1
ESECT D4: Institutional Case Studies
SPECIFICATION
Target audience
Institutional managers, academics careers practitioners and administrators tasked with developing and overseeing policy that will develop the employability of students at the institution.
A summary digest will be produced by ESECT to highlight key learning across the Case Studies. This will be written primarily for institutional managers. The Case Studies should be written with the academic or careers practitioner in mind.
Once you have completed the case study form, please return it to , please mark the subject box in your e-mail as CASE STUDY ESECT TOOLKIT.
Purpose
To illuminate and exemplify how an institution has developed its policy and practice on Student Employability so that managers and practitioners from other institutions might gain insights/ideas and practical advice. It is the intention to produce 8-10 Case Studies, reflecting approaches to policy and practice within a range of HEIs.
Delivery
Case Studies may be produced by those working within an institutional context.
Quality Control
We ask writers to treat the questions within each section as prompts for response rather than merely as suggestions. In other words, please answer each question and respond to each prompt! However please also include important material that is not covered by these questions and prompts. We need you to include this where it seems to fit most appropriately, though we may need to review this in the name of consistency when we look across the collection of materials produced.
The Centre for Recording Achievement (on behalf of ESECT)/LTSN have editorial oversight of case studies.
Style/format
It is planned that these case studies will be made available on the website from an online database which will be searchable by keyword, subject and free-text. From the database, users will be able to download the case studies in two formats:
· Rich Text Format (RTF) (Word)
· Portable Document Format (PDF) (as aesthetically presented documents)
To enable us to design and format the case studies in this way, please follow the attached style guide and supply your case study electronically in Microsoft Word (.DOC) or Rich Text Format).
Institutional Case Studies Template
1. Case study title
2. Institution
3. Key words
You can assign up to six words to your case study
4. Subjects
Choose from the list below the subject groupings which most apply to your case study – you can select all if your case study is applicable to all subjects.
Economics
Business Management and Accountancy
Engineering
English
Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Health Sciences and Practice
History, Classics and Archaeology
Information and Computer Sciences
Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
Psychology
Sociology, Anthropology and Politics
Social Policy and Social Work
5. Summary
Guide: 150 words
6. Setting the Scene Is this a study of work that
- is starting?
- has started?
- is well developed?
Is the focus on
- the whole institution?
- a significant section of it?[1]
Does the case study analyse
- a complete policy/ strategy/ innovation?
- a policy slice?[2]
Guide: 150 words
7. The Institutional Context - Type of institution
- Size
- Nature of provision
- Student population
- Mission.
Guide: 250 words
8. Thinking on employability How the case relates to:
- educational mission & strategic thinking
- other institutional strategies/policies
- rationales at departmental of faculty level
- literature and/or practice elsewhere)
Guide: 250 words
9. Policy (Guide: 750 words)
Reasons for introducing policy, which may be discrete or embedded elsewhere.
How this relates to institutional widening participation and teaching & learning strategies.
Nature of policy (include copy of any policy statement and interpretation of what is expected within the annexe-see below).
How far can this approach be described as integrated into the institution?
Key section: How policy was developed, debated and promoted; how it is evolving/was evolved[3]
How it was agreed, how/is being agreed it was/is promoted.
Involvement of staff and students in formulating policy.
What were/are the blocks to agreement?
Guide: 750 words
10. Strategy for implementing policy
- Development processes, who did/is doing what, when and why?
- Include a map of what happened when.
- Location of responsibility for implementation.
- Staff development and involvement of Staff/Educational Development Units or other support units like careers advisory services, students union.
- What approaches have been/are being taken to win hearts and minds?
(Guide: 750 words)
11. Costs
What costings were done (identify/quantify? Anticipated Cost factors, actual costs, staff time)
(Guide: 150 words)
12. Problems encountered and how they were overcome/are being tackled
(Guide: 250 words)
13. Perceived benefits and evidence of outcomes
- What achievements are noticeable and how do you account for these.
- It would be useful to include any evaluation of impact/student and staff perceptions here).
(Guide: 250 words)
14. What remains to be done?
Include issues of quality assurance and quality enhancement here.
(Guide: 250 words)
15. How generalisable is the policy/strategy/innovation to other institutions
(and/or what are the generalisable lessons learn from your experience here)?[4]
(Guide: 100 words)
16. What should be done differently if this were to be begun anew? (Guide: 100 words)
(Guide: 100 words)
17. Author/presenters contact information
Name/s
Department
Address
Including postcode
Phone
Fax
Email address
Web address (URL) to enable access to additional relevant material.
18. Extra material
Please attach as Annexe materials which encapsulate the policy and illustrate how policy translates into practice in different contexts for different purposes. It would be useful to include sample frameworks/materials used to promote or steer practice, and, as appropriate, illustrations of student responses.
Style Guide
1.1. Font
For consistency and professional presentation please use the font Arial. This is a clean sans serif typeface which is easy to read and readily available to everyone.
1.2 Formatting
a. Titles (first heading) should be in 14 pt bold.
b. Subhead 1(second heading) should be in 12pt.
c. Subhead 2 (third heading) should be in 10pt bold.
d. Body text – should be 10pt
e. Spacing – body text should be single spaced, double space between paragraphs and after subheads.
f. Margins should be 2.5cm (top, bottom, left and right).
g. Layout pages should be portrait (tables are the exception).
h. Paragraphs should not be indented. They should be indicated by an extra line space.
i. Hyphenation should be kept to a minimum.
j. Capitalisation should be minimal and used consistently – do not use capital letters for emphasis.
k. Italics should only be used for titles of books, newspapers, journals, television programmes, some quotations and foreign works. Do not use italics for emphasis.
l. Emphasis – bold may be used for emphasis where absolutely necessary.
m. Acronyms should be spelled out in full at the first mention with the acronym in brackets. The acronym can be used thereafter. Most acronyms do not need full stops between the letters.
n. Numbers - use words for numbers from one to ten.
o. Page numbering is appropriate for any document over two pages long.
p. Jargon should be avoided, never assume your reader has prior knowledge of the subject.
[1] This could include, for example, a study of work in the HE section of a FE College, or action in a major School or Faculty.
[2] A policy slice might refer to PDP, the careers service, links with employers, workplace learning … In all cases there should be a strong and visible concern with employability. PDP alone would not qualify.
[3] As the scene-setting section identifies, we make no assumptions about whether policy is evolving or fully formed
[4] That is to say, how easily could the same sorts of things be done elsewhere? Were there special factors which mean that yours is an interesting case but one that can hardly be replicated? Are there underlying ideas or processes which could be applied elsewhere, even if the policy/strategy/innovation cannot?