Event date and time: Wednesday 8th July 2026, 13.30 – 14.30
For 25.26 academic year, Manchester Met Academic and Study Skills team (ASST) members generated a suite of 4 two-hour workshops on building student skills and confidence with Level 8 writing and research methods. One driver for the development of these sessions was parity of provision across all student levels: we have a strong central and faculty workshop delivery for UG and L7 students, but previous workshops for doctoral students were adaptations of existing resources for lower-level learners rather than bespoke. We felt this was exclusive and not in-keeping with LD precepts (ALDinHE, 2026). To contribute to addressing this, these workshops offer an opportunity for students to ‘meet’ others from disparate disciplines and research foci to support generating a learning community (Lenning and Ebbers, 1999). Another aspect was to support a sense of belonging (Major, 2015) as some L8 students report feeling isolated during their doctoral studies (Metcalf et al., 2018) To develop relevant and timely workshops, primarily on TEAMs, the ASST collaborated with Doctoral College staff and discipline Supervisors. This webinar will expand on the collaborative process during development of the suite, look at the content of the workshops in more detail, and provide initial student feedback results based on a short online survey.
- ALDinHE (2026). Association for Learning Development in Higher Education. (Accessed 29.2.2026) Available at: https://aldinhe.ac.uk/about-aldinhe/
- Lenning, O.T., and Ebbers, L.H. (1999) The powerful potential of learning communities: Improving education for the future. J-B ASHE higher education report series (AEHE); ERIC Publications.
- Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching online and instructional change: A guide to theory, research, and practice. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Metcalfe, J., Wilson, S., Levecque, K. (2018) Exploring Wellbeing and Mental Health and Associated Support Services for Postgraduate Researchers. (Accessed 6.5.2026) Available at: HEFCE Mental Health report FINAL-1.pdf
Presenter:
Louise Livesey, Academic and Study Skills Tutor, Manchester Metropolitan University