Workshops
Helping students develop the skills they need to succeed through interactive taught sessions
Throughout the year, we host workshops and events for students on various aspects of academic skills. Workshops take place online via Blackboard Collaborate.
Why go to a workshop?
- Learn new skills
- Follow up academic skills you are curious about
- Practice academic skills in an interactive environment
- Get feedback from peers and tutors
Coming up
Master's Dissertation Support Workshop Series, Spring 2021
Writing a Master’s dissertation is a challenging task. For many students, it will be the largest piece of coursework they’ve ever undertaken.
That’s why, each year, we run a series of workshops to help Queen Mary Master’s students overcome the challenging parts of the format and bring the best out of their research.
This year, we're running the workshop series twice — once in the spring term and again in the summer — so you can attend whenever your submission date is.
Workshops take place on QMPlus. Self-enrol on to the series here and you'll receive weekly updates with recordings of the workshops and resources to help you between sessions.
- Getting started — Wednesday 3rd March — 1pm
- Research questions and dissertation structure — Wednesday 10th March — 1pm*
- Reading into writing: Reviewing your literature — Wednesday 17th March — 1pm
- Critical thinking: the discussion — Wednesday 24th March — 1pm*
- Academic integrity, citation and referencing — Wednesday 31st March — 1pm
- Finishing your dissertation: Editing and proofreading — Wednesday 7th April — 1pm*
*Includes Shut Up and Write session following the workshop.
Shut Up and Write!
Research shows that writing with others helps you to focus. So in addition to the workshops, we'll be running regular "Shut Up and Write!" sessions: 45 minutes of dedicated writing time.
These will include:
- 45 minutes dedicated writing time
- Peer and tutor feedback on students' work
- Q&A with Academic Skills tutors
Study Well workshops: In collaboration with Queen Mary's Students' Union
As part of QMSU's extended Study Well campaign, we're hosting a series of workshops which support student wellbeing through the development of valuable academic skills.
The themes of the workshops were chosen to reflect the specific challenges faced by students this academic year, based on dialogue with the Students' Union.
The content of the sessions has been co-created by Queen Mary students and Academic Skills Enhancement tutors. The student volunteers have taken the lead in developing the workshops based their own experiences of studying during the pandemic — and on those of their peers.
Watch the recordings
You can watch recordings of the first two workshops here.
Study Well Workshop 1: Adapting to Online Study
Study Well Workshop 2: Studying at Home -vs- Studying on Campus
Future sessions
More workshops and resources will be announced on this page in the new year.
If you have any questions about the workshops, please contact us at academicskills@qmul.ac.uk.
Reach! University Transition Workshops, Autumn 2020-21
In the first term of the 2020-21 academic year, we developed and delivered a series of workshops to support new students making the transition to university. Across eight interactive sessions, we covered topics including Academic Culture and Integrity, Reflection and Feedback, and Critical Thinking.
The sessions were well-attended by students from a broad range of academic backgrounds and received positive feedback.
We also delivered an adapted version of the series to our first-year students based at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi'an, China.
Our Reach! workshop series in figures
378students attended one or more session
25representing twenty-five schools and departments across the college
170attended dedicated sessions for NPU in China
