Student Engagement in shaping Higher EducationCHERI report to HEFCE on student engagementAlan 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 reportFunded 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 2008Online 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 questionnairesStudent 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 schemesMore work to be done: how reps can truly be representativeNeed to measure the impacts of student engagementNeed for cross-sector group to promote networking opportunities for institutions and students’ unions.

Engagement in feedback questionnairesAre 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?

NUS student experience report 2008

The representative cycleTrainingSharing and developing training resources and developing a pool of associates to support local training activitiesInformation on different practicesSharing information on recruiting and rewarding reps, different systems for engagement, good practice for ensuring representativity.Networking and policy informationBringing 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. ConsultancyAdvising students’ unions and institutions on ways of improving student engagement such as developing handbooks, specialised training materials and reviewing structures.InnovationDeveloping innovative approaches such as kite-marking for representation and championing innovative forms of teaching and learning.

Issues for stakeholdersStudents:Closing the feedback loopThat students know who to go to and who their rep isHow students are involved in the selection of repsThat students understand their role as co-producers of their educationCourse reps:barriers for repstime, support for admin, advance warning of meetings, etcmotivations for becoming repsrewards such as payment, self-advancement and employabilityknowing what the deal isto know what students ought to expectinformation and knowledgewhat happened in previous years, who are my students, what information in available training and capacity buildinghow 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 academicsEvidence based contributionsRepresenting a diversity of views The impact of good representation systems on the institution’s reputationConsulting students, improving qualityRelevance 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 trainingNetworking student representatives with staff at the discipline or subject level to discuss pedagogical innovations

531Question 4…Staff-student liaison committees are the focus for discussion of curriculum and learning and teaching issues with students at the course levelThis 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.ukThank you!