Providing academic opportunities for students after the exam period

“What can students do in term three after exams have ended?” is a common question asked in higher education.

Our experience shows that departments can offer meaningful and valuable project activities in this period, even for first year undergraduates who's exams often finish earlier than other cohorts of students. 

So, what did we do? 

We gave first year students from the department of mathematics the opportunity to take part three-week long research projects. These were optional and took place after their term three exams finished.

90 students took part in 2024 (this is about a third of the department's student body) and each year, around 10-15 PhD students get involved to supervise the projects, providing them with supervisory experience. We offered brief supervision training to the PhD students who were also encouraged to propose their own research projects.

The students worked in groups of three or four and presented their projects to an audience of staff and students at the end of the session.

Why did we do this?

This project was a result of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physical Science problem solving!

We wanted to provide a solution to the following challenges.

1. First-year undergraduate students finished their exams quite early in term 3 the past few years so we wanted to use this opportunity to give them additional course related learning. There are many student group/ individual project initiatives, however, these tend to be for higher years (at least in Maths). Moreover, as far as we are aware, there are no other Mathematics initiatives that use PhD students as supervisors for the group research projects.
2. There are very few academic internships available over the summer for first year students.
3. Project group work, independent learning, and presentation skills are important for our students whether they decide to follow an academic path or go into industry after they graduate.

How did we make this happen?

We divided research topics into four areas based on the modules from the first year Maths degree at UCL. We had an academic member of staff leading each topic area. Each topic lead found appropriate research projects, wrote a short description and gathered resources suitable for the students to study. 

We then advertised the list of projects to PhD students who selected projects based on their preference and original proposals.

The first years completed a MS Form to express three project preferences and the topic leads allocated students to projects and supervisors.

There was supervision training for the PhD students and a welcome session for the undergraduates, outlining the structure, expectations and time commitment of the initiative.

The projects then run for three weeks and the supervisors are expected to have two contact hours per week with the students. The last two days of the final week are reserved for student presentations. The project leads schedule the presentations and chair the sessions.

Our timeline

We start to plan the projects after reading week of term two, gathering ideas from staff and PhD students.

We recruit PhD student supervisors during term two and ask undergraduate students to sign up and submit project preferences before their exams start at the beginning of term three. The projects then run in the final three weeks of term three, after first year exams end.

Our resources

We provided a reading list for each project, which is given to the supervisors. We also ran supervision training and delivered academic presentations training.

Why this approach?

We made the projects unassessed – not even a prize for best presentation – to give students the chance to work on a piece of mathematics purely out of interest and without pressure to succeed.

We asked them to work in groups and present their work to an audience to give them practice in those valuable skills which they would otherwise have had very little of during their first year. Having project presentations at the end provides focus and a sense of achievement.

We found there is novelty in introducing first years to topics they would otherwise not see in a standard maths curriculum, and in using and training PhD students as supervisors.

Our impact and looking ahead 

Students who took part in the projects have been very positive about their experiences.

Every one of the students who completed our survey this year said that they would recommend the projects to other students and many first years have used their project experience in applications for academic summer schools or postgraduate degrees.

We plan to continue running the projects and to write a paper on our experience and the impact that group research work has had on first year undergraduate students - their university experience and graduate prospects.