Defining Your Role as an AAO
You may be solely responsible for Academic Affairs or share responsibility for Welfare, Access or another role too. You may have a good working relationship with your Senior Tutor, sit on a College Teaching Committee or a Library Committee or, in some cases, you may not.
Bearing in mind the variability of your roles here are a few sign posts to guide you in determining what you do. You should also find ideas to improve the effectiveness of your role and some current campaigns which you may want to get involved in.
Talk to your Predecessor
In deciding where to start your first port of call is your predecessor. Make sure you know what they did, how they think the role could be improved and if there are any campaigns or issues that they would like you to take forward.
Talk to your Senior Tutor
Have a talk with your Senior Tutor. He/She should be able to support you in your role and work with you on issues of common interest. At an Academic Affairs Officer Meeting in February 2007 Professor Badger, the Master of Clare College, gave an inspiring talk on why he valued the contribution of the Academic Affairs Officer in his College, which is worth reflecting on when determining how you could be useful in your college. Here is an interpreted summary of what he said:
- AAOs are placed to know where students have come from and how students are finding the Cambridge experience. With this knowledge they can inform Senior Members of college about how to make the transition to Cambridge from Secondary school as pleasant as possible and how to provide adequately for students during their undergraduate time. With the changes in recent decades to secondary school education, and with the widening participation at Cambridge, there can be a gap between current students' backgrounds in education, and what older generation Cambridge teachers expect from them. If this is not been recognised at a Faculty level, then it should recognised at a College level, and the appropriate provision of study skills support should be made. College AAOs are important in communicating what the need is.
- Complaints: Cambridge is as such that a student should be able to make a complaint through a procedure in College, or in their Faculty or the University, and the complaint should be considered fairly. The AAO in colleges can assist a student who is having a problem by drawing their attention to the different ways to make a complaint. Note: How to make a complaint explained in the Student's Handbook (Chapter 2), which all students receive at the beginning of term. There are three stages: i. discussion and advice. ii. informal process and iii. formal process.
- Feedback: A common theme to the underperformance of students in certain subjects is the quality of the Direction of Studies they receive. Attentive DoSs do their best to motivate students and find them the best supervisors, and students under their direction generally do well. Others, who may be burdened by the demands of research, can be less attentive, and their students can be disadvantaged. Senior Tutors, Tutors and Masters in Colleges cannot make judgements about the quality of DoSs, and act accordingly, without receiving feedback from students. AAOs are essential for encouraging students to give feedback, or in some cases passing on feedback.
- Practical: An example given was how recently in Clare College a quiet study room was arranged after the college AAO Kathy requested it. She made the reasonable case that the room was vacant and students could benefit from using it. It and other such arrangements were applauded as very practical initiatives which the AAO are positioned to make.
Go to Training Sessions and Meetings
Look out for the CUSU training sessions and meetings which cover casework and committee skills, give you a chance to meet with other Academic Affairs Officers and share ideas.
Campaigns
Have a look at CUSU education campaigns which affect you and need you, such as improving study skills provision at a College level, plagiarism awareness and improving supervisory training. You can also suggest a campaign issue to the CUSU Education Officer, which you may want support with or want other college AAOs to carry out with you.
Improve Your Means to Represent Students
Ask yourself how your role could be improved in your college; Could you, for example, benefit from meeting with your Senior Tutor every other week or should you be allowed to sit on a College Teaching Committee?
Communication
Make yourself known. Have you thought about how best to communicate with students? One idea came from an Academic Affairs Officer meeting where they agreed on a useful template email to send to JCR lists fortnightly. Click here for a few examples.