1. Student Engagement implications for revalidation
Roisín Curran

2. Student Engagement (SE) Recent/Current initiatives
SE strategic work stream
CHERP/SU focus groups with students prior to revalidation
HEA funded Students as Partners change programme
CHERP conference Jan 2013 – Student Engagement: a catalyst for transformative change
HEA/Paul Hamlyn foundation funded What Works? Student Retention & Success Change Programme
What we are doing?

3. Student Engagement
Student engagement is about what a student brings to Higher Education in terms of goals, aspirations, values and beliefs and how these are shaped and mediated by their experience whilst a student. SE is constructed and reconstructed through the lenses of the perceptions and identities held by students and the meaning and sense a student makes of their experiences and interactions. As players in and shapers of the educational context, educators need to foster educationally purposeful SE to support and enable students to learn in constructive and powerful ways and realise their potential in education and society (RAISE 2010).
Reference:
RAISE (2010) Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student engagement. Available at Accessed 25 September 2013

4. Student Engagement to Improve Student Retention and Success The What Works? Model: improving student engagement, belonging, retention and success (Thomas, 2012)
how?
Useful conceptual model which underpins the SR&S change programme
Want to focus on the circles – institutional, staff and student capacity building
Developing the capacity of staff and students to engage: the capacity of students to engage and staff to offer an engaging experience must be developed, thus a partnership approach in which everyone is responsible for improving student belonging, retention and success is required. (The capacity of students and staff are represented by the two blue rings respectively.)
Thomas, L. (2012) What works? Student Retention and Success. London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

5. Building engagement & belonging
At Ulster 8.7% (UK 5.7%) of students leave HE in their first year of study
Between 37%-42% think about withdrawing (WW phase 1)
Range of reasons
Belonging has emerged as a key idea in this research programme
Engagement develops relationships with others and promotes connectedness…
Why?
Benchmark was 6.6
Nurturing belonging…p14

6. Student Engagement (SE)
Institutional reference points
Learning and Teaching Strategy 2013/ /18
Graduate qualities
Guidelines for first year teaching
Transition policy
Principles of Assessment and Feedback for Learning

7. Where is this relevant in revalidation/evaluation documentation?
Section B Commentaries
B2.5 Learning, Teaching & Assessment
B2.7 Creativity, innovation & good practice
B Graduate Qualities
B Widening Participation
B4 Modules

8. Learning & Teaching Strategy/SE linkages (1)
Strategic Aim 2
Key supporting objectives
Section
To provide transformative, high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of meaningful staff student partnerships that engender a shared responsibility
To develop students’ knowledge, skills and confidence through active learning experiences with fellow students from diverse backgrounds, to engender a sense of student belonging and identity
B2.5
B210.2
B2.7
To develop supportive partnerships and learning communities amongst and between students and staff to engender mutual respect and trust
To develop ways of working that foster students’ active engagement with their learning and career progression and values their contributions to shaping the design and delivery of programmes.

9. Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (1)
Learning & Teaching Strategy/SE linkages (2)
Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (1)
Strategic Aim 2
Key supporting objectives
Section
To provide transformative, high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of meaningful staff student partnerships that engender a shared responsibility
To ensure that all students are clear about what they can reasonably expect of their course and what is expected from them
B210.2 B4
B210.1
B2.5
B2.7
To embed within the curriculum opportunities for students to develop as global citizens, socially, ethically and environmentally aware, sensitive to international contexts and cultures
To exploit opportunities within course design and programme delivery for internationalising the curriculum and the student body
To provide explicit opportunities for students to learn about sustainability, formally and informally, engaging with communities and employers.
To develop and implement more efficient and effective methods for collecting, analysing and responding to student feedback on a timely basis.

10. Research-Teaching Nexus implications for revalidation
Vicky Davies

11. Research-Teaching Nexus (RTN)
Strand 1
Pedagogic Research (PR)/Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) capacity building
Strand 2
Research as inquiry (RAI): comprising Research-informed Teaching (R-IT) and Research-enhanced Learning (R-EL)

12. Where is this relevant in revalidation/evaluation documentation?
Section B Commentaries
B2.6 Research/scholarship informed teaching and curriculum
B2.7 Creativity, innovation & good practice
Section C Staff & professional development

13. Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (1)
Strategic Aim 1
Key supporting objectives
RTN
Section
To provide appropriate learning opportunities which are flexible, responsive to and inclusive of, the needs of students, professions and the wider community
To promote, embed and develop safe yet challenging learning environments that support active learning, through a learning and teaching ethos underpinned by current and appropriate discipline-specific and pedagogic research and scholarship, building, where appropriate, upon new and emerging technologies PR
SoTL
B2.6
B2.7
To promote and embed inquiry-based activities across the curricula which are designed to develop a range of generic, info-literacy, critical inquiry and/or subject specific research skills, and their transferability into professional settings and/or further study
RAI

14. Learning & Teaching Strategy/RTN linkages (2)
Enabling Aim
Key supporting objectives
RTN
Section
To provide a supportive environment, in which innovative approaches to learning, teaching and leadership are encouraged, recognised, valued and rewarded, for all staff and students in the university
To further develop communities of practice, including students, in order to promote scholarly dialogue, and encourage and facilitate the sharing of effective practice between and within subjects and departments... PR
SoTL
B2.6 C
To promote and encourage professional reflection, critical thinking and pedagogic research on the student learning experience by all those involved in the facilitation of learning and teaching
To increase the proportion of, and support for, staff seeking internal recognition of effective learning and teaching practice through alignment to the UKPSF
To lead, encourage, support and disseminate scholarship of learning and teaching and pedagogic developments by staff and students
RAI

15. Engagement through partnership
Where now?
Engagement through partnership
“Partnership is understood as a relationship in which all involved are actively engaged in and stand to gain from the process of learning and working together to foster engaged student learning and engaged learning and teaching enhancement.
Partnership is essentially a way of doing things, rather than an outcome in itself
Partnership is a process of student engagement
All partnership is student engagement but not all student engagement is partnership”
Healey et al. (2014. p1)

16. Where now?
Healey, M., flint, A. & Harrington, K. (2014) Framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education. York: HEA
Available at
In particular – look at series of self-evaluation questions (p.6) to support staff, students, institutions and students’ unions who wish to explore how they could develop and embed learning and teaching partnerships
E.g. LTA To what extent, and how are active and collaborative learning approaches embedded in student learning experiences?
LTA How are students and staff involved in the delivery and assessment of learning?
RTN To what extent, and how, do students and staff contribute to the development of knowledge in their subject area/professional field?
12 questions – 4 sections

17. Process of Partnership
Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership carried out
majority of staff and students are very positive about working in partnership to effect change
Staff report that their own approach to practice is changing
More open to the student body
Less likely to treat their students as a homogenous group
Becoming more reflective about their practice
Roisín

18. They value the University involving them in tackling difficult issues
Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership
Student partners have reported that their perspective on HE is changing
They value the University involving them in tackling difficult issues
Enjoy problem-solving with staff
They feel that this approach is breaking down perceived barriers between staff and students
Learning new skills whilst developing their own self-confidence
Edge award reflections
Challenge going forward – how do we engage wider student body?