Different preferences for how feedback and course materials are delivered show it is unwise to provide the same type of support for undergraduate and postgraduate taught students, early findings of an Office for Students (OfS) study suggest.

Drawing on the first year of data from the national Pre-Arrival Questionnaire (PAQ) project, which collected responses on preferred learning styles, expectations and requirements from 5,548 undergraduates and 2,285 postgraduates at 11 UK universities, researchers identified clear differences between the two cohorts.

“Postgraduate taught students are far more focused on the course, the academic experience and to get a graduate job,” Michelle Morgan, dean of students at the University of East London, told ����Vlog ahead of the UK Council for Graduate Education’s annual conference in Liverpool from 2 to 3 July, where she is presenting the pilot’s initial findings.

“Postgraduates tend to prefer learning materials in hard copy but were significantly less likely to take handwritten notes in class than undergraduates,” explained Morgan.

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Meanwhile, incoming UK undergraduates are far more likely to prefer face-to-face feedback from their tutor, with 49 per cent preferring this mode compared with just 37 per cent of postgraduate taught students. A significant proportion – 27 per cent of postgraduates – preferred written feedback in an email, while only 17 per cent of undergraduates wanted tutor responses in this format.

The study, which is set to include more universities across the UK from this autumn, is part of a £2.7 million initiative funded by the OfS to research the experiences of students at different levels with the aim of improving support.

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Many of the questionnaire’s findings “shattered” anecdotal assumptions about what undergraduates and postgraduates wanted from their courses or their skill sets on starting university, said Morgan, who is undertaking the project with Jisc and Advance HE.

“[Help to improve] the postgraduate taught student experience has often been a bolt-on to undergraduate student experience, which has always been front and centre in universities,” said Morgan on what she called the sector’s “bad tendency to lift and shift support for undergraduates to postgraduates”.

“But it isn’t necessary effective because postgraduate students have come in from more diverse routes and have different skills they are bringing in,” she continued.

“I don’t think the sector has been paying enough attention to their specific needs because they’ve been a reliable cash cow for many institutions yet, with undergraduate populations expected to decline, postgraduate taught has never been more important,” said Morgan.

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“The PAQ is designed to reinforce what we know but it shatters ‘anecdotal’ assumptions such as students are digitally literate which we know they are not either at undergraduate or postgraduate taught level,” she continued.

If the PAQ is routinely adopted at UK universities it could help departments “make changes in real time, not rely on end-of-course surveys” to improve courses, said Morgan.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com