Solent VP Education

Let's graduate!

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:56:00 -0500

Hello all,

Are you all ready for hand-ins? Make sure you check your papers for similarity so you don’t commit any plagiarism and don’t forget that you are not allowed to share any work with your colleagues, as that is collusion and you will be punished for it. Having that said, let me share with you the best experience of my life, which was Graduation.

Graduation week was the best week ever. I’ve never felt more happy or proud before. Everything was perfect, dress, gown, ceremony itself and me walking there being shy, but with a big grin on my face that could not be wiped by wind of rain. I was excited and I felt that all the hard work, all the stress, all the coffee, sleepless nights, Christmas without family, tears, fear of failure….everything was balanced by that amazing moment when the Chancellor declared us graduates.

I remember that on this time last year I was struggling with my dissertation and my job as a sales assistant, I did not have any time to enjoy life or to go home and visit my family for winter holidays. I felt sad and thought that I will never manage to write my final project as it all seemed so difficult and complicated at that time. Sited outside, I was looking at all the graduates walking around all proud with their robes on, followed by their families. I thought I would never get to that stage myself, but in the same time I felt very motivated. I wanted to be like that, I wanted to wear that gown, I wanted to walk around the campus proud of my achievement.

And I did it. One year later I was there myself, going on that stage, shaking the Chancellor’s hand, getting my degree. It was a unique experience, maybe one in a lifetime and I wish you all the best, so you can have the opportunity to enjoy such a feeling. I want to tell you all to ask for any advice or support you need in order to make this right, because it would be a shame to miss such an amazing Ceremony, just because you did not address so issues and concerns in time.

Professor Van Gore had a brilliant speech, that really impressed me and I would like to share a great quote with you all:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

Good luck everybody and I am looking forward to see you all at Graduation next year!

So...how are you?

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 11:27:28 -0500

Hello all,

I hope you have a brilliant time in Uni. I just want to update you with the latest things I’ve been up to. I promise not to be very long.

Firstly, a big thank you for everybody that attended Course Reps training. For those of you who missed it, please come and see me so I can go through some things with you, before we start working on certain issues. I hope we are going to have a great year together, as I am preparing different sessions and activities for us with professionals in the domain. I am extremely happy that WMA was very keen to have us around and attend the training as well. I was delighted to be there.

I am also tackling the problem of hidden course costs and I am working alongside the University to find the best solution for you. I am aware that nobody likes to spend lots of money of materials and other University requirements, so that is why I am committed to take this issue very serious and find a solution that suits all students.

As you are all aware I am part of the Assessment and Feedback Working Group and I believe that this initiative is going in the right direction as the University is committed to work in your best interest. It is my duty to conduct research both internally and externally on how good feedback looks like and I am looking forward to start talking to you about that. I hope you are going to get involved in this and together we can improve the quality of assessment and feedback and the academic experience itself.

And, for those of you who have great ideas and want to be part of the change, don’t forget to join us and attend DEMO 2012 on 21^st of November. You can buy tickets for only £5 from the SU Shop.

If you cannot attend the DEMO, but want to make a change in Solent University, don’t forget that our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is on 29^th of November. We offer help with any policy writing, so if you have any idea you can transform them in policy and they can be voted on by students.

I am looking forward to see you all at these events. Anything you need come to see me and even if I can’t help, I will make sure that I guide you in the right direction.

Mihaela

Are you representing your course?

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:47:08 -0400

Hello everybody,

I hope you are all well enjoying the cold weather. I also hope your academic year is going well and you don’t have any issues, but if you do, please feel free to address them.

Just a quick update with what I am doing…COURSE REPS! This is a massive project for me this year and I hope is going to be a success. I am happy to say that I am supported by our lovely members of staff and by the University as well. I am currently working to update the mycourse page for Course Reps for you to have a space to communicate your achievements, ask questions and get information from. The mycourse page will also consist of training slides and videos so you can always refer back to them if you need to use the information provided.

The training is going to take place in our brand new Centre for Student Involvement, so you will all have the opportunity to enjoy this new space. We are going to hold 3 sessions on different hours of different days so it is flexible for you all and suits your schedule. I will not reveal too much information about it now, but I can confirm that it has been a lot of research and work put into it and I hope you can all attend it.

There are also other things that I am working on such as work experience and its impact on employability, but I will have more details about that after I meet and discuss the matter with the appropriate people.

I wish you the best of luck and I am looking forward to see you around the campus.

Mihaela

Give me feedback!

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:43:00 -0400

Hello everybody,

I hope you are all happy to be back in the new academic year. As I mentioned early in the summer, I was going to work on the Feedback campaign to make sure that you are all going to benefit from qualitative and timely feedback for your assessments. I am happy to inform you that the paper went to Teaching and Learning Sub-committee and it has been fully supported by the University. As a result a Feedback Working Group formed by me and 2 members of Academic Services was developed. As a partnership between the Union and the University we aim to research and develop a strategy that ensures consistency in assessment and feedback across University. At the moment I am investigating the courses and academics that are amazing at offering feedback, making the students happy and engaged with the process. I intend to share this good practice and for everybody to work towards reaching these standards. I believe that this has been a great achievement for us so far and I hope you all share this joy with me. I am committed to work as hard as I can to improve the quality of the feedback and your academic experience.

I would also like to mention that I successfully managed to represent and actively help some of the students that asked me for help, so that is why I would like any of you that feels unhappy about academic issues to come and talk to me. I will do my best to take your case further and have a positive outcome.

I wish you all the best in your studies!

Mihaela

Summer updates

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:58:25 -0400

Hello everybody! I hope you are all enjoying your holidays and you are looking forward to Freshers’ 2012. I think you all want to be updated with what I am working on, so you are aware of the latest issues that are going on. My main objective for the time being is to obviously improve your academic experience and I believe that two of the main areas are feedback and course representation.

Feedback:

As you are probably aware, my predecessor, Daisy, ran a campaign aimed to improve feedback, making it more consistent, timely and constructive. I am targeting the University now and I hope that by attending future meetings and presenting this further, we will be able to experience better feedback next year. Moreover, we hope to convince the University to provide you with feedback for exams as well. I believe that this is achievable and I am ready to campaign further for these objectives and many others.

Course Representation:

You probably know that course representation needs to be improved in order to create a better academic experience, so I am working close to professional people in the area in order to ensure that this year student representatives will have the necessary support in their activity. We are firstly looking at a better promotion of the role, so you can understand what University and the student body expects from their representatives. Secondly, we want to focus on the training content and delivery, to ensure that you guys are going to be ready to step ahead and make a change. As VP Education I am committed to work close to all of you that want to get involved in this amazing role. I hope that our efforts are going to persuade academics to offer you more support in doing your role.

I wish the best of luck to those of you who are handing in MA dissertations and who are having resits in this period of the year.

Mihaela

A big thank you

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:29:55 -0400

As this is my first blog entry I would like to take the opportunity and say thank you to all the students that elected me as an education officer. I had a lovely month with training and lots of meetings. I met Eco Ernie and lots of fantastic people that helped me to learn how to represent you better. I also attended the Extenuating Circumstances Panel where I did my best to defend every case and I hope you are happy with the results.

I know that this is the period of the year when some of you have some trouble with academic misconduct, but I am here to help you and support you if you want to appeal any decision taken.

I am looking forward to this year and I hope you all will be happy to have me as your VP Education.