Future Directions: A sector-wide response to quality enhancement in a challenging environment

1. Future Directions:A sector-wide response to quality enhancement in a challenging environment Dr Colleen Connor, Dr Karen Fitzgibbon, Sarah Ingram, Dr Helena Lim and Dr Nick Potter HEA Annual Conference, 3-4 July 2012

2. Structure of session Interaction! Interaction! Interaction! • The Welsh Context • Introducing the QE theme and approach • Process • Promoting buy-in and engagement • Case study: student engagement • Early outputs and outcomes

3. The Welsh Context • 10 HEIs, plus the Open University in Wales and the University of Wales • For Our Future: the 21st Century Higher Education Strategy and Plan for Wales, 2009 • Twin priorities: • Delivering social justice • Support a buoyant economy • HEFCW Corporate Plan, 2010 • More integrated HE system • Organised in regions • Delivered by fewer, more sustainable institutions • Strategic themes • widening access • student experience/voice, • skills • knowledge transfer • research Challenging environment

4. Graduates for our future • First Welsh QE theme, identified end-2010: • Students as Partners • Learning for Employment • Learning in Employment • Sector-wide response to enhance specific areas of the student learning experience • Aims • Share good practice • Generate ideas and models for innovation

5. Key partners All Welsh institutions delivering HE

6. Approach • Identify gaps • Involve all • Maximise collaboration • Minimise duplication • Learning from elsewhere • Inform future developments

7. Work Strands • Learning for Employment • Learning in Employment • Students as Partners WORK-STRANDS

8. Facilitating A Collaborative Working Group

9. Case Study Themes LfE LiE SaP • Authentic Learning • Careers Awareness & Application Skills • Developing Graduate Attributes • Developing Leadership & Enterprise • Expanding Professional Networks • Creating Resources to help Employability • Student and learner experiences • Employer experiences • Assessment • Quality assurance/quality enhancement • Alumni engagement • Student representation • Students supporting students • Students contribution to curriculum design

10. Student engagement Improving the student experience is at the heart of all strands. Students as Partners asks students to input into the work of the strand. Students from every institution in Wales are part of the strand (18/42 members). Student members are equal to staff members: they attend meetings, are asked to write case studies and input into the future ideas of the strand.

11. Benefits and Detriments • Including students within the strand has shaped the work of the group: • Students are keen to attend meetings; • They build up relationships with other students (and staff) within Wales; • Students are used to working in a fast-paced environment, they push the momentum of the group; • Students are not afraid of speaking up if they don’t agree with ideas; • Students have lots of new ideas. • Unfortunately, the nature of being a student is that they have a limited timescale and after a year most of them leave: • Students need to be quickly inducted into the strand; • Engaged students leave and their knowledge is lost.

12. Student Engagement in conference • The Future Directions conference highlighted the benefit of engaging on an equal basis with students: • Students ran workshops; • Staff reacted positively to the new perspective; • Interesting debates evolved: how to engage students, how should we recognise and reward students; • Students were impressed with the enthusiasm from staff. • Students as Partners section split into: • Student representation; • Students supporting students; • Curriculum development.

13. Student Engagement – the future • Students and staff working alongside each other have created deeper debates and ideas are flowing for work that could happen over the next two years: students are excited to see change (they have no initiative fatigue). • Future work: • Student-focussed event for student officers and engaged reps, to bring further awareness of the project and get a wider range of views on the work of Future Directions. • Engaging the a-typical student, there is enthusiasm from staff and students to capture the ways that atypical students are engaged with and how it can be improved.

14. Discussion

15. Challenges • Flexibility/responsiveness to rapidly changing Welsh/ national/ international context • Different degrees of engagement • Not another initiative, initiative-fatigue • Who’s enhancement theme is it anyway? • Overlap/integration • Outcomes/output

16. Further information Inaugural Future Directions Conference, 26 April 2012 - videos of speaker presentations http://savilleav.mediasite.com/mediasite/Play/9d6221c8b61847888954894a1498961d1d FD case study publications Students as Partners http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/events/academyevents/2012/Students_as_Partners_190412_1138_FINAL.pdf Learning for Employment http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/events/academyevents/2012/Learning_For_Employment.pdf Learning in Employment http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/events/academyevents/2012/Learning_In_Employment_English_200412_1237.pdf