Institutions and students as

partners Kate Wicklow Head of Quality and Student Engagement @katewicklow

In this session…

What is Student Engagement and why are we talking about it? Passive vs active engagement What are the alternatives Help and support

Student engagement in UK

• Lots of work on student engagement in learning, but also a focus on student voice embedded in processes and structures and the idea of students as partners.

• Student engagement practices are not new …but student

engagement as a policy priority is relatively recent. • Moving beyond systems …and instead describing

concepts e.g. potential of individuals to influence their environment.

So what is Student Engagement?

Many articles, conference papers and chapters on student engagement do not contain an explicit

definition of engagement, making the (erroneous) assumption that their understanding is a shared,

universal one.

(Trowler, 2010, 17)

Student engagement literature

Three types of engagement: • In students’ own learning • Rooted in identity • In structures and processes

Trowler, V. (2010) Student Engagement Literature Review. York: The Higher Education Academy

Seven effective practices

• student-staff contact • active learning • prompt feedback • time on task • high expectations • respect for diverse learning styles • co-operation among students

Chickering and Gamson (1987)

No surprises there! But having the evidence base behind them has really given colleges in America an incentive to drive forward changes in this area.

Student engagement in learning

Engagement in this sense has been proven to improve outcomes: • Performance • Persistence • Satisfaction

Much work in this area has led to improvements in teaching and learning practices.

Impact on retention

Paul Hamlyn Foundation what Works? Project: • 37%-45% students consider leaving in their first year • academic issues • feelings of isolation and/or not fitting in and concern

about achieving future aspirations, are less engaged • Less understanding of the university

How does the QAA Code define it?

The term covers two domains relating to:

– Improving the motivation of students to engage in learning and to learn independently

(Learning and Teaching Chapter)

– The participation of students in quality enhancement and quality assurance processes, resulting in the improvement of their educational experience. (Student Engagement Chapter)

The UK Quality Code

“Higher education providers take deliberate steps to engage all students, individually and collectively, as partners in the assurance and enhancement of

their educational experience.”

How else is student engagement defined?

• Individual

• Collective

• Governance and decision making

From student engagement to partnership

• The 2010 NUS/HEA Student Engagement Toolkit framed partnership as the goal of student engagement.

• Need to build up to partnership:

Consultation Involvement Participation Partnership

Rejecting consumerism

• Student engagement is not happening inside a policy vacuum. • A narrative of ‘competition’ and ‘choice’ offers students an

inflated perception of their power, when it is in fact limited to commenting only on what has been sold to them.

• ‘Customer is always right’ devalues the role and expertise of

educators.

Rejecting consumerism

“Regardless of whether students agree with the values and characteristics of the funding model in which they sit, they may adopt behaviours we associate with consumerism unless we offer a new and compelling way of thinking about learning”

Re-thinking apprenticeship

• Idea that a student attends university in order to gain mastery in a particular subject and spends time with experts in order to do this.

• Advocates might be wary of ‘too much’ student engagement on the basis that students cannot be expected to know what they want to learn in advance of learning it.

Re-thinking apprenticeship

• We don’t necessarily need to wholly reject this approach, but we do need to reimagine it.

• Students are apprentices in the business of student engagement.

• Support could come from sources other than academic staff, particularly the students’ union.

Re-thinking apprenticeship

Students can never be ‘equal partners’ because they do not have the necessary ‘expertise’ to engage with academic staff on an equal basis …is what some people say. ‘Equality’ is as much about respecting each other’s views as it is about having similar levels of knowledge.

What is partnership?

• Can we agree that partnership is about students and staff working together to improve education?

• For NUS this is about students having a role in the academic community with all the rights and responsibilities that this status affords.

• And about recognising that students will need to be inducted into their ‘community of practice’, not just expecting them automatically to adopt engaged behaviors.

• The goal is preparing students for active, engaged citizenship – not a life of passive consumerism.

Students’ unions

Individual students may engage in various forms in their learning, but a whole system of partnership must flow through the students’ union for it to be a true partnership.

Things SUs do to engage students in shaping their education

Represent students on decision-making bodies

Recruit, train and support course reps

Research students’ experience and interpret student feedback data

Organise students to campaign for education change

Work with their institutions on student experience and engagement projects

Support academic societies

Politics of student engagement

Student engagement is political- contested space, no ‘right’ answer, different levels of power, people exerting their influence.

What benefits are on offer?

What penalties for non-participation?

Who has access?

Who is excluded?

Who describes the boundaries of the terrain?

What motivates activity?

Who sets the agenda?

Who does the engaging and who is engaged?

Talking to students

Partnership is personal between your staff and your students Do have some data about students perspectives nationally Some students will need persuading!

What do students’ think?

13 13 14

31

1410

52 2

7

28

1721 20

1 - Not atall involved

2 3 4 -Somewhatinvloved

5 6 7 - Veryinvloved

How involved do you believe you are in shaping the content of your course?

How involved do you want to be?

Q26. How involved do you believe you are in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

Q27. How involved do you want to be in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

Base: All answering Section 4 (3179)

What do students’ think?

CHERI

Passive vs Active Engagement

Surveys

Student representation

Student led change

Example: Sheffield Hallam

• Aim: to actively engage students in course (re)design in ways that go beyond surveys

• Focus on early engagement to encourage more of a dialogue than a consultation

• Students recruited as Course Design Consultants, trained by QE staff and line managed by a student placement

• CDCs facilitated workshops with students and reported findings to course planners

Examples: Jisc Design Studio

• Students as digital pioneers– Oxford Brookes University, University of Winchester/Bath Spa University

• Working in partnership– University of Reading, University of Bath and Queen’s University Belfast

• Students as change agents– University of Greenwich, University, University of Exeter and Birmingham City University

http://bit.ly/diglitds

We are here to help!

NUS offers materials and support to students’ unions in developing their student voice activity and develop relationships with their institution. TSEP works with academic staff, university managers, students and SU’s to develop student engagement across the institution. We are listeners, conversationalists and content creators!

www.tsep.org.uk @TSEPartnership

Key Resources

NUS Manifesto for Partnership: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/campaigns/highereducation/partnership/a-manifesto-for-partnerships/ What works? Retention research: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/what-works-retention HEA framework for partnership: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/students_as_partners/Framework-for-student-and-staff-partnerships.pdf The Student Engagement Partnership: www.tsep.org.uk