Information for academics
Would you like to offer another level of support for your students that gives them the opportunity to develop key transferable skills? Are you looking to foster a sense of community across programme levels? PASS could be the answer!
If you are interested in implementing PASS in your subject area contact: pass@hull.ac.uk.
Why have PASS in my subject area?
PASS sessions allow students to come together for collaborative learning led by at least two PASS Leaders. Importantly, PASS Leaders facilitate and do not teach! They help students with their independent studies to reinforce what they have already learnt whilst at university. They also offer peer support for students adjusting to life at university.
A PASS session creates a safe environment for students to come to a timetabled session each week to ask any and all questions they may have about their studies. This can help to free time for academic staff whilst allowing students to ask questions they may be less comfortable approaching a lecturer about, through shyness or embarrassment. The PASS Leaders have two full days of training focused on communication and facilitation techniques.
The PASS Leaders are supported by the Skills Team and PASS Mentors. PASS Mentors are previous PASS Leaders who have wanted to continue with the scheme and use their experience of been a PASS Leader to offer another level of peer support to current Leaders.
What is required of academics?
With the introduction of the PASS Coordinator role in 2022, there is not need for the academic contact to do any administrative work when it comes to implementing and supporting PASS. The sessions are centrally timetabled by the PASS Coordinator. All we ask is to meet during T1 following an expressing an interest . This meeting is for us to understand the programme and module you would like PASS to support . Also, the PASS Coordinator will run the recruitment of PASS Leaders in T2, but this will be done in lectures, and we may ask for the academic contact to recommend students who they feel would be suitable for the role.
Once the sessions have started, we ask that the academics arrange a debrief for that week and attend a debrief for at least the first 15 minutes. A debrief is a weekly meeting scheduled following the PASS session. PASS Leaders, PASS Mentors, PASS Coordinator, and the academic contact, meet to discuss how the PASS session went. For academics, this is a great opportunity to gain weekly feedback from students on the current teaching and lectures, or even how students are feeling about assignments.
How do I start PASS in my subject area?
How PASS is implemented is a collaborative decision made between the Academic Contact within the Department and members of the Skills Team. PASS is discipline-based and is usually attached to a challenging module. This offers insight to the Leaders and attending students on what students find challenging so they can anticipate some of the student’s questions. However, PASS can also be at the programme level, as this opens the scheme to the wider cohort and helps build a sense of community across the programme. However, in a PASS session, the attending students are the ones who decide what topic they would like to cover that week and the PASS Leaders facilitate.
From expressions of interest, to running PASS sessions, typically takes an academic year to set up, but we can make adjustments when appropriate. If you are interested in implementing PASS in your subject area contact: pass@hull.ac.uk.
Current Schemes
Below is a list of subject areas that PASS will be running in for 2024/25
- Accounting and Finance Level4
- Accounting and Finance Level 5
- Biomedical Science
- Engineering
- Forensic Science
- Foundation Year
- Geography
- Mathematics
- Midwifery
- Nursing
- Philosophy
- Policing
- Politics
- Psychology
- Sports and Exercise Science
