1. Supporting Taught Postgraduates: Creating a Shared Understanding Dr Ela Beaumont

2. National UK context Masters programmes have proliferated in recent years Since mid 1990s the number of masters students in UK universities has risen from 50,000 to over quarter of a million (McCormack 2008) This includes a rise in overseas students, who now comprise 23% of the total

3. University of Salford Currently around 3000 full and part time taught postgraduates Home and premium fee-paying international students Early and mid career professionals Later career professionals and career changers

4. Literature on taught postgraduates is focused on four main areas Supervisory relationship between student and tutor The nature of 'authentic' learning in a consumer, market-led higher education environment The International Student experience in adjusting and orienting to learning in the UK Evaluating the 'postgraduateness' and service quality of vocational courses (McEwan et al 2005, Angell et al 2008).

5. What we do know The single biggest study of taught postgraduates in the UK was carried out in 2006, when the HEA commissioned Yorke Consulting to survey student views on their taught postgraduate programmes

6. HEA study findings Taught postgraduate students were satisfied in general with the teaching, learning and assessment Less happy with feedback, induction, advice and support- people and process issues

7. So the current study is concerned with: WHO? Mid-career professionals on taught masters courses at Salford WHAT? ‘to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange' (Ginzburg 2002) HOW? Ethnographic interviews and field study, employing an anthropological gaze WHY? To understand the internal logic of the teaching of professional taught postgrads, from their point of view

8. Because there is a gap in what we know Professional postgraduate learning through formal and substantial university study has not been a major focus of interest in the fields of education, training or HR development (Chivers 2007)

9. Typology of Taught Master’s Conrad 1993 Programme type PedagogyOrientationDepartmental support Institutional support Student culture Ancillary to doctoral- preparation for PhD Academics are experts Didactic Traditional Strong academic standards Usually low On the margins of doctoral programme Not a priority Distracts staff from research Relatively isolated competitive Career advancement For people with experience Similar to ancillary, but students have experience to add to theory Often within a framework laid down by professional body High priority, success and reputation of the department at stake Usually high, but depends on finances and mission variable Apprenticeship For career entrants Facilitative, hands on engagement Academic theoretical and professional concerns Typically strongAs career advancement Participative and synergistic Community centred Community of learners Dialogical Impact on professional or wider community Strong teaching staff commitment Variable could be strong Mixed tending to synergistic

10. We know that taught postgraduates expect their course to: Be vocational, in other words, students perceive the course will enhance their employment opportunities Add to their tangible, practical skills (Kumar and Usunier 2001,Ottewill and MacFarlane 2003)

11. And we know that course managers have to manage: A complex set of relationships between their students, who have personal and professional interests and ambitions Staff who have a commitment to academic standards in their role as gatekeeper (Anderson 2006)

12. Students are attempting to: Understand conceptual and cognitive frames of reference; they experience academic language that is 'loaded with nuanced and implicit meaning' Manage the transition to postgraduate study whilst maintaining a professional identity-which has not been widely studied to date (O'Donnell 2009).

13. Experiences of staff From the tutor perspective, these courses can be very challenging (Turner 2006), bringing together as they do, a diverse student cohort with different learning experiences and varied work experiences

14. It’s not enough to: Assume that 'once students graduate with a first degree, postgraduate-level study simply represent more of the same, or taking things to the next level' (O'Donnell 2009)

15. Why this method of investigation? Anthropology is an iconoclastic and eclectic disciplinary style' (Mills and Huber 2005) I expect that further investigation will reveal more detailed information on the profound complexity of 'ordinary' and 'common sense' teaching and learning

16. Because: Universities and university staff are strongly influenced by disciplinary and organisational values of established orthodoxy (Goles and Hirschheim 2000), that relate to their understanding of the nature of university activities Equally, mature postgraduate students come to university with their own ontological and epistemological assumptions, derived from their own particular set of prior professional experiences

17. These two perspectives may not fit together well Professional taught postgraduate student Taught course University

18. Negotiating understanding in the classroom Rituals, myths and symbols that learners encounter as they engage in their community of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991) Adjusting to a new language and new social conventions The rituals, myths, symbols, language and social conventions of Higher Education professionals The rituals, myths, symbols, language and social conventions of IT and Health professionals, Musicians, Social workers

19. The analytical categories more often used in studying tribal and small scale communities can be helpful in understanding the culture of taught postgraduates: exploring 'areas of commonality' (McEwan et al 2005), examining the cultural and affective domains in the contract between mid- career students and the university

20. So, we could begin by: Identifying ways to capitalise on high levels of postgraduate student motivation Collaborating-combining subject expertise with pedagogical expertise Building support into master’s course design Embracing the paradox of professional taught postgradutes