The Student
Learning Experience
Malcolm Gillies
Vice-Chancellor, London Metropolitan University
HEPI/HEA Spring Conference, London
22 May 2012
My topics
1 Broader questions of student academic
experience: beyond hours per week
2 London Met’s commitment: the Student
Charter and the Staff Charter
3 Championing affordability, while ensuring
quality of student (academic) experience: the
formula
4 Different cultures, different student
experiences
5 Student experience and student academic
experience: three questions
HEPI Report
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Contact hours with staff
Study hours of student
Total student workload
Subject differentiation
Size of learning groups
Total value for money and satisfaction
What about?
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Weeks of teaching per year
Framework of the learning year
Modes of pedagogy
Formats of assessment
Total “value add” for student: academic
achievement cf. prior learning
London Met’s commitment
• 30 weeks of undergraduate teaching per year,
minimum 12 hours contact per week
• Mostly, year-long modules to allow for more
formative assessment, particularly in earlier years
• Blended learning in all modules
• E-enabled assessment, delivery and return
• Admission from “the whole community” on basis
of prior learning/experience
Reforming the institution
2010/11 reviews
• greater process efficiencies, new process models → shared
services initiative;
• more focused curriculum, with simplified course choices and
structure;
• greater productivity per staff member;
• technological reboot, then efficiency gains;
• research costs match with income → “affordable” research;
• much more effective use of estate.
• → Affordable Quality Education
Affordable education of quality:
a case study
London Met, in its various guises, has been providing
Affordable Quality Education since 1848. Our Strategic
Plan’s No. 1 and No. 2 priorities are “providing a
quality learning experience for our students” and
“enhancing student participation and ensuring fair
access”. Our Plan adds, “on equitable principles”.
London Metropolitan University’s Strategic Plan 2010-13, “Transforming Lives, Meeting
Needs, Building Careers”.
Affordable education of quality
1. We are committed to affordable and equitable practice:
• We have set UK/EU undergraduate fees at an average of £6,850
(approved) and are seeking to bring postgraduate student fees to
an average of £8,000 (recommended)
• We are seeking to harmonise UK/EU and international fees where
there is no government subsidy to students (recommended)
•
We are ensuring affordability both to our students and to the
taxpayers of the future – this is an important aspect of our
Strategic Plan’s commitment to social justice.
Affordable education of quality
2. We are committed to providing value for money:
• We have redrawn undergraduate and postgraduate portfolios
(around 160 courses each) and are increasing teaching time and
term lengths for most of our students
• We are concentrating our research and research training work so
that it also is affordable, and has demonstrable financial support
• We are process-redesigning our administration, as a prelude to
sharing services with other universities; through application of a
new resource allocation model, efficiencies will benefit the student
experience.
Affordable education of quality
3. We are committed to an access approach:
• We recognise the debt aversion of many, particularly our poorest
students, so have set low, clear price tags
• We are keeping the message simple for prospective students
(e.g. limited fee waivers, rather than bursaries), so our fees are
transparent, and mean what they say
• We have bid for new “affordable” student numbers, and have
successfully been awarded 564 extra student undergraduate
places by HEFCE for 2012/13.
Different learning cultures,
different student experiences
• BPP: Professional – “everything’s designed to
create a professional environment that prepares you
for your chosen career”
• Lincoln: Research – “a high-quality student
experience underpinned by a research culture that
seeks to contribute to the development of society”
• Nyenrode Business Universiteit: Business – “by
and for the business community”
• London Met: Educational – “that experience
involves both formal and informal learning”
Questions about the Student
Learning Experience
Q. How much does the student
distinguish “student experience” from
specifically “academic experience”?
Questions about the Student
Learning Experience
Q. How much does the student distinguish
“student experience” from specifically
“academic experience”?
A. Only partially. “Good community
atmosphere” seems to mediate the two
(THE Student Experience Survey 2012)
Questions about the Student
Learning Experience
Q. How much is location a key factor in
student experience?
Questions about the Student
Learning Experience
Q. Is location a significant factor in
student experience?
A. Yes, the metropolitan factor. 11/22
bottom universities in London in THE
2012 survey, with nearly all academic
and social student experience criteria
below average.
Questions about the Student
Learning Experience
Q. How much relatively is location a
factor in academic, against broader,
student experience?
Questions about Student
Learning Experience
Q. How much relatively is location a
factor in academic, as against
broader, student experience?
A. Not as much, on the basis of NSS
and league-table evidence.
The Student Learning
Experience
m.gillies@londonmet.ac.uk
07825 781 309