsequently joined a seminal meeting of the joint leadership for EAIE in Rotterdam in his elected role of Chair of the EAIE Summer Schools Expert Community, to shape decisions on restructuring the 24-year-old global network for a post-pandemic world. Talks on balancing the organisation’s size and shape with its CPD training responsibilities and industry’s need for networking were the principal areas of discussion and are strong areas of interest to Summer Programmes. The spring term concluded with the largest conference for international education globally, NAFSA in Washington DC. Dr Heinz, E-Learning Dean at NAFSA: Association of International Educators, gave a 15 minute interview to give testimony to the volunteer spirit of this remarkable organisation in its 75th year.

From left: Gorka Hernandez and Dr Alexander Heinz at the NAFSA conference in Washington DC.

You can find out more about each of the conferences here:

Summer Education and Practice: Emancipatory Pedagogy using Google

Posted on by

Christoffer Guldberg recently finished his dual PhD from King’s College London and the University of São Paulo with a thesis on police-violence, authoritarianism and resistance in Brazil. He has worked at the King’s Summer Society skills programme and as an educator in the UK, Brazil, Denmark and Portugal, and is a member of the editorial collective of the Decolonising the Curriculum Blog: Comfortably Uncomfortable at the School of social Science and Public Policy (SSPP).

In this short text, I’d like to build on a recently published article from my work as an educator in Brazil and at King’s College London’s Summer Society skills programme (Guldberg 2022) providing an innovative and practical way that educators can go beyond decolonising the curriculum and bring decolonisation into the  very teaching situation. I found the method being particularly well-suited to engage students and prepare King’s highly diverse, international Pre-University and Undergraduate Summer School cohorts for the critical thinking skills that they will need throughout their academic trajectories and beyond.

I am founding my practice in two findings of emancipatory pedagogy and de-colonial theory, namely that 1) the concepts and institutions that shape our lives, whether they be universities, academic disciplines, or criminal law, are shaped by colonialism and racism, and 2) to be emancipatory education needs to start from the lived experience of the student to avoid recreating social and racial hierarchies implicit in the “banking model of pedagogy”, instead allowing for teachers to be co-creators of knowledge, following Paulo Freire’s method for education (Freire 1970).

I develop Freire further and use Googles Images and Maps to allow students to explore how concepts such as ‘international development’, ‘drug trafficker’, the ‘United Kingdom’, or ‘Brazil’ are shaped by colonial imaginaries and practices that feed into the algorithms of search engines, social media, and other forms of artificial intelligence.

In practice, this can take the form of asking students to do a Google Image search for any concept, including the above, and analyse the results keeping in mind de-colonial and critical theories of race, gender and international relations. As an example, the results for international development clearly demarcate a difference along lines of geography, race, gender and age between the beneficiaries of development and those “experts” in Western universities, NGO’s and development agencies, who – not unlike the teacher of the banking model of education – bring development to the Global South. Similarly, a search for former colonies such as Kenya and Tanzania reveals striking differences to the way the former colonising country is portrayed, with the former being largely portrayed as objects of tourist consumption and places of political instability, and the latter portraying political institutions that have historically benefitted from colonialism. This can provide a ground for discussion both of how the algorithm works, including the different results according to geographic location, and the ways in which the mass of searches and clicks, along with choices of content creators, create an unequal world, which reflects Western-centric notions of development as a linear, homogenous process.

In decolonising the classroom, this method gives students important tools for critical thinking, which benefit them in their academic trajectories, particularly how to think critically about concepts, something that is of course a key part of de-colonial thought and critical pedagogy.

 

 

UKIERI Study India – A participant remembers ten years on

Posted on by

The Summer Programmes team at King’s College London project managed the UKIERI Study India programme from 2009-2012, initially with the University of Birmingham. During each year, the innovative scheme took 200 students from across the UK for up to one month to India. The programme included an intensive schedule of learning interventions, a high degree of daily mobility and short work experiences. Eleanor Salt, now Partnerships Manager (Europe, Middle East, Africa) in Global Engagement, and Dr Alexander Heinz, now Senior Associate Director in Summer Programmes, were working with other colleagues on the programme and in their current roles continue their contributions to shaping the future of international work at King’s College London.

We interviewed Alexander Gerritsen (* 1992), a participant in 2012, in summer 2022.

In 2012, was your international outlook before you joined the King’s College London managed UKIERI Study India programme?

I am originally from South Africa and was quite well travelled prior to the Study India trip. In secondary school I had participated in an exchange program in China. I had to travel to places in Europe. I had a passion for history and politics in a global context and so I was aware of some of the major pressure points in the world, such territorial disputes in the South China sea and of course between India and Pakistan.

Why did you apply?

The opportunity was brought to my attention by my course leader Dr Rachel Utley from Leeds University. We had recently been studying India and evaluating whether it is or would become a Great Power in the 21st century. I had also been learning about the British Raj and in particular the Indian mutiny of 1857. I used this all in my application for the course and I was successful.

The programme sparked my career path. Without it, I would not have been aware of the opportunities available to working abroad and the excitement of being exposed to different cultures.

What are your favourite memories of being in Mumbai?

Mumbai is a great city with such a rich history and an overwhelmingly vibrant present. I loved walking along the seafront or to the Gateway of India but my favourite memories were just walking around in any part of the city as well as exploring the markets. It was helpful to have locals with us to guide us to all the best places and try all the street food.

What do you remember doing there?

All the learning activities organised by King’s and the Indian partners – we did we start with a Mumbai treasure hunt walk, which took us to the major destinations. We also had visits to the Dharavi slums and the Bombay Stock Exchange. We attended lectures on economics, history, culture and religion which was fascinating. We would also have lots of group activities on the roof of our host college, including Bollywood dances to attend. We also had local student buddies so we got to visit their house. I was even taken by my buddy Aman to the country clubs where his family had membership – which had a clear postcolonial taste. We had two free weekends so for the first one we took the train to a nearby hill station- buying a ticket was a mission. On the second weekend I organised with a few people to visit New Delhi and Agra to see the Taj. It was an adventure.

What stands out most in your memory?

For me the internship with Unmeed really stands out. This was a NGO for vulnerable children who have learning disabilities. The NGO dealt with a cross section of society and really provided support to these people. A doctor told one set of parents that their little girl would be unlikely to ever go to university. The father was defiant at first and then began to cry. It hit home how incredibly competitive education is in India. Our student buddies told us stories about it and I remember seeing the billboards with the student grades. On a slight side note, this point was also illustrated in a movie we went to watch at the cinema which was called the ‘Three Idiots’ and featured three engineering students. I remember the film clearly. It was an absolute emotional rollercoaster.

Alexander Gerritsen with friends in Mumbai 2012

Have you been back to India since?

I have sadly not yet had the chance. I was actually supposed to attend an educational event in New Delhi in April 2020 but the trip had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

What has your career been since?

The programme was instrumental for my career as it brought me into contact with the British Council. I was able to take advantage of all the opportunities that they offer. I was selected to participate in the British Council teacher assistant course in Wuxi, China for a year and that was an incredible opportunity. I taught at a local school and had the opportunity to get to know my Chinese colleagues, learn Chinese. I then saw an opportunity in Lima, Peru, and I was offered the job to become a full time History teacher. This was brilliant and I stayed in Peru from 2015 to 2021. I travelled extensively around all of the Americas. I even swam with Great White sharks in Mexico. I did everything I could. Professionally, I advanced to teaching IGCSE and IB history and I even became a Head of department for the Theory of Knowledge. I started organising my own overseas programming, leading groups to South Africa and I participated in the Amazon raft race.

Alexander Gerritsen ten years on

What has the UKIERI Study India programme given you in hindsight?

The programme sparked my career path. Without it, I would not have been aware of the opportunities available to working abroad and the excitement of being exposed to different cultures. I fell in love with India and continue to follow their politics. On a practical note, to this day the programme allows me to have an immediate connection with Indians who I meet. We have many things to talk about!

Did you keep in touch with other participants for some time?

Yes, I certainly did for the first few years. We had reunions in London and were all involved in presenting about our experiences in UK schools. I am still connected with my friends on Facebook and Instagram. Many have been doing masters courses, either in the UK or Singapore. Some are in the United States. We occasionally catch up that way.

What are your plans now?

During COVID, I moved from Peru to Barcelona to undertake a masters in Diplomacy and International Organisations. Luckily, I am starting as a Blue Book Trainee at the Secretariat General of the EU Commission, with the duty of reporting directly to the Director General. I will be undertaking this traineeship until the end of February 2023 with the hope of finding a position in the EU afterwards.

Shaping the new era: conference season

Posted on by

Alexander HeinzMatt Doherty

Throughout this autumn conference season the emergence of a new era in international education is increasingly visible, with colleagues globally dedicating their energy to developing education strategies for the future. King’s College London was prominently represented at the EAIE Community Exchange 2021. Dr Alexander Heinz, Co-Chair Summer Executive at King’s and Chair of the EAIE Expert Community for Summer Schools, hosted a roundtable on the marketing of summer schools and was a Spotlight session panellist discussing the para-Covid period. He also led the community in a very well attended campfire event on the future of short-term programming.

Later this month, Dr Heinz will be joined by Matt Doherty, Programme Developer at King’s Summer Programmes, to deliver a virtual presentation at the Global Inclusion Conference 2021 in Atlanta. They will be speaking about advancing inclusion through short term international programmes, making the case that short term programmes allow for creative ways of ensuring accessibility and learning about personal agency and responsibility for wider communities.

The Summer Programmes team is looking forward to continuing our conversations and partnerships with like-minded colleagues and organisations around the world as the year continues.

Summertime for new thinking

Posted on by

Dr Sarah Williamson is Executive Director of King’s Summer Programmes.

Sarah Williamson

What a time we have all experienced in the past 18 months. The extent to which Covid-19 has changed our personal and professional lives is nothing short of a revelation.

Daily activities, including a wider range of jobs that anyone would have initially thought possible, have all been taking place online. We have gone from being rooted in our homes via national lockdowns to leaping into new ways of living via our electronic devices. Now, as we begin our second year of online summer teaching we are taking a moment to reflect on how far the world has come despite being forced to stand still geographically.

When Covid-19 began to affect our lives, we decided very early on that we would not let it curtail our summer learning programmes and summoned up all our ideas and energy to launch the King’s Summer Online programmes. The Summer team worked tirelessly to find the best ways to connect with you all via virtual means last year and this year they have taken those good beginnings and enhanced each aspect further. Digital inequalities have become a pronounced strand to our often uneven world and here at King’s Summer it has become an important consideration for our thinking and research plans. But as our lives have progressed, we have all experienced first hand some of the incredible value and ability that moving in an online education sphere enables and it is now clear that our future educational experiences will be all the better for seizing the opportunity to make use of the best of e-learning alongside the best of face-to-face learning. Why choose, when we can work a bit harder and have the best of both worlds?

Of course we all wish that we could come together in this great city of London – the original think space! – and share its dynamism and beauty in real life, but we are certain that though our connection this year may be digital, there is nothing virtual about the very real experience you will have with King’s this summer. And as soon as we all can, we want to welcome you in person to campus. #summerisreallife #summeristheonlyseason

Thought leadership online

Posted on by

Connecting with other thought leaders from the field of international education has never been more important. Though attending conferences in person has not been possible this academic year, our Summer Education Programme continues to engage with and have influence on best practice in short course learning and teaching globally. 

A virtual conference

Michael Salmon, Associate Director – Curriculum Renewal, spoke at the Higher School of Economics/Coursera eStars Conference in December 2020, sharing his thoughts on Retaining the human factor in the move to online international education. The question of how international education functions online – whether in terms of student experience, pedagogy, cultural exchange or various other aspects – is one that we continue to take a great deal of interest in as we look to create sustainable, innovative online programming for the long-term.

Michael continued exploring this theme at the British Council International Education Virtual Festival in January 2021, delivering a paper titled Virtually abroad: a useful conception for short-term mobility? This well-received session formed part of a wider workshop on innovation within UK higher education as a response to the pandemic.

In March, Summer Programmes will be hosting the 3rd TNE Hub Symposium, and we are looking forward to connecting with researchers and practitioners in transnational education. Dr Alexander Heinz, Chair of King’s Summer Executive and Hannah Bond, Associate Director – Learning & Teaching, will be speaking on the topic of Creating effective learning communities in TNE.  

Also in March, Dr Heinz has been appointed to the honorary role of e-Learning Dean for an expert course on Short Term Programming at NAFSA: Association of International Educators. 

As the world slowly emerges from the COVID pandemic, exciting new perspectives for international educators are coming into sight. We as a sector will need to be prepared. 

Successful first winter school

Posted on by

Michael Salmon is Associate Director – Curriculum Renewal for Summer Programmes at King’s College London.

King’s Pre-University Summer School is one of the most popular international programmes of its kind, giving students from around the world in the last two years of high school the opportunity to experience King’s teaching in the subject area of their choice. But how about for those students still exploring their options, looking for a broader introduction to university study at an earlier point in their journey? 

Mindful of this growing global need among young people for enhanced decision-making opportunities, in February 2021 King’s Summer Programmes launched the Pre-University Winter School. This innovative one-week study programme allowed students from 20 countries to sample a range of subject areas under the guidance of talented King’s academics, all from the comfort of their own homes. 

A screenshot of an online seminar

In addition to highly engaging lectures and seminars, participants also connected with current King’s students and worked independently on a project. Feedback received so far has been excellent, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 and every student agreeing that they would recommend the course to others. Gongning from China, who studied on the Law, Politics & Social Science pathway, summed the experience up as follows:

“I was inspired by the tutors’ passion for teaching and respect for everybody’s perspective. I really felt listened to in every class discussion.”  

Paula from Spain, who followed the Health & Science course, also praised the dynamic teaching and the quality of the course content, adding that the course has reinforced her enthusiasm for ‘delving deeper into university-level material’. This positive feedback was very heartening, as challenging and stimulating learning experiences in a respectful, supportive atmosphere are what we hope characterise our pre-university courses. 

For the academic staff involved, connecting with talented pre-university students can be a hugely enriching experience: 

“I was truly impressed with the knowledge, intellectual curiosity, and depth of understanding shown by the students. Their comments were so perceptive. I wish them every success in the future!” Dr Diana Popescu, Political Economy.

Summer Programmes will now be able to build on the achievements of the students and all professional services and academic colleagues involved, continuing to pioneer world-class pre-university learning opportunities to a wide market. Dr Alexander Heinz, Chair of the Summer Executive, commented that “students take decisions at different times of year and with Winter Schools we will be able to honour our role to help with this even more. There is no better feeling than being able to bring a glimpse of King’s education to school students from around the world.” 

The impact of summer

Posted on by

Hannah Bond is Associate Director – Learning and Teaching for Summer Programmes at King’s College London. Michael Salmon is Associate Director – Curriculum Renewal.

The impact of a King’s Summer education can often stay with our students long after the season ends. King’s summer programmes are immersive educational experiences, a moment to connect with students from an enormously wide range of countries around the world, experience cultural exchanges, and learn new skills for life, work and study. It’s a chance to study a topic in greater depth or learn about a new subject for the first time, or take a step towards further studies at a more advanced level. In many cases, as with Aditi Sangal who joined us for a summer course more than half a decade ago, it can be the launching pad for a high-profile career. 

A photo of Aditi Sangal

Of her time studying International Relations with King’s in her home country of India as well as Journalism on a scholarship to London in 2014, Aditi recalls how the experience opened up the world for the first time:

“I learned what makes a good story, how to cover international stories and observed what I could learn from journalists like Christiane Amanpour. I acquainted myself with journalism vocabulary – lede, nut graph, angle, sourcing and such. But more importantly, the course introduced me to the essential rules of news-gathering and reporting for the first time, such as being off the record, reporting on death, and reliable versus unreliable sources.”

Fast forward seven years, and Aditi is now an Associate Producer for CNN, based in New York, where she has covered US news stories like presidential elections, President Trump’s impeachment, natural disasters and mass shootings, as well as global events including the coronavirus outbreak.  

“It’s quite surprising to think back and realise the point at which I began my education in journalism, but it’s comforting to know that the King’s summer programme had me covered. It opened my eyes to what I needed to learn before I could consider myself a strong candidate for any journalism job. I went on to study at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where I further built on the basics I learned at King’s.”

More journeys like Aditi’s 

In 2020, due to the global pandemic, our summer schools went online for the first time. The online summer school experience gave students a taste of a King’s education, with collaborative project work, guest speakers, expert King’s faculty and insights into King’s cutting–edge research.  

We would expect there to be many more stories similar to Aditi’s among the hundreds of participants in 2020 summer courses. One student on our Pre-University programme spoke of how she felt sure that the course would help her become a knowledgeable and inquisitive scientist – we will have to check back in with Carlotta in a decade’s time and see how she has got on! 

These moments of learning and discovery which shape us as people and guide our career paths will increasingly take place online. The process has been accelerated by the pandemic, but was firmly in motion long before. For university summer schools, we need to provide high-quality education and learning experiences available online for those who prefer to study in this mode. After all, it is coming together and connecting with experts and peers – whether in person or online – that creates a long-lasting impact. 

Moments from a summer

Posted on by

Michael Salmon is Associate Director – Curriculum Renewal for Summer Programmes at King’s College London.

Having taken the decision to move our summer schools online this year, rather than cancelling outright in the face of Covid-19 uncertainties, it is safe to say that the last few months have been much eventful than they might otherwise have been! Dr Alexander Heinz, Chair of the Summer Executive, will suggest in a forthcoming article that one of the defining features of summer schools is their ephemerality: by nature and by design, they play out a constant tension between having only just begun and shortly to conclude, and indeed this contributes to make them special, memorable, educationally exciting.  

I would also argue that for these short summer weeks, it is easier to identify key moments that stick in the mind and reveal something about the communal experience that tutors and students shared in (compared to a degree programme, of course, or a full year abroad). Further, identifying these key moments is an important act of both reflective pedagogy and forward planning, a moment of stillness and consideration that enables momentum to be conserved. In this post I am going to describe a handful of such moments from the last few months. 

Seeing collaboration happen 

There were a number of ‘Aha!’ moments for me this summer which all involved seeing students conduct online discussions with one another. The practicalities around teamworking were a concern as we headed into the teaching period, especially as collaboration is such a fundamental part of all our courses. However, I repeatedly saw students either working together in very similar ways to how they would in a classroom or, in some cases, even more effectively. 

For example, one offhand comment a student made within a discussion channel (“we could have a meeting here later – I think this room should be free after class”) really brought home to me the resilience of the students vis-à-vis the move online: they were able to conceptualise the digital spaces which our e-learning platforms provided as something very close to a physical classroom. I also greatly appreciated seeing students with the same mother tongue holding chats in English at a very high level of sophistication – the fact that they were able to type asynchronously rather than having to answer in real time paid dividends here. Although we had not taken student digital literacy for granted by any means, I was impressed seeing students able to navigate and negotiate the choppy waters of online group work with a great deal of flair. 

Our team found that through hosting and moderating various online platforms and working with students to ensure that collaboration was as effective as possible, we had a phenomenal insight into who students were and how they were experiencing the courses. This would not have been possible in the same way with students placed in distinct classrooms, and was an unexpected pleasure. 

Hearing the positives 

Perhaps the aspect of the course we were most unsure about, more than how we would support our tutors, more than how online social activities could be conducted, more even than how online teaching would be received, was how well we would be able to deal with student issues. Those working in summer schools of any shape or form will be familiar with the queues at helpdesks and urgent phonecalls which are an inevitable part of in-country delivery, and which need to be dealt with professionally and efficiently by a skilled team. Doing this online with students spread all across the world would be a new experience for us, and we dedicated a lot of our planning time to implementing new triage procedures, new contact methods, new communication channels, and much more. 

Running a summer school at a distance can also mean that it is harder to judge how students are experiencing the course. Despite confidence in our procedures and a strange sense of calm as the course began, everyone on the team was somewhat nervous to see student feedback, both in first impression surveys and end-of-course feedback. In particular, the two items ‘I felt welcomed and supported on the first day of the programme’ and ‘I felt sufficiently supported throughout the programme’ occupied prime position in my mind, for the reasons stated above.

As it turned out, the feedback received for these two questions was incredibly positive, and I think I speak for all of the team in saying that seeing these responses arrive was something that will stick in the mind when looking back at the summer. These moments when we were able to see for ourselves that essentially every student felt supported were extremely valuable.

Connecting in spite of it all 

The Summer Community of Practice has long been a fundamental part of the Summer Education Programme. It brings together tutors from varied disciplines in a collegiate network, allowing for best practice to be shared and for much informal support.

Moving online was of course no barrier to holding regular Community of Practice meet-ups, but to begin with we did find that there was so much to discuss in terms of new procedures, new class types, new digital tools and all the other new uncertainties which have characterized 2020 since March at least. For this reason, it was the final session which really sticks in my mind as a memorable demonstration of the best aspects of the summer.  

This session was held around the halfway point of the course, and the idea was for those tutors already teaching to share experiences with those yet to teach. The conversation flowed freely, with some fantastic suggestions about managing group work online or getting the best out of taciturn students, and I was able to sit back and absorb, or add thoughts drawn from my own teaching practice, rather than sticking to an agenda. It was a wonderful session, over too soon, and really demonstrated to me how a summer school can enable connectivity among staff all around the university, driving student experience forward beyond the summer into ideas for quality learning all year round, even against a background of the most unprecedented disruptions to business as usual.

Into the next phase 

These, then, were some out of many more moments that I felt worthwhile to reflect upon, and which brought a degree of sunshine to the work of the past few months. Now, the work of consolidation must begin, as we look forward to making these unexpected moments into part of the new normal…