Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
So, I made it! Made what? The end of the calendar year! Got a couple of weeks now when university related tasks and email traffic will pretty much cease while everyone enjoys the Christmas break. Its’ been a very, very busy few months personally and professionally and I could really feel that I needed to get to this “down period”. There were definitely times when it felt like it would never come but I knew that if I just kept going I’d get there.
I really like this time of year. This isn’t just a function of the break and the festivities but also the fact that it affords the opportunity to complete a much needed review and reflection on 2024. What would I see as positives this year then?
Well, there has been some notable achievements within the Graduate school activity. These include:
- The first student to complete their viva on the Doctorate in Sport and Exercise Science (with 3 more to defend their research in the next couple of months)
- The development of some very important external collaborations with TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) to support the development of their research institute
- The very successful launch of the MSc in High Performance Sport
- Further developments in both the programme related and enrichment focussed experiential learning for students
- Finalising the VMOST for the GSSPP through a truly collaborative and inclusive process
- Presenting all of the activity to the Head of College and Head of School at the university
There are others that I could add to the list, too many I think as this year seems to have been a year when the GSSPP really started to deliver on its potential. These developments are a direct function of the people who work on the different aspects of the GSSPP project. These individuals, despite having their own personal challenges, continue to work so hard in order to push agendas that develop both them and the GSSPP. I am very lucky to work with this group of people on this project.
2024 has also given me loads of personal lessons related to my working processes. These include things related to how I work, what I’m good at/not very good and how you do (or don’t) work with a group of people to lead and develop and strategic initiative like the GSSPP. The development of awareness to change how an individual thinks and then problem solves is a key aspect of all the GSSPP educational activity and so it’s nice to remember how important this is for me too. These reflections have definitely made me realise that for all the positives around my actions I certainly recognise that there needs to be sone changes in the up-coming year. Luckily I have a lot of great support mechanisms to help me try and make these changes. This should hopefully then make 2025 an even more productive year.
B.Drust@bham.ac.uk