Diversity and opportunity: embedding students’ experience into the curriculum

Dr Sue PrinceLaw SchoolUniversity of Exeter

International students and the Law School

• 780 Law Students • 82 UG international students• 13 PGT international students

“In the Law Department the duty of care for international students has been noticed in a positive way” (1st Year LLB)

4 main shortcomings• Transition workshops only tend to be offered in

Fresher’s Week• Academic concerns not treated equally with

cultural and social concerns• Hard for International Office to address academic

concerns• Lack of understanding of cultural norms

important to the curriculum

(Source: Ragavan, ‘Role of an International Student Tutor in a UK Law School’ Law Teacher (Nov 2009)

Strategies used to create opportunities, utilise student experience and value

diversity:• Design of workshop / tutorial groups• Assessed group project• Work experience /assessed presentation skills• Analysis of comparative systems as element of

assessment: relevant international contexts• Compulsory one-to-one employability sessions

Team Building Activity

Draw pictures!

First year group project – law in action

• Hate crime target people because of their identity • Numbers of reported crimes up (211 in Devon

2009)• Real problem is 15 times higher than statistics

show due to under-reporting• Belief that hate crime is

under-reported especially by international students

Purpose of project

• Encourage students to work together • Encourage students to have a dialogue• Increase student understanding of:

– hate crime– local community issues and lack of infrastructure

in Devon– Student experience and related issues

International students – how different?

Do departments actively utilise the cultural differences of students to enhance the experiences of home students?

Activity1. What do you do to embed student

experience into the curriculum?2. How should we be enhancing the

international experience?3. Is there anything we shouldn’t be

doing?