Feedback forms are available outside A63 Pathfoot for students to complete. You can fill these in at any time to tell us what’s going well, or what needs to be improved.
Just post them through the letterbox and we’ll publish your comments and our response on the main blog. You can also complete the online form.
Comments can be submitted anonymously, but if you’d like a response to be sent to you in person, leave your student email address.
Thank you to everyone who submitted feedback and suggestions last week. You’ve told us about reading materials, classroom sizes and group work, and all comments are being reviewed by colleagues.
On the topic of group work, Andy told us:
“Very much enjoying my first semester at Stirling, including the module what is philosophy. It’s a very well run course with great variety stemming across the different specialities in philosophy. My one suggestion would be changing the group work for the module – a joint essay seems slightly problematic in my eyes I’d be a bigger fan of a group presentation in seminars? However, I could be in the minority and if most folk prefer the group task set then who am I to challenge that.”
It’s great to hear that your first semester is going well and that the content is giving you a broad experience of the branches of philosophy.
We have introduced a group work exercise on PHIU911 ‘What is Philosophy?’ in response to student feedback. In 2017/18 the University carried out a comprehensive Learning and Teaching Review of Philosophy (these happen every five years or so).
After interviewing student representatives, the Review Panel reported that students felt our old, entirely essay-and-exam, assessment methods ‘did not effectively support the development of groupworking or team skills and suggested that the inclusion of group work would be a valuable skill for future employment.’
So we hope that the requirements of the exercise foster good philosophical skills (in particular, good scholarship), while the form of the exercise also fosters skills you’ll have to use in almost all lines of work.
Your suggestions on teaching and assessment are always welcome. We’re keeping a record of all feedback to build a student voice collection that can be reviewed over time in response to patterns and trends. Remember, you can have your say at any time using the feedback form online or from the divisional office.
Last night we held the first Pizza and Philosophy evening – over 40 of you joined us at the Honeyman Hall in Bridge of Allan for flash talks, music and of course, pizza.
Honor told us:
“Really enjoying my year this year. As a third year and going to the philosophy night last night at the parish in BoA, it was fantastic to be able to have a chance to talk one to one with the lecturers.”
We’re so pleased to get feedback on the first event – it’s really important for you to have the opportunity to chat to academic staff informally and to socialise as a Philosophy community.
We’ll be running another philosophy night next semester, so if there’s anything you’d like us to improve for the next time please send your suggestions! You can feedback any time using the paper forms from the Divisional Office in Pathfoot A63, or using the online form as Honor did!
Your views matter.
You can share all of your feedback about your experience: the good, the bad and the ugly. If there’s something you love about your studies, tell us. Something you’d rather change or think could be done better? Tell us!
Have your say is designed for Philosophy students to communicate with staff and vice versa – to provide an active continual dialogue.
Submit your comments online or using the hard copy forms at any time (anonymously if you prefer) and we’ll publish our response. You can also provide your email address if you’d like a direct reply to your questions or suggestions.
Your views will be used to improve the student experience in Philosophy: share your opinion to make a difference.