The Provision of Mathematics and Statistics Support in Scottish Higher Education Institutions (2017) – A Comparative Study by the Scottish Mathematics Support Network

Abstract

The Scottish Mathematics Support Network (SMSN) was formed in July 2008 with the aim of creating a support network for people working in Scottish universities who were involved with, or wished to be involved with, providing mathematical and/or statistical support for their students. The consensus of the SMSN is that increasingly more students need assistance with their basic mathematical and statistical skills than was the case in the past, and that consequently mathematics support is an area on which universities will need to focus on in future years. Through networking and professional development opportunities with other practitioners in the field of mathematics and statistics support, the SMSN have developed and maintained strong links with individual practitioners, and more broadly with like-minded groups such as the sigma Network and the Irish Mathematics Learning Support Network. With the provision of mathematics and statistics support becoming more prevalent in UK Higher Education institutions, it seemed timely to assess the current state of this provision in Scotland, and to compare with the rest of the British Isles. At the 2016 SMSN AGM, it was unanimously agreed that such a study should be carried out with the SMSN committee taking responsibility for conducting the research.

The extent and uptake of mathematics support in higher education: results from the 2018 survey

“…Whilst intuitively we expect the 'true' overall figure to be closer to 75% than 86%, since institutions are more likely to respond to survey requests if they have provision than if they do not, regardless it shows that mathematics support is extensively available within higher education providers across the UK and Ireland. Further, there exists no evidence in any survey (Ahmed et al, 2018;Cronin et al, 2016) that the provision of mathematics support within institutions is declining. As such mathematics support is now a widely available, accessible and extensively used service within institutions to support students with the challenges that they may face with the mathematical components of their higher education studies.…”

“…The previous survey of mathematics support considered the whole of the UK (Perkin et al, 2013). Given the existence of recent, and comprehensive, surveys of mathematics support across the island of Ireland (Cronin et al, 2016) and within Scotland (Ahmed et al, 2018), the decision was taken not to duplicate these. As such, the survey we describe here chooses to focus upon mathematics support only within England and Wales.…”

“…The surveys collectively show a large proportion of institutions are using substantive staff (by which we mean full-time or part-time mathematics and or statistics support staff and academic staff from departments, see Table 9). Here, the results from England and Wales include both those with specifically appointed roles within mathematics support and academic staff from departments; this is to ensure consistency in the presentation of results with those from Scotland (see Ahmed et al (2018), Table 6) and Ireland (see Cronin et al (2016), Table 6). Again in all three surveys there is evidence of the role of postgraduate students as tutors within mathematics support in many institutions.…”

“…In the most recent survey of mathematics support provision from the island of Ireland, Cronin et al (2016) determined that mathematics support was provided in 25 of the 30 responding higher education institutions. In their 2017 survey of the extent of mathematics support, Ahmed et al (2018) identified that 13 of Scotland's 17 higher education institutions offer mathematics support. Whilst the survey of Perkin et al (2013) began to explore how mathematics support is delivered, and in doing so identified the prevalence of the drop-in model within the UK, the more recent surveys of Cronin et al (2016) and Ahmed et al (2018) have sought to explore national trends in how mathematics support operates within institutions with data also available on how it is delivered, who provides the support (that is, who does the tutoring), and the extent of its availability to learners.…”

Quantifying the impact of mathematics support on the performance of undergraduate engineering and computing students

“…In 2008 however the support community was brought together through the formation of the Scottish Mathematics Support Network (SMSN). A recent report (Ahmed et al, 2018) by the SMSN found that 78% of the Scottish institutions that responded provide mathematics and/or statistics support.…”