Scottish Maths Support Landscape: What Does It Look Like in 2024?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21100/msor.v24i2.1691Keywords:
Mathematics & Statistics Support, Higher Education, ScotlandAbstract
The Scottish Maths Support Network (SMSN) conducted a first survey of maths and stats support provision in Scottish Higher Education Institutions in 2016. At the time, the SMSN reported the number of institutions offering maths and stats support, the staffing of such services, the type of service offered, and the groups it targeted. Since then, the Higher Education sector generally, and the maths and stats support community particularly, has gone through significant challenges and transformations: the COVID pandemic, the growth of online education, efforts towards greater equality, diversity and inclusion and increasing financial pressure on institutions, to name but a few. To examine how maths and stats support practice in Scotland has evolved, the SMSN ran a new survey in 2024/2025, expanding our earlier study by investigating in more detail: maths and stats support posts in Scotland (requirements, types of contracts, additional duties), services’ organisational structure, and specific maths and stats support activities (such as use of diagnostic tests and foundation maths courses). In this paper, we present our methodology and results, showing how Scottish maths and stats support has changed, and our recommendations for its future.
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