Liam BurnsWhere next for student engagement in Scotland?

Policy DivergenceScotland England

No fees for undergraduate first time home and EU students

Fee for all modes of learning with undergraduates at £9,000

Number control remains largely via central planning

Competitive student number control mechanisms through ABB, Core and Margin etc

Policy largely sector led with light touch from Government with little evidence of consumer mechanisms other than the Ombudsmen

“Putting Students’ at the Heart of the System” directive towards “student interest” and consumer mechanisms for change

Policy DivergenceScotland England

Pillar of the Quality Enhancement Framework since 2003

Creating its chapter of the Quality Code on student engagement

Students as reviewers on ELIR since ~2005 and joint approach to the Reflective Analysis

Students not as full reviewers until ~2010 and separate Student Written Submission

Sparqs as partner agency to build capacity in student engagement

Agreement to similar “Student Interest Unit” only this year

Partnership Agreements and Student Led Teaching Awards

Student Charters

Educational Outcomes• No significant/coherent difference in NSS results between Scotland and England

• HEPI/Which? Student Experience research suggests worse performance (feedback, contact hours, group sizes… excluding London)

• Retention, access, employability, academic achievement… no discernible differences that link to different approaches.

• Where would we point to in saying our enhancement approach/student engagement work has impacted educational outcomes?

What’s Next?• Fee regime giving rise to “student experience”:

– Ninja parents (admissions and applications)– Shiny Building Syndrome (Capital Expenditure)– The hard sell (Access Agreements as marketing tools)– Land grabs (Hawkish behaviours over students’ association run

activities)

• BUT ALSO – Student engagement

Partnership• 1. REJECTING OTHER MODELS• 2. PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN WHO?• 3. RESPONSIBILITIES• 4. CHALLENGES IN EMBEDDING

PARTNERSHIP• 5. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF

PARTNERSHIP?

Liam BurnsWhere next for student engagement in Scotland?