What homework and assignments do students complete on the programme?

Between tutorials, the students will be set homework and independent research to complete. The most successful placements often have study sessions coordinated to take place weekly after school in which students can complete their homework and communicate with their PhD tutor. These do not need to be teacher-led sessions. The main priority is to help students set aside time for their work, and to guarantee that they have access to the internet between tutorials so that they can submit homework and assignments via the Hub.

Guidance for submitting work on the Hub is available for students on the Hub Support Area.

Baseline and Final Assignments

Academic achievement is about the skills and knowledge that students are explicitly developing in the context of The Scholars Programme. These are written communication, subject knowledge and critical thinking. Progress in academic outcomes will be assessed thorough the baseline and final assignments.

Baseline Assignments

All students should submit a baseline assignment after Tutorial 1 and the PhD tutor will give them a deadline for this to be submitted, usually by Tutorial 2. The baseline assignment enables us to assess students’ academic level at the start of the programme and is also a key indicator that students will go on to complete the programme and submit a final assignment.

Marks are not shared with students but used as a benchmark to compare to final assignment results. Students will receive qualitative feedback from their tutor to support them with improving their work.

It is important that submissions are received at the beginning of the programme for the assignment to represent an accurate reflection of students' baseline levels. Any baseline assignments completed after Tutorial 3 cannot be counted as a baseline assignment, but all students will receive qualitative feedback.

Final Assignments

The Scholars Programme final assignments are challenging pieces of work, pitched one key stage above the students’ current level in school. This final piece of work represents a significant academic challenge and students should be prepared to find the final assignment difficult yet rewarding. Successfully submitting their final assignments at the end of a Scholars Programme placement is a considerable achievement for students.

The students are marked to university grading criteria (with 70+ marks being a First-Class grade), based on a standardised mark scheme. This mark scheme can be found in the first pages of the students’ handbook and will assess them on core skills such as critical thinking and their written communication.