The Foundation Year Network (FYN) holds workshops across the academic year.
The workshops provide opportunities for FYN members to engage in discussion relating to good practice in foundation year provision and academic scholarship, to support CPD for foundation year practitioners, and to explore the diversity of provision for entry into Higher Education (HE). Previous workshops have covered topics such as challenges for admissions, recruitment, the transition from year zero to year one, and future events will tackle the challenges facing the HE sector including differential fees, non-continuation metrics and meaningful measures of ‘learning gain’.
The FYN is committed to supporting inclusive attendance for its members at Network events including workshops. To support FYN members who would not otherwise be able to attend such events, the Network maintains a Conference Attendance Bursary Fund.
Forthcoming Events
Workshops
22nd September 2022
2:00-4:00pm – Reflections on Teaching in Foundation
This session might be particularly useful to those new to FY teaching
9th November 2022
2:00-4:00pm – CPD Parallel Sessions
- HEA Fellowship & Senior Fellowship
- Principal Fellowship & Looking at promotion
25th January 2023
2:00-4:00pm – The Form and Function of Cultural Capital in the Foundation Year
8th March 2023
2:00-4:00pm – Promoting Wellbeing for Staff and Students
Coffee Drop-Ins
The coffee drop-ins are planned as informal get-togethers to reflect on the previous term, share good practice and to look forward to the holiday and coming term.
14th December 2022
2:00-3:30pm – Christmas Fireside Chat
26th April 2023
2:00-3:30pm – Easter Afternoon Tea
Further details and information on how to join in will be sent out nearer the time of each event. Please contact Tracey Coppins (t.h.coppins@keele.ac.uk), the Workshop Co-ordinator, for further information.
Future Workshops
We welcome offers from FYN members to host a workshop, particularly from those who might be interested in hosting the annual conference in the future. The Network can provide support for hosting an event and funds towards catering. For more information about FYN workshops or to suggest themes for future workshops please contact the Workshop Co-ordinator Tracey Coppins via email t.h.coppins@keele.ac.uk.
Previous Workshops
26th January 2022 – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
2:00-3:30pm
What does ED&I mean for foundation year practitioners and learners? Jenny Steel, Dimitrios Roxanas and Camilla Priede will be leading a #FYNChat workshop on the 26th Jan- 2-3.30pm. Members will get an email with more details. Not a member yet?
10th November 2021 – Compassionate Group Work
2:00-3:30pm
The session is being led by Fiona Elsted from Essex University following her popular presentation at the Foundation Year Network Conference 2021. Fiona talked about bringing compassion into the foundation year because of the lessons that she learned by using Zoom for group work. During the workshop, Fiona will ‘teach’ the introductory session that she uses with students and there will be periodic pauses for teaching-related considerations, reflections and questions.
23rd September 2021 – HEA Fellowship
1:30-3:30pm
This was a follow-up event to one held during the 2021 Annual Conference. It was aimed at those applying for Fellowship or Senior Fellowship. We are also hoping to instigate a mentorship scheme
January 2020 – Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
One of the aims of the Foundation Year Network is to represent, promote and support continuing professional development opportunities for foundation year practitioners and, as such, this workshop aims to facilitate discussion and activities surrounding Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
As the HEA only recognised foundation year experience as relevant university teaching experience in 2018, Network members may not have been able to apply earlier in their careers. We hope that the session will appeal to Network members who are considering applying for Fellowship or Senior Fellowship, especially those on ‘teaching focussed’ career paths who have limited access to support within their institutions.
April 2019 – University of Sussex
In April, Willy Kitchen (University of Sheffield) led a discussion at the University of Sussex on ‘External threats and internal pressures: a perfect storm for Foundation Years across the sector?’
The session was set up as a roundtable discussion of current and/or anticipated challenges to Foundation Year provision in the light of the Teaching Excellence Framework, the post-18 fees review, and the evolving approach of the Office for Students to the regulation of the wider HE sector.
The discussion focussed mainly on non-continuation rates and the challenges of effectively supporting progression. To the fore was a discussion of the dangers of uncontextualised metrics driving individual institutional responses, which in turn can damage the quality and effectiveness of some FY provision. A proposed discussion of Access to HE and the FE-HE interface drew less attention; in retrospect, perhaps it should have done!
January 2019 – Solent University, Southampton
Alison Messenger hosted us at Solent University in Southampton in January where we discussed ‘Progression from Foundation to Year One’. We had three presentations and discussions following each before Willy Kitchen summarised the key points.
- General themes (Roy Hanney, Solent University)
- The transition from 0-1: Examples from USW (Marie Clifford, Emma Wheeler & Eammon Kelly, University of South Wales)
- Common issues and alleviating student concerns: examples from Criminology and Law from Solent (Rebecca Maina & Daniel Reed, Solent University)
September 2018 – University of Sheffield
Camilla Priede and David Vessey (University of Sheffield) kicked things off in Sheffield with a workshop on admissions practice: ‘Towards an Understanding of Foundation Year Recruitment’.
Camilla has subsequently worked with Sheffield Computer Science students to develop a website which draws data on foundation years directly from the UCAS website into a single searchable area. This allows individual members and institutions to find, share (and edit) information about their courses in one place. It promises to be a very useful resource, so many thanks to Camilla for driving this work forward. Please contact Camilla (c.priede@sheffield.ac.uk) with any feedback and suggestions for improving the pilot site which you can view at https://team34.demo5.hut.shefcompsci.org.uk/. A password is required for the site.