• SE strategic work stream
• CHERP/SU focus groups with students prior to revalidation
• HEA funded Students as Partners change programme 2012-2013
• CHERP conference Jan 2013 – Student
Engagement: a catalyst for transformative change
• HEA/Paul Hamlyn foundation funded What
Works? Student Retention & Success Change
Programme 2012-2016

Student engagement is about what a student brings to
Higher Education in terms of goals, aspirations, values and beliefs and how these are shaped and mediated by their experience whilst a student. SE is constructed and reconstructed through the lenses of the perceptions and identities held by students and the meaning and sense a student makes of their experiences and interactions. As players in and shapers of the educational context, educators need to foster educationally purposeful SE to support and enable students to learn in constructive and powerful ways and realise their potential in education and society ( RAISE
2010).
Reference:
RAISE (2010) Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student engagement. Available at http://raisenetwork.ning.com/ . Accessed 25 September 2013

The What Works? Model: improving student engagement, belonging, retention and success (Thomas, 2012)
Thomas, L. (2012) What works? Student Retention and Success . London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation .

 2011-12 At Ulster 8.7% (UK 5.7%) of students leave HE in their first year of study
 Between 37%-42% think about withdrawing (WW phase 1)
 Range of reasons
 Belonging has emerged as a key idea in this research programme
 Engagement develops relationships with others and promotes connectedness…

 Institutional reference points
• Learning and Teaching Strategy 2013/14-2017/18
• Graduate qualities
• Guidelines for first year teaching
• Transition policy
• Principles of Assessment and Feedback for
Learning


• B2.5
• B2.7
• B2.10.1
• B2 10.2
Learning, Teaching & Assessment
Creativity, innovation & good practice
Graduate Qualities
Widening Participation
• B4 Modules

Strategic Aim 2 Key supporting objectives
To provide
transformative, high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of meaningful staff student partnerships that engender a shared responsibility
• To develop students’ knowledge, skills and confidence through active learning experiences with fellow students from diverse backgrounds, to engender a sense of student belonging and identity
• To develop supportive partnerships and learning communities amongst and between students and staff to engender mutual respect and trust
• To develop ways of working that foster students’ active engagement with their learning and career progression and values their contributions to shaping the design and delivery of programmes.
Section
B2.5
B210.2
B2.5
B2.7
B210.2
B2.5
B2.7

Learning & Teaching Strategy/SE linkages (2)
To provide
transformative, what they can reasonably expect of their course and what is expected from them high quality, learning experiences through the promotion of meaningful staff student
partnerships that engender a shared responsibility
• To embed within the curriculum opportunities for students to develop as global citizens, socially, ethically and environmentally aware, sensitive to international contexts and cultures
• To exploit opportunities within course design and programme delivery for internationalising the curriculum and the student body
• To provide explicit opportunities for students to learn about sustainability, formally and informally, engaging with communities and employers.
• To develop and implement more efficient and effective methods for collecting, analysing and responding to student feedback on a timely basis.
B210.2
B4
B210.1
B210.1
B2.5
B2.7
B210.1
B2.5
B2.7
B4

 Strand 1
 Pedagogic Research ( PR )/Scholarship of
Teaching & Learning ( SoTL ) capacity building
 Strand 2
 Research as inquiry ( RAI ): comprising Researchinformed Teaching ( R-IT ) and Research-enhanced
Learning ( R-EL )


 B2.6
 B2.7
Research/scholarship informed teaching and curriculum
Creativity, innovation & good practice


Strategic Aim 1 Key supporting objectives
To provide appropriate learning opportunities which are flexible, responsive to and inclusive of, the needs of students, professions and the wider community
To promote, embed and develop safe yet challenging learning environments that support active learning, through a learning and teaching ethos underpinned by current and appropriate discipline-specific and pedagogic research and scholarship, building, where appropriate, upon new and emerging technologies
To promote and embed inquiry-based activities across the curricula which are designed to develop a range of generic, info-literacy, critical inquiry and/or subject specific research skills, and their transferability into professional settings and/or further study
RTN Section
PR
SoTL
RAI
B2.6
B2.7

Enabling Aim Key supporting objectives RTN Section
To provide a supportive environment, in which innovative approaches to learning, teaching and leadership are encouraged, recognised, valued and rewarded, for all staff and students in the university
To further develop communities of practice, including students, in order to promote scholarly dialogue, and encourage and facilitate the sharing of effective practice between and within subjects and departments...
To promote and encourage professional reflection, critical thinking and pedagogic research on the student learning experience by all those involved in the facilitation of learning and teaching
To increase the proportion of, and support for, staff seeking internal recognition of effective learning and teaching practice through alignment to the
UKPSF
To lead, encourage, support and disseminate scholarship of learning and teaching and pedagogic developments by staff and students
PR
SoTL
PR
SoTL
RAI
B2.6
C
C
B2.6

 “Partnership is understood as a relationship in which all involved are actively engaged in and stand to gain from the process of learning and working together to foster engaged student learning and engaged learning and teaching enhancement.
 Partnership is essentially a way of doing things , rather than an outcome in itself
 Partnership is a process of student engagement
 All partnership is student engagement but not all student engagement is partnership ”
Healey et al. (2014. p1)

 Healey, M., flint, A. & Harrington, K. (2014) Framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education.
York: HEA
 Available at https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/HEA_Framework_ for_partnership_in_learning_and_teaching.pdf
 In particular – look at series of self-evaluation questions (p.6) to support staff, students, institutions and students’ unions who wish to explore how they could develop and embed learning and teaching partnerships
 E.g. LTA To what extent, and how are active and collaborative learning approaches embedded in student learning experiences?
 LTA How are students and staff involved in the delivery and assessment of learning?
 RTN To what extent, and how, do students and staff contribute to the development of knowledge in their subject area/professional field?

 Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership carried out 2013-14
• majority of staff and students are very positive about working in partnership to effect change
• Staff report that their own approach to practice is changing
• More open to the student body
• Less likely to treat their students as a homogenous group
• Becoming more reflective about their practice

 Qualitative research on the ‘lived experiences’ of staff student partnership
•
Student partners have reported that their perspective on HE is changing
• They value the University involving them in tackling difficult issues
• Enjoy problem-solving with staff
• They feel that this approach is breaking down perceived barriers between staff and students
• Learning new skills whilst developing their own self-confidence