EPCC MSc programmes: supporting students

“The best thing about the MSc was being able to take a break and grab your lunch or a coffee next to an expert like Mark Bull and just talk about OpenMP, even months after that course.”

Jonas Faßbender, MSc High Performance Computing with Data Science 2020 graduate

Supporting students in their studies can sometimes feel like the individual gets lost in the ‘process’, especially in a large organisation. Discussion or assistance regarding a practical exercise leads to work towards an assessment, anonymously marking an assessment leads to the exam board, conducted anonymously; a struggling student applies for an extension or special circumstances, which goes to the exam board via a special circumstances committee.

“I’m really surprised how much you guys care about us. Honestly it’s quite touching.”

Anwar Orabi, first year part-time (online) MSc High Performance Computing with Data Science student.

As EPCC scales up its online MSc programmes (10 entrants in 2020/21, 25 in 2021/22) it is wonderful to see feedback like this and credit especially should go to Weronika Filinger in her role as Online Programmes’ Director.

Being able to break that cycle of impersonality when supporting students can be important, especially in this post-lockdown world where many interactions (by design in the case of our online programmes) may still take place through a computer screen with or without a camera.

Building those interpersonal connections can be just as important to staff enjoyment of teaching on and supporting the MSc as it can be a hugely important part of the process for students: both in terms of developing graduate attributes and in being comfortable asking for help.

For on-campus students a year is such a short time to achieve this, while for online part-time students who may take up to six years to complete the programme maintaining at least some synchronous discussion-based time as accessible as possible to students in multiple timezones is absolutely critical.

This connection applies to both EPCC’s administrative staff (Ben Morse and Jemma Auns) in the Postgraduate Programmes team in their roles as both Course/Programme Administrators and Student Support Officers, but also our technical and academic colleagues in their roles as Course Organisers, Dissertation Supervisors, Lecturers, and Personal Tutors.

EPCC Masters programmes

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Get in touch

On-campus MSc: msc@epcc.ed.ac.uk

Online programmes: online.learning@epcc.ed.ac.uk