Upon embarking on a bioscience undergraduate degree, students have a wide variety of
mathematics qualifications. This wide variation affects the understanding of general biological science modules and the understanding of the experimental design and statistical analysis of the final dissertation project. Recent research shows that these mathematical skills are essential for successfully completing a bioscience degree. Furthermore, weak mathematical skills severely compromise employment prospects.
SSEAS is currently offering mathematics tutorial support, which is provided by an external tutor, in the second semester of the first year. Previous students have rated the service as very good, but at the moment there is no objective data confirming this.
This project will be looking at data gathered in the past four academic years and data to be gathered from the current academic year. This will enable the School to improve academic support to individual students and to large student groups and maintain student satisfaction in the years to come.
The findings of this project have been published Open Access in PeerJ:
https://peerj.com/articles/463/
A second paper focusing on the methodology of this project has been published in SAGE Research Methods Cases:
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781473998940
