Student as Partners The challenge of student engagement Professor Stuart Brand, Director of Learning Experience Luke Millard, Head of Learning Partnerships.

Student as Partners

The challenge of student engagement

Professor Stuart Brand, Director of Learning Experience

Luke Millard, Head of Learning Partnerships

Overview

• Considering Student Engagement• Engagement at BCU• Experiences and lessons at BCU• Challenges for the sector

Why

(Kuh 2009) “…. Virtually every report ….emphasized to varying degrees the important link between student engagement and desired outcomes of college”

Student engagement literature review (2010) – V Trowler for HEA

Institutional change

(Bensimon, 2009) “…productive engagement is an important means by which students develop feelings about their peers, professors and institutions that give them a sense of connectedness, affiliation, and belonging, while simultaneously offering rich opportunities for learning and development.”

Student engagement literature review (2010) – V Trowler for HEA

Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE)

“students’ involvement with activities and conditions likely to generate high-quality learning” measured along six engagement scales:

•academic challenge (extent to which expectations and assessments challenge students to learn);•active learning (students’ efforts to actively construct their knowledge);•student and staff interactions (level and nature of students’ contact with teaching staff);•enriching educational experiences (participation in broadening educational activities);•supportive learning environment (feelings of legitimation within the university community);•work-integrated learning (integration of employment-focused work experience into study).

Engagement for all?

• “students as active partners in shaping their learning experiences” HEA 2011, Students as Change Agents

• Selective vs mass• “There will be others that aren’t interested in

getting engaged…The challenge is how we best support those that want to get involved”

Alex Bols, NUS, 2012

Motivations for Engagement

• University (satisfaction, progression and retention)• Students (payment, wider development)• Staff (resource, better courses)

• Voluntary vs reward based engagement (varying models)

• Do we discriminate if we don’t pay?

Student engagement beginnings

• CETL: Centre for Learning Partnerships• Redesign of Learning Experience (RoLEx) – role of

students - students as key stakeholder group• Discussions within SU during 2008-2009 – positive

commitment from new officers - Membership Engagement Manager role

• Common understanding of key issues such as ineffectiveness of academic student representation

• Identified need to create the learning community

• Collaborative projects to improve the learning experience• New avenue for proactive student involvement• Equal partnership – not them and us• Local level implementation• Purpose: culture change • Light touch management

• Students’ Union as student employer (payment)

Scale

Year Applications Funded projects

2009-10 52 25

2010-11 83 47 (73 incl RoLEx)

2011-12 105 (120) 53 (growing to 65)

Faculty participation

Faculty Sum of All Projects

BCBS 6

BIAD 26

CENTRAL SERVICES 21

ELSS 28

HEALTH 18

PME 27

TEE 37

Grand Total 163

Broad project categories

• Development of new content/ learning/resources/ assessment approaches – curriculum focus

• Consultation/ survey/network projects/micro-community building/student engagement focus

• Employability, employment, professional practice and placement experience

• Thematic – employability/progression/retention

SAP investigations

• Does the SAP scheme only involve the educational elite of the student population?

• How do the skills developed through participation in the SAP scheme impact on student success and employment?

• What is the impact of the SAP project on the learning community and organisation?

What is a SAP? – 3 years evidence

Life beyond SAP – employment (16% response rate - ongoing)

• 86% SAP aided studies• 59% SAP was only non-academic activity involved in• 83% employed in West Mids• 92% of those in jobs talked about SAP in application• 75% talked about SAP in interview

• 75% of students not in employment didn’t put SAP on their CV

Student partners not assistants (2011)

“I’ve not felt that we’ve been the students and they’ve been the staff, we haven’t been told what to do, it has been refreshing and quite nice to have this equal standing. I think it has worked well so far because we have a good mix of approaches, how we work and we have learnt off each other... you feel like you are learning and growing rather than just being told which is quite nice...we just feel like a team, there is no hierarchy or anything so it’s great.”

Staff – more than a project (2011)

• “...this SAPs thing has already started to infect ideas that are going on in the faculty about how we do define our relations with students …. Because we are stuck with this absolutely horrendous thing of customers which I think is so wrong. I think it could have a significance way beyond the SAPs project itself in that we are entering uncharted waters about how students view themselves and how staff operate in academia and it is really up for grabs.”

Taking engagement further

• Strategic student employment• Change Academy and HEA• 1000 student jobs by 2015• Changing the face of the University• 12 JDs – Admin, Research, Tech, Marketing• Student Academic Mentors• 63 in StAMP in 2012• SAP2 – live projects• Broadening engagement

Strengths of engagement at BCU

• Strong leadership and partnerships• Flexibility to engage across university• Localised impact with widespread implications• Embedded in university life• Setting staff and student expectations• Partnership working becomes the norm • External recognition supports internal change

Weaknesses

• Student led vs staff led initiatives• Ensuring wider student engagement • Encouraged adoption through a light touch

approach – now need to change• Balancing the monitoring - have we made it too

easy to give up• How should we measure impact?• Working with people, some will be excellent,

others may tarnish good works

Threats

• Leadership/senior mgmt support • Financial• High expectations - not enough opps

to engage (too few jobs)• Policy shifts - engagement is flavour

now, what about next year?

Opportunities

• Cross faculty working, abandon silos• Creating the university experience• Empowering students to improve their

own experience• A student facing university

• Engagement and the fee agenda (consumers vs partners)?

Challenges for the sector

• Minority activity? • Can we show engagement improves

student outcomes?• Are the benefits for all stakeholders clear?• Can we make student engagement more

than the sum of its parts?

• QAA Code of Practice

Ladder of student engagement