Student Engagement in shaping Higher Education

CHERI report to HEFCE on student engagement

Alan RobertsPolicy & Communications ManagerLiverpool Guild of Students

Aims:Discuss some findings of the CHERI

reportCome up with the questions for the

University of Liverpool

What is student engagement?

Involving students as active participants in: Development; Delivery; Management; and Improvement of their educational experience.

Processes and practices: National; Institutional; Students’ Union

CHERI report

Funded by HEFCE, commissioned by cross-sector group: NUS, UUK, GuildHE, OIA, HEA, NPC.

“Institutional and SU processes and practices, such as those relating to student representation and student feedback, that seek to inform and enhance the collective student experience”

June-September 2008 Online survey of 80 HEIs (62% response rate) and 25 FECs (33%

response rate) Fieldwork and case studies: 9 HEIs, 4 FECs, 10 Sus (5 of which

were different from selected HEIs) Student feedback questionnaires Student representation on committees including staff-student liaison

committees and students and liaison officers

What did it find?

Evidence of good practice – eg engaging non-traditional groups of students, you said-we did schemes

More work to be done: how reps can truly be representative

Need to measure the impacts of student engagement

Need for cross-sector group to promote networking opportunities for institutions and students’ unions.

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51

21

Yes No

% Do you have the opportunity toprovide feedback about yourcourse

Do you feel that the feedback isacted on

Chart 17: Difference between the proportion of students that provide feedback on their course and those that feel it is acted on

Q28. Do you have an opportunity to provide feedback to your university/ faculty/ department about your course?

Q29. Do you believe that the feedback you provide is acted upon?

Base: Q28 all answering section 3 (2404), Q29 who have provided feedback (2223)

Engagement in feedback questionnaires

Are course reps given the opportunity to comment on the design, format and proposed time/method of completion of the student feedback questionnaire?

Does your institution use both online and paper-based responses? Does your institution give students notice before circulating the

questionnaire to give students the chance to consider their views in detail beforehand?

Are course reps involved in promoting the questionnaire in class? Has your institution considered using tutorial time to allow students to fill in

their forms together, with the tutor explaining more about the questions and the information being sought?

Does your institution accompany the form with a handout or verbal presentation describing how previous feedback was used, and what has been enhanced as a result of comments?

Does your institution involve course reps in the analysis of the data and the construction of the subsequent report?

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1413

28

11

7

554

6

28

17

19

21

1 Not at allinvolved

2 3 4 Somewhatinvloved

5 6 7 Veryinvolved

% How involved student are in shapingcontent of their course

How involved students want to be inshaping the content of their course

Chart 16: Divergence between how involved students are, and how involved they want to be, in shaping course content

Q25. How involved do you believe you are in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

Q26. How involved do you want to be in shaping the content, curriculum or design of your course?

Base: All answering section 3 (2404)

NUS student experience report 2008

The representative cycle Training

Sharing and developing training resources and developing a pool of associates to support local training activities

Information on different practices Sharing information on recruiting and rewarding reps, different systems for engagement,

good practice for ensuring representativity.

Networking and policy information Bringing reps from different institutions together to discuss teaching and learning issues,

networking reps – physically and electronically - by subject area and providing information on and to national policy developments.

Consultancy Advising students’ unions and institutions on ways of improving student engagement such

as developing handbooks, specialised training materials and reviewing structures. Innovation

Developing innovative approaches such as kite-marking for representation and championing innovative forms of teaching and learning.

Issues for stakeholders

Students: Closing the feedback loop That students know who to go to and who their rep is How students are involved in the selection of reps That students understand their role as co-producers of their education

Course reps: barriers for reps

time, support for admin, advance warning of meetings, etc motivations for becoming reps

rewards such as payment, self-advancement and employability knowing what the deal is

to know what students ought to expect information and knowledge

what happened in previous years, who are my students, what information in available training and capacity building

how do I know what students want and need

Students’ Unions: When looking at supporting students’ unions it will be important to remember that students’

unions have very different resources and priorities. Any project will need to meet the needs of these different types of students’ unions.

  Institutions:

How to ensure an improvement in the quality of representation to promote a true pedagogical dialogue between students and academics

Evidence based contributions Representing a diversity of views

The impact of good representation systems on the institution’s reputation Consulting students, improving quality

Relevance to staff in various positions within institutions from the Vice-Chancellor, to the Academic Registrar and Quality Manager to those supporting student engagement within departments.

Academic staff:

How to support academic staff to engage with students, highlighting the benefits, addressing any concerns and providing training

Networking student representatives with staff at the discipline or subject level to discuss pedagogical innovations

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Question 4…

Staff-student liaison committees are the focus for discussion of curriculum and learning and teaching issues with students at the course level

This is what our quality handbook states. To be honest I’m not quite sure whether this is what actually happens in practice. I’m told that more often that not problems are raised in meetings, if students bother to attend.

Staff within departments are produced with guidance and advice on the purpose of the meetings with students through seminars and information packs on how to get useful feedback from students.

There is strong evidence that staff are using their discussions at a course level to make alterations to the way in which subject matter is taught. Discussions focus around what aids learning rather than what is effective teaching

alan.roberts@liv.ac.uk

Thank you!