Two Teaching Teams - One Student Cohort

With the increasing proportion of young people going into higher education, the focus is on the efficiency and effectiveness provided by institutions in the UK. Research has shown post-1922 institutions to have greater academic effectiveness and efficiency, contradicting the university positions published in league tables. A unique set of students in the UK is exposed to both types of institutes. Kingston university's pharmacy students are taught by both St George's, University of London (SGUL), a pre-1992, research-intensive university and Kingston University (KU), a post-1992 teaching-orientated institution. The objective of this study is to compare students' perceptions of specific course components whilst at KU and SGUL and to what extent these differences affect their learning throughout the course, if at all. A course experience questionnaire (CEQ) is used to gather qualitative and quantitative data of a total of 367 respondents. In this study students will complete the CEQ whilst physically present in each setting to account for environmental influences. Under these circumstances, what are the different ways students are learning in each setting? Do students prefer one institution over the other and if so, why? Does it affect their performance in the national pre-registration examinations compared to the rest of the country?