The purpose of the material in this folder is to provide a range of teaching and learning resources for staff involved with the progression of students on to top-up degree programmes. Staff involved can be lecturers in both higher education (HE) and further education (FE), and also academic support staff such as library, IT, careers and admissions staff.

The materials are categorised under the following headings so that staff can easily identify material: general, culture shift, pre-planning, induction, student support, modular schemes and key skills. However, it is important to note that there are many overlaps between all the subject headings and some staff might prefer to address the materials according to the student’s stage in progression. Brief details on how to do this can be found below and also on the CD-ROM.

The general pack has material designed to raise awareness of the transfer and progression issues that affect top-up students. This can be used by HE staff and any students considering progression.

The culture shift pack highlights the differences in culture between FE and HE and is used primarily to make students aware of these differences. It can be used by both FE and HE students.

The pre-planning pack contains materials directed primarily at staff involved in any pre-planning activity with potential top-up students. This could involve staff who arrange open days in higher education institutions (HEIs), or FE staff teaching HE programmes.

The induction pack covers issues that should be dealt with during top-up student induction.

The student support pack covers practical measures that can be taken to help students build up their personal support network. In particular, it will help students to get easy access to sources of information.

Information on the modular scheme is to help students understand the structure of modular schemes and to encourage the provision of information to allow them to make informed choices of modules, ensuring a good match between previous experience and what is required on the top-up degree.

The key skills pack deals with the key skills development needed for successful transition to a top-up degree.

Transferability materials cover the institution-specific use of the SPAT materials and their use by partners in the project. These are intended to help institutions to adapt the materials in the packs to enable them to be used successfully.

Partnership materials deal with a range of issues relating to the successful running of partnerships between FECs and HEIs.

These materials can be customised to fit your needs, they can be:

• cut and pasted onto your own headed paper
• customised with institutional and departmental information
• amended to reflect the particular titles, such as 'course director' or 'year tutor' used in your institution
• downloaded from this website
• downloaded from the SPAT CD-ROM
• expanded with further case studies and information that can be found in the transferability materials on the website.

The only restriction on customisation is that where used the SPAT Project
is cited as the source

Many of the SPAT materials can be used at several alternative times in the transition period. However, the project has identified critical periods when students are looking for information:

• when students are considering whether to progress further in the higher education system (source of information – the college at which they are studying).
• the period after they have accepted a place on a degree programme but before they have started the course (information mainly from receiving institution).
• the induction period and the first weeks of adjustment to the new institution.

Thus, four groups of staff might be involved in the dissemination of the materials: FE staff dealing with potential top-up/transfer students; HE staff dealing with materials sent to students before enrolment; HE staff running induction for top-up/transfer students; HE staff in contact with top-up/transfer students during their first semester.