Cohort Lead

Cohort Lead role descriptor

Purpose

Cohort Leads hold key roles within the School of Informatics’ Student Experience and Support System. They are responsible for:

• Providing academic support for a defined group of students – their ‘cohort’.
• Planning and leading activities and events that build community and develop academic skills and understanding amongst the students within their cohort.

Cohort Leads work closely with the School Director of Students and the Student Experience Team (Student Experience Manager and Student Advisers) to help develop students’ sense of belonging to their programme of study, the School and the wider University.

Cohort Leads are assigned to a particular cohort within a programme or suite of programmes, however will generally work with Cohort Leads from other programmes to deliver year group-wide events.

Main Responsibilities

Build Cohort

Under broad direction from the Director of Students and/or Director of Students (PGT) work collaboratively with other Cohort Leads (in particular those assigned to same year group or programme cohort), and with support from the Student Experience Team:

• •    Plan and deliver a series of activities and events throughout the academic year which aim to build community and develop academic skills and understanding amongst the students within their cohort. While some events may involve only those within the assigned  cohort (eg. those in Welcome Week),the majority of events activities are expected to be  year group-wide events (eg. all UG1, all PGT) that bring together students from a number of cohorts in order to break down the barriers of programme groupings for students and provide opportunities to mix with each other.
• Ensure that clear information about the programme of activities and events being offered is made available to students within their cohort.
• Promote and explain the rationale behind the activities and events being offered to students within their cohort in order to encourage participation.
• Monitor and oversee the student experience of those within their cohort, and propose and implement enhancements as required.

General

• Provide specialist academic support (out with that which can be provided by Student Advisers) for individual students within their cohort eg. attending progression interviews; careers advice etc.
• Provide individual advice about course selection to students within their cohort.
• Provide academic references for students within their cohort (seeking input from other relevant academic staff members eg. project supervisors as required).
• Develop and maintain an understanding of the University’s student support structures in order to ensure that students within their cohorts can be signposted to additional sources of support as required.
• Feed into School-level monitoring of the quality of the cohort system and broader student experience.

Cohort Leads will be supported by the Director of Students and Director of Students (PGT) who have oversight of the academic cohort system, and convene meetings of Cohort Leads to provide opportunities for Cohort Leads to plan activities.  The School aims to ensure we have at least half of our Cohort Leads continuing in role from one academic year to the next to provide continuity and sharing of experiences.