Consulting with Students. 108. The foundation of all outreach work at the University is our student body, and our Colleges provide a locus for the activities in which our current students engage with our target students. Almost all access activities involve undergraduate students as guides and role models. Durham has a Student Ambassador scheme that offers a high level of training and support to enable Durham students to engage with the fair access agenda. Every fair access residential activity will involve undergraduate mentors who provide academic and pastoral support to the school students taking part. Increasingly Student Ambassadors are being included in the planning process and are creating more activities that are student-led as part of Durham’s residential access activities programme. We have also developed the role of “sabbatical officer” within the Student Recruitment and Access Office, whereby three recent graduates are recruited for a year to the Access and Student Recruitment team. This provides a strong student input through appointing staff with recent experience of the decisions that a young person will have to make between 14 and 18 years of age. 109. Through its evaluation mechanisms the University is able to gather feedback from students participating in our access activities to inform the future development of these, so that they best meet the aims of the University and the needs of students we are working with.
Consulting with Students. The College works closely with its student body, typically via the Student Union and the Student Ambassadors. Students are represented on all major College committees including the Inclusion, Equality and Diversity Committee, Academic Quality and Standards and Academic Board. There is also student representation at Governing Council and each program year has its own representative at the Student Management Committee, chaired by the Principal. We see our student ambassador population (at present 47) as being particularly valuable to the College as they undertake many of the widening participation and outreach activities. They are also a key source of information, advice and guidance not only to young participants of outreach activities but also to new students during enrolment and induction week. Aside from our student body directly we also actively seek the views of the younger ‘potential’ student body by closely monitoring our outreach activities and evaluating events using the ‘Quizdom’ package, feedback forms and questionnaires. This means we can constantly improve our outreach activities to ensure we give the participants the best possible experience of the College and HE generally.
Consulting with Students. 151. The foundation of all outreach work at the University is our student body, and our Colleges provide a locus for the activities in which our current students engage with our target students. Almost all access activities involve undergraduate students as guides and role models. Durham has a Student Ambassador scheme that offers a high level of training and support to enable Durham students to engage with the fair access agenda. Currently over 40% of our Durham Student Ambassadors were themselves part of either Supported Progression or the Xxxxxx Trust programme. 152. Increasingly Student Ambassadors are being included in the planning process and are creating more activities that are student-led as part of Durham’s residential access activities programme. We now use very few external providers for social activities and rely on student directed activities that simulate the life of a typical Durham student. In this way we can directly connect the student voice with the messages we give about the wider student experience at Durham.
Consulting with Students. In preparing this Access Agreement the University has consulted with the Students’ Union and met with a representative group of students, including some involved with the Junior University initiative. The students strongly endorsed the University’s strategy of ensuring that students have access to financial support through bursaries at their point of need (i.e. during their studies) rather than giving fee waivers. The students were also particularly concerned that opportunities for mature students were promoted and that those students were fully supported in their studies. The University affirmed that its partnership arrangements are a key vehicle in promoting access for mature students, allowing them to return to study in the supportive environment of a local college and has made more explicit within the Agreement the initiatives which could benefit mature students (for example, the ability to use “portable financial credits” to pay for pre-school child care). Because of the diversity of our student population we aim to encourage an inclusive approach in all our activities (for example, during induction we held a Big Student Party as a family event). However, in the light of this feedback the University is to review how it might offer more targeted financial support to mature students and student parents (for example, through the Xxxxxx Bursary Fund) and whether some of the activities in the Junior University programme which are designed to support the development of study skills could be adapted for mature students. UCLan is closely following the advice and guidance of the Equality Challenge Unit and other organisations in ensuring that we meet all the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. As part of this, we are making every effort to publish comprehensive staff and student equality and diversity information and are establishing a full programme of work to analyse, report and respond to any issues identified at academic school and/or university levels. Our growing understanding of the differing experiences of our students throughout their time with us is noted throughout this access agreement and our on-going work to embed equality and diversity work throughout the University includes a strong focus on tackling any issues that prevent students with particular characteristics from reaching their full potential. University of Central Lancashire May 2012
Consulting with Students. The College has a learner involvement strategy that establishes how and when the College seeks to ascertain the views of students. The strategy also highlights how feedback is then utilised as an element of the annual planning, review and self-assessment processes, to inform improvements. Some of these improvements have occurred throughout the content of this report. This takes the form of a number of student forums, that are scheduled throughout the academic year. Feedback from these are acted upon at programme and strategic level, with feedback used to inform any changes to programme structure. Representatives from each HE programme that the College delivers are represented at the scheduled student forums. Each event has a set agenda, addressing issues around curriculum, the learning environment, value for money, IT facilities and general resources. Module evaluations are also completed with the feedback utilised to improve provision. The initial planning of the access agreement began with student focus groups at secondary schools local to the Rotherham/Bassetlaw area. The students were asked for their views on what they felt were priorities in future HE studies, be that financial support or academic tutoring, for example. We will continue to survey current students on their financial support needs to better target financial allocations to our students. We will survey students all three HE academic years, as well as, our FE students. Each academic year may have different financial requirements. Likewise, FE students may be able to inform RNN Group of financial difficulties that will affect their application into HE.
Consulting with Students. Marjon Students’ Union (MSU) plays an important role in the development of any institutional plans for student opportunity, support and attainment. The Student Union have reviewed the 2018/19 agreement, and whilst they continue to be concerned about the level of student fees they are satisfied that the measures that have been put in place for outreach, retention and financial support will significantly enhance the student experience both pre- and post-entry.
Consulting with Students. The University of Brighton understands the importance of consulting with students on the design of our access agreement and also directly involving students in the implementation and monitoring of its access measures. Students are represented on the major University committees, including its Board of Governors, through Brighton Students’ Union sabbatical officers, and therefore naturally participate in the consideration of our widening participation policies and practices as they develop. Within our previous Access Agreement arrangements, this ongoing dialogue has resulted in the University directly funding Student Union activity to support the retention of under-represented groups and we expect these activities to continue and flourish in 2015. The University is also working with the Student Union on a general model for monitoring and evaluating this type of activity to ensure consistency in both areas. To consult on the 2015 Access Agreement specifically, we also arranged a number of meetings with the Students’ Union in the lead up to the submission on 1st May 2014. As the three areas of outreach, retention and bursary activity develop across our yearly Access Agreements, we expect this dialogue to continue, in particular in understanding the long-term impact of our joint initiatives.
Consulting with Students. The Students’ Union (SU) of the BSO has been key in the BSO’s decision on the level of fees and bursary/scholarship support. The SU expects the Agreement to ensure fairness between different groups of students and give them the best chance of succeeding through good support while they are studying. The President of the BSO SU is a full member of the Academic Council which signs off the Agreement and confirms the targets in the overarching context of the BSO’s Strategic Plan.
Consulting with Students. In section 5.3 we highlighted the work that is being undertaken by the Access Coordinator post within the Students’ Union. In addition the University also works closely with the elected Student Officers who make up the Students’ Union’s Executive Team. Through the Student Officers, the Union is represented on each of the committees responsible for overseeing our widening access and student success programmes, developing our financial support packages, approving the Access Agreement, and monitoring progress against our targets and milestones. The University has initiated for some years a Young Persons’ Forum, consisting of local school and college learners from widening participation backgrounds. Meeting each term, the Forum has helped advise the University on the development of its key outreach initiatives, student support and transition resources and the University’s student financial student packages. We consult with students extensively in the development and delivering of our peer support schemes. The success of our Peer Support schemes is that they are discipline owned and student led and there is on-going consultation in which students take the leadership in design of activities both academic and social through the following: a coordination team compromising academic and PSS staff, a Graduate Intern and a group of Student Coordinators who meet at least twice per semester to discuss their scheme; regular debriefs which provide a forum for all PASS Leaders and Peer Mentors to feed into the coordination team their successes, challenges and ideas for development; training during which Leaders receive support to designed their activities for their schemes; an annual review team which is responsible for producing an action plan; regular meetings are held between staff and student coordinators.
Consulting with Students. 8.1 Involving students in drawing up the Access Agreement and organising outreach activities
8.1.1 We value the contribution made by Queen Xxxx’s students to both the planning and delivery of our widening participation programme. Submission of the 2015-16 Access Agreement was managed by an OFFA Access Monitoring Group that was chaired by the Vice Principal (Teaching and Learning) and reported directly to Queen Xxxx’s Senior Executive. The group comprised appropriate senior managers from the College and two representatives from Queen Xxxx's Students' Union: the Vice President for Education and the Vice President for Welfare.
8.1.2 We have worked with the Students’ Union to evaluate the effectiveness of Queen Xxxx’s bursary programme. We have collected information from students who have received bursaries about their attitudes towards the programme, and the impact that it has had on them. The findings have informed our decisions on the continuation of the Xxxxx Xxxx bursary schemes in 2015-16.
8.1.3 We aim to develop our capacity to facilitate more student involvement in widening participation activities and build on our partnership with the Students’ Union by collaborating more closely on some of the Students’ Union initiatives aimed at enhancing retention, success and progression detailed in section 4.3.