Role
Hearing how students have benefited from ground-breaking initiatives and constantly forging ahead with new ideas is what drives Dr Paddy Woodman to help others succeed.
Paddy joined the University in 1996 as a Lecturer in Archaeology and Computing in the then Department of Extended Education. It also happened to be the subject area of her PhD which she did at Reading, following a master’s in Glasgow and an undergraduate degree in Cork.
“It was tailor-made for me in a way. In taking on that position, my first role and real experience of teaching, when I was now responsible for the whole course and a lot of students as well - I found I really enjoyed it.
“The students were great – they were mature students and very rewarding to teach.”
Paddy went on to become School Director of Teaching and Learning for the Department of Continuing Education, overseeing a whole range of different subjects, and then Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science.
She is now Director of Student Success and Engagement, tasked with considering all the things students might need to be successful, beyond great teaching.
“We have various initiatives and programmes which support students. With the STaR mentoring partnership, every new undergraduate student receives a current student as a mentor.
“When they arrive, they meet up with that person who can show them around campus. They will be in the same subjects as them, so can show them around the School and introduce them to people and answer little questions.
“We do a lot of things in partnership with students. We have very capable students, very mature students, willing and able to help other students. It’s really good working with them and their outlook on life.”
Paddy is passionate about inclusion and her team has devised a series of new events for international students in Welcome Week around adjusting to life and study in the UK. She also champions Peer-Assisted Learning in which students are trained to facilitate study groups for other students.
“It is more experience of students supporting new students with the academic content of their modules.
“Our profile of students is very different to what it was 20 years ago. We have students from all over the world, from different social backgrounds and it’s thinking about how systems and services are set up to better support them and how we reach out to different students.”
Paddy also supports her colleagues, chairing the decision-making panels of the University’s FLAIR scheme, which enables experienced staff to gain professional recognition for their work in teaching or supporting learning.
“It’s really great for staff, a really positive thing for them to reflect back and see what they have done and love doing.
“Looking back over my career, I have been able to do a lot and I think that’s because the University has listened and been receptive to doing things that are good for students, which is a really positive thing.
“People who have been senior to me have been open to somebody more junior coming along with radical ideas and pushing them forward. I’ve been given support and scope to be able to do that.
“When I hear students talking about one of the schemes I have introduced, having benefited from it, that’s really rewarding for me.”
Paddy is a University Teaching Fellow and in 2015 was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).