This semester our UC@Hagley Academic Communication programme has moved off-site. We have been trialling delivery at the University of Canterbury in an effort to make the learning experience more streamlined for CUP students.

In 2015 UC@Hagley was launched as a partnership between the university and Hagley College, whereby Hagley teaches and coordinates BRDG006 Academic Communication and Study Skills, the compulsory course of the university’s Certificate in University Preparation (CUP). Hagley also offers preparation classes and numeracy alternatives for the maths courses. Previously, students would come to Hagley for two days a week, attending their other courses at university for three days. Consistently feedback from students was that while they enjoyed the welcoming and lively environment at Hagley, having the CUP programme split across two sites caused difficulties with transport, affordability and timing of their classes.

So now it’s the teachers who work across the two sites. UC CUP staff have welcomed us into their spaces in the Forestry building, and we are enjoying the opportunity to work more closely with our colleagues in BRDG006 and student support. There have been new challenges including traipsing resources across campus and how to adapt our writing workshop-style classes to lecture theatre spaces, but the enhanced collaboration across organisations and the closer connection with the students’ other teachers have been beneficial.

There is still the option for Hagley students to take the Academic Communication and Study Skills course if it fits their timetable. Being based on campus at UC gives those students even more of a taster of university study.