Introduction of student initiated and themed multi-student projects

We present the background to a change in the delivery and supervision of third year projects for students majoring in electrical and electronic engineering at Manchester University and an evaluation of our experience with this new system. One of the recent changes in the delivery of projects has been to task a smaller number of staff dedicated to the supervision of third year projects. Balancing the increased demand on staff supervising third year individual projects with increasing the quality of supervision has prompted us to change the delivery mode of third year projects. One of the main initiatives is to group individual projects under a ‘theme’ that will offer places for approximately six to ten students working under supervision of an academic member of staff usually with assistance of a research group member. Although students still perform an individual piece of work they benefit from joint training on (for example) software tools, the use of equipment, key techniques and higher levels of peer support. We will reflect on the organization of the themed projects, project allocation, their delivery, supervision and support structures that we have put in place. An evaluation of demands on staff time, student experience and preparation overhead will also be presented.