REVIEW REPORT
Student Services, NUI Galway
18/02/2013
Reviewers
Mr Mark Ames, Head of Student Services, University of Bath, UK (Chair); Ms Anna Cunningham,
Director of International Affairs, NUI Galway; Dr Tim Higgins, School of Chemistry & Vice-Dean for
Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the College of Science, NUI Galway; Mr Paul Curley, Students’
Union President, NUI Galway; Mr Con O’Brien, former Vice President for the Student Experience,
University College Cork; Mr Gerry McAleavey, Athrú Consultancy, Dublin (Coordinator)
Key Strengths of Student Services
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Highly professional, enthusiastic and committed staff
Visible empathy with and passion to address changing student needs
Willingness and readiness to embrace organisational change
Open and eager to work with colleagues in different areas of the University
VP for Student Experience position to provide an institutional leadership role
Services held in high esteem by all stakeholders
Impressive connections with a wide and diverse range of external stakeholders
Existing inter-service collaborations
Key Recommendations
1. Institutional Strategy
a. Assert the institutional importance of
i. Transition to University
ii. Student Activities and Development
iii. Health and Wellbeing
iv. Employability
b. Ensure the institutional strategy around widening participation and inclusiveness gains
institutional traction
c. Establish institutional and operational key performance indicators (KPIs) relating to
i. Transition to University
ii. Student Activities and Development
iii. Health and Wellbeing
iv. Employability, and
v. Inclusiveness
d. Establish and confirm that responsibility for performance against KPIs rests with
academic units, central services and the Students’ Union working collaboratively
through integrated operational plans
e. Prioritise physical infrastructure planning and investment to enhance co-location of
student-facing services, campus student accommodation, and sports facilities
2. Integrate Student-Facing Services
a. Combine Academic Administration and Student Services’ help desks
b. Co-locate Student Services and Academic Administration, as appropriate, to build team
coherence and strengthen the quality of student-facing service provision
c. Extend the use of Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) across all studentfacing services to underpin collaborative work
d. Carry out business process review across student- facing services
e. Enhance web-based access to both information and service provision, including FAQs
3. Organisation and Management
a. Consolidate organisation and management of Student Services under the VP for Student
Experience around the following themes:
i. Transition to University
ii. Student Activities and Development
iii. Health and Wellbeing
iv. Employability
b. Create an integrated back-office function for Student Services
c. Establish cross-institutional thematic groups including academic units, central services, CELT
and Students’ Union
d. Ensure the Students’ Union is fully involved in Student Services decision making and solution
development through membership of the Student Services Management Team
4. Transition to University
a. Extend transitional student support from pre-arrival and across entire First Year
b. Work with the academic units to embed support for students to become effective
learners and manage the demands of university life
c. Redesign and support the First Year peer-mentoring programme and implement for all
new students
d. Develop on-line resources to support student transition
5. Student Activities and Development
a. Further increase participation and achievement at all levels in sports and societies
b. Optimise development of leadership, team and organisational skills
c. Engage with alumni to enrich student activities and development
6.
Health and Well-being
a. Develop a collaborative “Healthy Campus” strategy and programmes with particular
focus on:
i. Personal resilience
ii. Alcohol and substance abuse
iii. Disengaged students
b. Use indicators of student disengagement to trigger early interventions e.g. class
attendance, submission of course-work, student participation
c. Develop a multi-service approach to identify and support students at high risk to
themselves and /or others
7. Employability
a. Use HEA First Destination returns as an input to academic planning
b. Build on existing examples of good practice within the institution to embed
employability skills development within the curriculum
c. Extend opportunities available to students across all programmes to undertake
work-placements / volunteering / civic engagement
d. Increase and coordinate institutional engagement with employers as part of the
employability agenda
e. Increase utilisation of Alumni as a resource in support of employability
f. Prioritise investment in additional specialist career advisor resource
8. Communications
a. Work with the Internal Communications Officer to enhance communication and
engagement between Student Services and other stakeholders, including students, with
particular focus on coordinated use of shared communication platforms
b. Develop a brand identity for Student Services
9. Staff Development
a. Utilise PMDS to identify training and development needs for Student Services’ staff;
provide training to support these needs and to achieve Institutional and Student
Services’ objectives
OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Explore opportunities for generating new sources of income for Student Services within the
context of reducing institutional funding
2. Review provision of support for post-graduate students
3. Clarify local arrangements within Colleges for supporting students
4. Establish financial advice service for students
5. Align opening hours of student-facing services with customer requirements
6. Involve Disability team in advising on design of learning, teaching and assessment to enhance
accessibility for all students and reduce requirement for individual adjustments for students with
specific educational needs
7. Consider renaming Disability team to Equality team in line with current legislation
8. Consider abolishing the student admission charge (currently €250) to the Sports Centre and
replacing it with a universal student levy of €100-€110. The enhanced annual revenue stream
together with support from the University Foundation would fund an extension to the Centre to
meet higher usage.
9. Consider establishing a campus company to run the Sports Centre when the contract of the
current operator expires.
Comments on Review Process
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Staff and participants were extremely helpful and accommodating
Well organised, especially against a background of multiple and diverse inputs to the review
Increased input from the general student body should be sought in any future review of studentfacing services – possibly involving a randomised sample
National University of Ireland, Galway
Review Programme 2012/2013
Action List
Review of Student Services
Follow-up meeting held on Tuesday, 12th March at 2 pm in QA113 Alexander Boardroom
Present
Representing Student Services: Dr Pat Morgan (Vice-President for the Student Experience), Mr Matt
Doran, Ms Bea Gavin, Mr John Hannon, Fr Diarmuid Hogan, Mr Gary Ryan, Ms Riona Hughes.
From Review Group: Dr Timothy Higgins, Ms Anna Cunningham.
From NUI Galway: Dr David O’Sullivan (Director of Quality, Chair), Prof Nollaig Mac Congáil (Registrar
& Deputy President), Mr Michael Kavanagh, Dr Kieran Loftus, Ms Aoife Flanagan, Dr Iain MacLaren,
Mr Dami Adebari (Students’ Union Vice President), Maureen Linnane (in attendance).
This Action List has been agreed by Reviewers, the Unit under review and University Management in
response to the Reviewers Report for the above named review. This report and the Reviewers
Report are now made available on the University’s public web site.
A detailed Action Plan containing details of Responsibilities, Priorities and Progress is required to be
developed and implementation and is subject to approval by the University Management Team.
Progress on the detailed Action Plan will be followed up by the Quality Office after 12 months.
Action for Student Services
1. Consolidate organisation and management of Student Services under the VP for Student
Experience around the following themes with appropriate KPIs:
i. Transition to University
1. Extend transitional student support from pre-arrival and across entire First Year
2. Work with the academic units to embed support for students to become effective
learners and manage the demands of university life
3. Redesign and support the First Year peer-mentoring programme and implement for all
new students
4. Develop on-line resources to support student transition.
ii. Student Activities and Development
1. Further increase participation and achievement at all levels in sports and societies
2. Optimise development of leadership, team and organisational skills
3. Engage with Alumni to enrich student activities and development.
iii. Health and Wellbeing
1. Develop a collaborative “Healthy Campus” strategy and programmes with particular
focus on: Personal resilience; Alcohol and substance abuse; Disengaged students;
Physical Activity.
2. Use indicators of student disengagement to trigger early interventions e.g. class
attendance, submission of course-work, student participation.
3. Develop a multi-service approach to identify and support students at high risk to
themselves and /or others.
iv. Employability
1. Use HEA First Destination returns as an input to academic planning.
2. Build on existing examples of good practice within the institution to embed
employability skills development within the curriculum.
3. Extend opportunities available to students across all programmes to undertake
work-placements/volunteering civic engagement.
4. Increase and coordinate institutional engagement with employers as part of the
employability agenda.
5. Increase utilisation of Alumni as a resource in support of employability.
6. Prioritise investment in additional specialist career advisor resource.
v. Inclusiveness
1. Examine the current meaning, philosophy and implementation of Widening
Participation in NUI Galway and define institutional priorities.
2. Revise existing strategic documents and draft new ones to encompass strands of a
broader Widening Participation strategy.
3. Develop a Widening Participation action plan.
4. Expand the membership of Access Steering Group to create an Advisory Group on
Widening Participation, use existing mechanisms to further engage staff across the
campus community, improve links with academic departments and develop an
effective communications strategy.
5. Inform and evaluate the process of mainstreaming widening participation through
research.
a) Establish and confirm that responsibility for performance against KPIs rests with
academic units, central services and the Students’ Union working collaboratively
through integrated operational plans
b) Enhance web-based access to both information and service provision, including
FAQs
2. Organisation and Management
i. Create an integrated back-office function for Student Services
ii. Establish cross-institutional thematic groups including academic units, central
services, CELT and Students’ Union
iii. Ensure the Students’ Union is fully involved in Student Services decision making and
solution development with the mechanisms for stronger representation of SU to be
explored.
3. Communications
i. Work with the Internal Communications Officer to enhance communication and
engagement between Student Services and other stakeholders, including students,
with particular focus on coordinated use of shared communication platforms
ii. Develop a brand identity for Student Services
4. Staff Development
Identify training and development needs for Student Services’ staff using PMDS and other
means; provide training to support these needs and to achieve Institutional and Student
Services’ objectives.
Other recommendations
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•
•
•
•
•
Explore opportunities for generating new sources of income for Student Services within
the context of reducing institutional funding
Review provision of support for taught post-graduate students
Clarify local arrangements within Colleges for supporting students
Establish financial advice service for students
Consider renaming Disability team to Equality team in line with current legislation
Consider establishing a campus company to run the Sports Centre when the contract of
the current operator expires.
Action for University Management
1. Student Services will be involved when developing the next Institutional Strategic Plan.
2. UMT, advised by the Vice-President for Capital Projects, will consider prioritising physical
infrastructure planning and investment to enhance co-location of student-facing services,
campus student accommodation, and sports facilities.
3. Integrate Student-Facing Services
i. Explore ways of combining Academic Administration and Student Services’ help desks
ii. Request that Academic Administration align opening hours of student-facing services
with customer requirements
iii. Co-locate Student Services and Academic Administration, as appropriate, to build
team coherence and strengthen the quality of student-facing service provision.
4. Extend the use of Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) across all student- facing
services to underpin collaborative work.
5. Involve Disability team in advising on design of learning, teaching and assessment to enhance
accessibility for all students and reduce requirement for individual adjustments for students
with specific educational needs
Approved by:
Vice-President for the Student Experience, Dr Pat Morgan
Registrar and Deputy President, Professor Nollaig Mac Congáil
Executive Director of Operations, Dr Kieran Loftus
Director of Quality, Dr David O’Sullivan
Finalised: June 2013