Project 2: Developing an academic skills hub proposal

View final output from this project

Academic Skills Hub Proposal, September 2023 (Word document saved as PDF)

This 4-week internship project took a new, collaborative approach to planning and scoping our work by centring students’ voices in the planning stage of a project looking at providing resources that support taught students’ academic skills development. Our team of two student interns worked to develop and propose the design, structure, format, and content of an academic skills hub that would help taught students from a range of disciplines and with a range of skills development needs.

The project aimed to further the following education-related commitments in the University's Strategic Plan 2018-24:

To attract and admit students from all backgrounds with outstanding academic potential and the ability to benefit from an Oxford education (Commitment 1)
To offer an excellent academic experience for all our students and ensure that Oxford fully equips graduates to excel in whatever they choose to do (Commitment 2)
To retain and refresh the collegiate University’s rich academic environment (Commitment 3).

Project background

The Centre for Teaching and Learning commenced a three-year project in 2023 that aims to provide colleges and departments/faculties with support to integrate opportunities for academic skills development into existing educational provision, so that taught students encounter these as a normal part of their studies at Oxford. This wider project's aims involve centring students’ voices in the planning stage of a sub-project looking at providing online resources that support taught students’ academic skills development.

Project details

This project aimed to centre students' voices in the planning of an online academic skills ‘hub’ that will help taught students from a range of disciplines and with a range of skills development needs. This 'hub' will aim to provide high quality, Oxford-relevant resources that will support students’ skills development, for example, academic writing etc.

Our team of two student partners worked in partnership with staff in the Centre for Teaching and Learning, the Language Centre and various divisions to develop and propose the design, structure, format, and content of such an academic skills hub. The intern team shared responsibility for the project outcomes with staff, working with them as partners to co-design the project proposal so that it would meet institutional aims and align with ongoing work.

At the end of the internship, the project team presented their proposal to key stakeholders at the University. Staff are now working to take forward their proposal and using it to guide the future development of an academic skills hub.