Managing Student Engagement and Progress Tracking with PFA


The University of Bristol Post Doctoral College will manage the progress of over 3,000 post graduate students and their supervisors across the University.  

Following a successful 2 year pilot and development project, the Performance For All system is now being implemented for the whole University.  

The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Bristol have successfully implemented a version of the PFA software that radically improves the way in which the Faculty engages and communicates with masters and post graduate students. 

Supervisors and their students are linked to one another through an online system that:
  • prompts conversation
  • keeps an audit trail of engagement and progress
  • chases the completion of required forms and reviews
  • monitors and records compliance and other development activities
  • supports the agreement and completion of goals
Since adopting the system in Autumn 2012, the Faculty has been able to:
  • maximise the value of their meetings and communications
  • increase the access that students have to their supervisors
  • see and improve the quality of agreed goals and progress
  • streamline complex and slow paper processes, reducing costs in doing so
  • ensure compliance with required courses and training


If you'd like to know more about implementing PFA solutions with students and academics, or talk to colleagues at the University of Bristol, just contact us.





































































What Bristol University say

“This system has made a significant difference to our ability to record and audit levels of engagement between students and supervisors. The ability to electronically initiate our annual progress monitoring has been a major benefit to us - both in terms of administrative workload and also the level of consistent support the student receives. We plan to use it with all our students across an increasing number of activities."
Dr Kate Whittington, Graduate Education Director 
“We were worried how well some of our supervisors would engage with the system, but within a couple of months even the most sceptical were convinced by its ease of use and obvious benefits. This system has allowed us to monitor student progression in real-time and has moved us away from an inefficient paper-based approach. Given the necessity for providing students with a portfolio of transferable skills, we can see the obvious advantage of this system in documenting all student training and development.”
Dr Gavin Welsh and Dr Claire Perks, Co-Directors of Graduate Studies 
“My students like that Simitive provides a record of our meetings and facilitates progress monitoring. Ultimately, I can see how this system may be utilised to provide a student portfolio at the end of their studies.”
Supervisor, School of Clinical Sciences
“It helps me engage with my supervisor and enables me to formulate a clear plan of my work.”
Student, School of Clinical Sciences