University Student Induction Training
14th September 2017
As the new academic year approaches, universities are busy preparing for their new student intake to welcome them to the exciting world of higher education.
Part of this is providing students with awareness across a range of topics and issues. Universities have become more cognisant of the need to be proactive in providing resources to deliver this information to students in an accessible and timely way.
It’s important to make new students aware of the potential issues, as the following stats show:
- Student Crime One in five students fall victim to crime while studying at college or university
- Sexual Assault One in three UK female students sexually assaulted or abused on campus
- Mental health The number of students to drop out of university with mental health problems has more than trebled
- Alcohol 21% of students reported sexual harassment (drinkers and non-drinkers), with 74% of those believing that alcohol had, in some way, been a factor
Over the last two years an increasing number of universities have approached Marshall E-Learning to provide resources on a widening range of topics, including alcohol and drug awareness, wellbeing, sexual consent, and mental health.
Whilst these projects have proved successful, it made sense to combine these topics into a single student induction e-learning resource that would allow universities to personalise the resource for their own context and situation.
We are delighted that Surrey has been the first to use this unified approach to student induction training, supporting students in their early days at the university. It will provide an easily accessible student resource that is proactive and preventative in avoiding problems whilst enhancing the student experience.
Here’s what Carol Clutton, Student Support Services from the University of Surrey, had to say about the module:
‘There’ s certainly pressure on students and Universities to cover these topics as we want to be sure that we are providing relevant, current information to our students about important topics that are relevant to student life today.’
‘I am super happy with the student induction course, and especially as the Marshall E-Learning team delivered the module before the original deadline. The team have been fantastic to work with and I hope this module will be really successful and we can continue to work with Marshall’s.’
Vincent King, Assistant Director of Commercial Services Health, Safety and Environment at Brunel University, helped develop the Alcohol and Drug Awareness course:
‘We wanted an online course to raise awareness of the dangers of drugs and alcohol aimed at students. I couldn’t find anything in the marketplace, so I went to Marshall E-Learning who were very responsive to the concept and we drew up a course outline. It was very rewarding to see the product materialise in an excellent interactive and engaging way with the user to maintain attention over a serious social issue. I think we have achieved that and I hope it will be a valuable tool in supporting students in the future.’
Students face a daunting array of new experiences when starting university; an e-learning student induction programme is one way to alleviate some of the angst about this new life while at the same time giving them valuable information.
The online induction training course look at subjects including:
- Alcohol and Drug Awareness
- Sexual Consent on Campus
- Diversity Training
- Social Media Savviness
- Getting Support
- Mental Health
- Employability
For those interested in finding out more about online student induction programme, please contact David Marshall on 0845 123 3909 or contactus@marshallacm.co.uk.
Photo credit: UBC Learning Commons via VisualHunt/CC BY
