Abstract
The preliminary meeting of the Scottish Mathematics Support Network was held at the University of St Andrews on 18 July 2008. The aim of the meeting was to initialise a support network for people working in Scottish Universities and Colleges who were either currently providing or would like to be providing mathematical and statistical support to their students. A variety of institutions were represented: St Andrews University, which at this time had a dedicated Mathematics support tutor who worked with the Effective Learning Adviser (ELA); Dundee University and Robert Gordon University, which both had a similar arrangement; Abertay University which had both a Mathematics and a Statistics support tutor who were also part of the ELA team; Glasgow University which had just appointed a Mathematics support tutor, since their Mathematics support provision was due to start in September 2008; and Edinburgh Napier University, where the Mathematics support had been successfully run by the Mathematics lecturers for the last 20 years, with Statistics support being provided by Statistics lecturers. At the University of Aberdeen, the ELA team were aware of the growing need for a specialist Mathematics support tutor and were hoping that funding for such a post would be made available in the near future.
Highlights
An informal discussion followed the two talks, which highlighted a lot of enthusiasm for supporting students with their mathematics skills
A variety of institutions were represented: St Andrews University, which at this time had a dedicated Mathematics support tutor who worked with the Effective Learning Adviser (ELA); Dundee University and Robert Gordon University, which both had a similar arrangement; Abertay University which had both a Mathematics and a Statistics support tutor who were part of the ELA team; Glasgow University which had just appointed a Mathematics support tutor, since their Mathematics support provision was due to start in September 2008; and Edinburgh Napier University, where the Mathematics support had been successfully run by the Mathematics lecturers for the last 20 years, with Statistics support being provided by Statistics lecturers
At the University of Aberdeen, the ELA team were aware of the growing need for a specialist Mathematics support tutor and were hoping that funding for such a post would be made available in the near future
Summary
The preliminary meeting of the Scottish Mathematics Support Network was held at the University of St Andrews on 18 July 2008. The consensus at the meeting was that students need more assistance with their basic mathematical and statistical skills than they have required in the past, and that Mathematics support is an area which universities will need to focus on in future years. This inaugural meeting was funded by sigma, the Centre of Excellence in Mathematics and Statistics Support, and included a presentation by Professor Tony Croft, the Director of the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University. In due course a dedicated website, hosted by St Andrews University, was set up (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/mathsnetwork/home/) and a mailing list of members, hosted by Glasgow University, was organised, enabling participants to readily stay in contact with each other and the network as a whole, throughout the year
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