Bristol Institute For Learning and Teaching

Students will become agents in their own learning. They will work on complex real-world issues and problems, applying their knowledge in ways which nurture curiosity, develop persistence, and foster collaboration. We will challenge routine and traditional approaches to ‘covering content’ with more reflective, interactive and active approaches to teaching and learning. Our curriculum will create space for experimentation, risk-taking, fun, and openness to making mistakes and taking wrong turns, developing an enterprising and innovative mindset.

Our curriculum will stretch students and take them out of their comfort zones, building their capacity to work at problems without feeling defeated. They will be intellectually challenged by troublesome knowledge, while being supported to grow in confidence, resilience and achievement. Students will develop a taste for doing research from day one of their degrees. They will become critical consumers and curious producers of knowledge through opportunities to observe, critique, replicate and undertake research.

Students will develop deep roots in their discipline, learning how to think, act, talk, write and be a scholar in a field. Students will learn more about their discipline through boundary-crossing into other discipline areas. Our broad liberal education will develop questioning mindsets, increase their access to society’s conversations, and help them to succeed in the world of work.

Our curriculum will enable students to reflect on their values. They will become self-aware, take initiative, and take ownership of their learning. Students will develop resilience, welcome openness, and be able to learn from failure. They will flourish through carefully scaffolded learning, and through developing solid pedagogic and peer relationships. Students will feel equipped for work and life beyond university through our curriculum.

Our curriculum will enable students from all walks of life to thrive intellectually: students from different communities and nations, and with different beliefs, talents and ways of knowing. We will create space for dialogue in the curriculum, encouraging students to build relationships which develop empathy, valuing provisional ideas and enabling students to operate without all the facts. Our curriculum will build an inclusive environment in which students feel at ease expressing different perspectives, and have a sense of belonging in the university community.

Our curriculum will challenge students to explore real-world problems and enable them to contribute to making a difference. Students will explore big questions facing the world such as sustainability, climate change, inequality, and popularism. The curriculum will create opportunities for interaction with local and international partners to debate problems, and for students to contribute their time, talents and knowledge to the community in mutually beneficial ways.