Updates from teaching and learning projects

The Problem addressed... Departments teaching mathematics to students at universities face many problems two of which are:

• Universities are trying to widen participation in their courses. This means that they must consider for entry potential students who offer a wide variety of mathematical qualifications. One way to do this is to set preadmission tests for the applicants so that it is possible to gauge how much mathematics background they already have and how much reinforcement work they will need to fit them for the degree programme.
• Students who have been accepted on a course and have A level or other qualifications still lack an understanding of basic mathematics and need help. Diagnostic Tests are needed to identify the areas in which students need support and then the support must be delivered. This latter problem is being addressed by the FDTL4 projects (National Mathematics Support for the School/University Interface and HELM Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics) which are planning to provide a wide range of support materials including some on the Web