Mental Health FdSc

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of lectures, e-lectures and seminars, all of which are interactive to encourage your learning. Lectures will focus on subject specific information and will take a variety of different formats to promote your learning. Seminars will support your understanding through tasks designed to develop your understanding. E-lectures will provide you with the opportunity to deepen your understanding of the material presented through online learning.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You will undertake at least 200 hours each academic year in a relevant placement setting. You will be supported in placement by a mentor and a University tutor, in order to complete agreed project work. This is a placement of your choice and one we help to arrange independently.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 7 hours contact hours of teaching.

Typically class contact time will be structured around:

• 9.15-11.15am: 2 hour lecture (1 hour of lecture and 1 of seminar)
• 11.30-13.30pm: 2 hour lecture
• 2.15-4.15pm: 2 hour lecture (1 hour of lecture and 1 of seminar)
• 4.14-5.15pm: 1 hour seminar

Usually you will spend at least one day in your placement setting.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 15 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics and professional practitioners with relevant experience.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and 80% per cent of course lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include written examinations and a range of coursework assessments such as essays, case studies, reflective portfolios and presentations.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

• Group presentation
• Case Study
• Essay
• Reflective portfolio

Year 2

• Individual presentation
• Case Study
• Essay
• Literature review or examination (elective module)
• Project report

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.