The health benefits of playing football and the importance of exercise and social contact for healthy ageing are well established, but few older adults in the UK take enough exercise. Football is popular, flexible in format and draws players into engrossing, effortful and social exercise, but the physical demands of play at full speed may make it unsustainable for some older adults. Restricted to walking pace, will play still be engaging? Will health benefits be retained? Will physical demands remain manageable? This pilot study aims to investigate: 1) The experience of older adults playing walking football every week, is it sustainable and rewarding, 2) the intensity and locomotor pattern of walking football, 3) the scale and nature of walking football health benefits, 4) possible cognitive benefits of playing walking football through measures of processing speed, selective and divided attention and updating and inhibition components of executive function. 'Walking football' and 'waiting list' groups were compared before and after 12 weeks of one-hour per week football. Walking football was found to be engaging, sustainable for older adults and moderately intensive, however, selective health and cognitive benefits were not found from this brief intervention.

Analysis and review of the literature on requirements for academic writingAssessment criteria are increasingly incorporated into teaching, making it important to clarify the\ud pedagogic status of the qualities to which they refer. We reviewed theory and evidence about the\ud extent to which four core criteria for student writing—critical thinking, use of language, structuring,\ud and argument—refer to the outcomes of three types of learning: generic skills learning, a deep\ud approach to learning, and complex learning. The analysis showed that all four of the core criteria\ud describe to some extent properties of text resulting from using skills, but none qualify fully as\ud descriptions of the outcomes of applying generic skills. Most also describe certain aspects of the\ud outcomes of taking a deep approach to learning. Critical thinking and argument correspond most\ud closely to the outcomes of complex learning. At lower levels of performance, use of language and\ud structuring describe the outcomes of applying transferable skills. At higher levels of performance,\ud they describe the outcomes of taking a deep approach to learning. We propose that the type of learning\ud required to meet the core criteria is most usefully and accurately conceptualized as the learning\ud of complex skills, and that this provides a conceptual framework for maximizing the benefits of using\ud assessment criteria as part of teaching

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Peer mentoring of undergraduates is increasingly being used in higher education to reduce first year attrition by aiding transition to university. We propose that peer mentoring may also be a means of transmitting the values and ethics which reflect academic and personal integrity and underpin graduate and professional identity. In a qualitative study, we examined students' expectations and subsequent experience of a psychology undergraduate pilot mentoring scheme, together with the process and content. Mentors and mentees felt that mentors had a unique part to play in aiding transition to university. Mentors' advice reflected implicit academic values rather than strategic short cuts and mentoring cued reflection on their own development. The implications for encouraging student participation in mentoring schemes are discussed.

Placement programmes are considered to provide students with an induction into the work environment and a valuable learning experience. Aston University maintains one of the highest success rates of any UK university for graduate employment and it is thought that the placement year plays a large role in this success. However, the benefits of placements in theoretical subjects like Psychology are often less obvious than those for practical subjects like Optometry or Engineering. Here we compared Psychology students on the 3-year vs. the 4-year sandwich course on a number of attributes using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Final year students who had taken a placement year achieved significantly higher marks in their final year (F 1,407 =31.52, p<0.001) and were rated more favourably by academic staff on a measure of transferable skills (F 1, 43 = 11.08, p<0.005). In addition, post-graduation, students who had taken a placement year reported a better idea of their career direction and could be argued to be further on in terms of their career progression and pay levels. Qualitatively, focus groups of placement and non-placement students suggested a number of benefits of taking a placement year, including better time management, confidence and responsibility. Whether the benefits of a sandwich placement in a psychology degree outweigh the costs to students and their families, and the need for further research to identify the scope and longevity of possible early career benefits are discussed.