Centre for Higher Education Practice Student Engagement Students as Partners Roisín Curran, Professional Development Manager, Staff Development Stuart Cannell, Final year Student, BA (Hons) Fine Art Mirco Scaramucci, Placement Student, BSc (Hons) Creative Computing

Purpose To work towards a culture where “students are at the ‘heart of the system’. This means that students should be partners actively engaged in the enhancement of their university’s approach to learning. This includes curriculum design and delivery, approaches to learning and teaching and quality assurance.” The Higher Education White Paper (2011)

Drivers The Higher Education White Paper (2011) The Higher Education Academy The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) NUS Student Engagement project NI HE Strategy (2012) Internal recent student engagement initiatives

Student Engagement to Improve Student Retention and Success Pre-entry In HE Beyond HE Student capacity building Staff capacity building Student engagement and belonging Institutional management and co- ordination

Engaging students in the curriculum Engender a ‘sense of belonging’

Suggested model A two-staged model –Engaging students in the curriculum –Engaging students in shaping the design and delivery of the curriculum

Activities that we currently do... ACTIVE PARTNERSHIPS student charter CHEP Initiatives Revalidation PASS represent ation structure - class reps assessme nt & feedback projects post- grads as teachers student focus groups active learning approach es e.g. PBL studies/ peer adviser feedback

Aspirations for further activities Active Partnerships students as researchers PgCHEP participants working with students Enhanced Staff Student consultation ? Buddy system for senior students and new students clarity of information and expectations student choice expanded ?

Partnership Transformation Model (Cannell, 2012) StudentEducationStaff StudentStaffEducation Current state Aspirational state

Going forward... Student Engagement at Ulster = Active Partnership?

What Works? Student Retention and Success Change Programme Engendering ‘sense of belonging’ Focus on activities in the academic sphere –Induction –Active and collaborative learning Core team plus six discipline teams (one from each faculty)

References BIS (Department for Business Innovation and Skills) (2011) Higher Education White Paper: Students at the Heart of the System. Available at Higher Education Academy, Student Engagement. Available at NI HE Strategy for HE zone/archived-consultations/archived-consultations- 2011/hestrategy.htmhttp:// zone/archived-consultations/archived-consultations- 2011/hestrategy.htm NUS Student Engagement project engagement/nus-heaproject/ engagement/nus-heaproject/ Student Engagement at QAA QAA/Pages/default.aspx QAA/Pages/default.aspx