Project Report - Supporting law Students in Secure Environments (SISE)- identifying enablers of, and barriers to, study

This project evaluated the efficacy of the teaching of law undergraduate modules to SiSE to identify whether current support mechanisms should, and could, be sustained or improved to enhance outcomes for SISE. Overall, the scholarship found that that provision of education for SISE studying law with the OU appears to work well in many respects, with a number of supportive structures and systems in place that are enablers of study. All of the ALs interviewed spoke in an extremely positive manner about their experiences working with SISE, describing them as motivated, enthused and brilliant students who “often did exceptionally well”. The research recommended that these experiences could be more widely publicised to increase awareness of the value of tutoring SISE and the rewards, for example at staff engagement days or faculty assemblies.

The research found that there was scope for improvement to OU systems to overcome certain barriers, including the central provision of adapted tutorial materials for SiSE by module teams; module teams ensuring that printed packs contain all the guidance documents external OU law students would have access to, such as referencing information, module teams understanding better the challenges faced by SISE so that assessment design can be appropriately tailored; ensuring ALs are fully trained and made aware of the support structures in place; and considering the allocation of SiSE students to one tutor group.

Some of the greatest barriers to effective study by SISE appear to be within the prison context, and the project team hope that by highlighting these findings to prisons and government agencies progress will be made in these areas to ensure a more satisfactory and equitable study experience for SISE.