MyGlasgow News

Students joining us in the new academic year will be coming to us with a unique school and college-leaving experience. The transition into study for our undergraduates will present a range of challenges as students adapt to studying at university in a new - online, blended and hybrid – model of learning.  

To help students with this transition into study with us, the Transitions Working Group and Student Learning Development (SLD, a part of LEADS) has developed two new, unique courses for our undergraduates. Called T2G: Transition to Glasgow, there are two versions of the course: one for Arts and Social Sciences and one for CoSE and MVLS students. Everything is tailored to suit the subjects students will be studying with us. 

These courses will run for two weeks from 23 August to 3 September. They are designed to provide students with a short, intensive introduction to study, life and assessment at the University of Glasgow. The course will be entirely online, so students can join us from anywhere in the world. 

The courses will offer a core module covering academic literacies, academic/scientific writing, good lab practice, mental health and wellbeing, and critical evaluation and analysis skills. Students will also be able to select from a range of short elective courses – ranging in topics from a history of argument, the power of language and the role of identity in culture to solving murder in the lab, the psychology of social robots and health and inequalities during Covid-19 – to allow them to engage with interesting, current topics of debate and to put into practice the skills necessary for success at university.  

The courses are designed to allow students space to engage with the various forms of synchronous and asynchronous teaching, and to take part in small group discussions, social events and university life more generally. The aim is to best equip students for their studies with us; we will use the course to boost student confidence, preparedness, and motivation for their first semester. 

The course will be optional, but students that complete it will receive recognition through having a successful completion of the Academic Writing Skills Programme (AWSP; the compulsory writing course that all undergraduate and postgraduate students complete at the start of their studies) added to their transcript. To complete T2G (and therefore also complete AWSP), students need to attend the classes and submit a short (1,000 word) written assessment. Any students that do not enrol on T2G or that do not complete their T2G assessment will be enrolled onto AWSP as normal. 

This is an exciting new course for our undergraduates, and it will hopefully help to prepare them to join Team UofG in the most positive ways.

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For more information, check out the new T2G website or contact the course co-ordinator, Dr Andrew Struan in Student Learning Development. 

First published: 26 July 2021