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Research. Insight. Strategy.
Student Representation Research
Executive Summary
27th June 2014
Prepared by:
Axiom Consultancy (Scotland) Ltd
27 Woodside Place
Glasgow
G3 7QL
t: 0141 212 7980
e: alistair@axiomconsultancy.co.uk
w: axiomconsultancy.co.uk
twitter: @AxiomInsights
UHI Student Representation Research: Executive Summary
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Introduction and background
The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and its thirteen academic partners deliver
higher and further education to students across a wide geographical area. This unique
partnership of colleges and specialist research institutions opens up tertiary educational
opportunities to students across the Highland and Islands and Perth and Kinross.
The majority of students are currently recruited from within the region and there are a high
number of mature and part-time learners. The geography and profile of the student body
poses specific challenges for the UHI academic partnership in terms of engaging students in
its representational structures.
Student representation is there to ensure students are appropriately engaged in decisions
that affect aspects of their life and study. Although the process of election and format of
representation may differ, all Scottish colleges and universities should have a democratic
process whereby students are elected by students to represent the interest of students in all
aspects of their institution.
In response to the Scottish Government’s Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act, UHI wished to
review their current processes for consulting and engaging with both higher and further
education students.
Research objectives
As a result, the student representation project aimed to review current practices and to
create:
“a structure, processes and procedures to make sure the views and opinions of all students
who wish to engage are represented at both a local level and a regional level“.
Methodology
Axiom was commissioned to conduct a programme of qualitative research and report on a
quantitative survey of students to establish current perceptions of UHI’s student
representation systems.
Qualitative research
The qualitative research encompassed three elements:
Element 1:
Design and delivery of a one day training event
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A key requirement of the student representation project was to train a team of
eight students on hosting and facilitating future focus groups with students.
The design and delivery of this training day was conducted by Axiom. It
covered key considerations of qualitative research including sample design
and recruitment, topic guide development, focus group moderation, projective
techniques, analysis and reporting.
Element 2:
Depth interviews with staff
In order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of current student
representation structures, the Axiom consultancy team accompanied Louise
MacDonald and William Mohieddeen (student representation project team) in
interviews with key members of staff at each of the thirteen academic
partners. Interviews were conducted with student representatives, student
support officers, members of the Boards of Management, Principals, and other
senior staff.
Element 3:
Fourteen focus groups with students
The main element of the qualitative research was conducting fourteen focus
groups with current students. One focus group was conducted with students at
each of the thirteen academic partners and one telephone focus group was
conducted with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig distance learners.
Staff at the partners recruited the students for the focus groups with
assistance from some of the student researchers and their student officers.
They ensured the group involved an appropriate cross-section of the student
population at their institution. This included a mix of further education (FE) and
higher education (HE), undergraduate and postgraduate, part-time and fulltime, young and mature students.
All focus groups were conducted by members of the Axiom research team
using an agreed discussion guide which was designed in collaboration with
the student representation project board. The sessions lasted up to 90
minutes and were conducted on campus using academic partners’ facilities.
Quantitative research
The quantitative element of the research programme was an online survey of all students
registered on UHI’s SITS database (the central database for student records across UHI).
This ensured that all students enrolled with UHI and the academic partners had the
opportunity to participate in the research.
The primary aim of the online survey was to provide key insights into students’ perceptions of
student representation, what they want and identify their future priorities.
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A total of 472 interviews were completed by students during the online survey. This
represents an overall survey response rate of 1.1% for a student population of 42,937. A
random probability sample of 472 completed interviews provides survey results accurate to
+/- 4.5% (based on a 50% estimate at the 95% confidence limit).
This means that in 19 surveys out of 20, a percentage result of 50% obtained from a
representative sample of 472 would reflect a true value - the value obtained by interviewing
everyone in the target audience - of between 45.5 % and 54.5%, with the most likely value
being 50% itself.
This allows the quantitative online survey to provide statistically valid information for all
respondents who participated in the online survey.
Main findings from the quantitative survey
A key requirement of the quantitative online survey was to provide key insights into students’
perceptions of student representation, what they want and their priorities.
Areas of the student experience that students would to be able to influence the most
The most important elements of the student experience that both FE and HE students would
like to be able to influence are:

My course

Quality of teaching

The way my course is delivered
Whilst the focus is on educational delivery for both FE and HE students, HE students also
feel strongly that they should be able to influence decisions on the facilities at their place of
study.
Student Voice – Current Mechanisms
The majority of respondents indicated that they were generally well supported at their place
of study stating they had people to speak to about their course.
However, only a half commented that students had a say in how their place of study was run.
Respondents were most likely to turn to their lecturer/tutor or personal academic tutor for
support if they had a problem with their course or place of study.
The main barriers to providing feedback that respondents highlighted were lack of time, lack
of awareness of how to or lack of opportunity (distance learners).
44% of respondents specifically indicated that they felt the current systems do not work
properly.
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Student of Student Representation
Half of all respondents indicated that they had limited awareness of the current student
respresentation system.
Respondents expressed a desire for the class rep sytem to offer a two way communication
process, providing both an upward communication process to provide feedback to managers
and a downward communication loop to keep them informed of progress/actions. The key
elements of student representation that respondents identifed as being of most importance
were:

Class reps let staff know our feedback on our course

Class reps tell us what is happening with our feeback
The preferred communication channels for this to happen were class meetings and student
surveys.
A third of respondents indicated that they would be interested in becoming a future class rep.
The key factors that would influence someone to become a class rep, related to:

Knowing they are helping other students

Being able to influence student life

Developing employment skills
Awareness of Student Elections
The main reason cited for why respondents do not vote in the student elections is lack of
awareness, particularly relating to information on the candidates standing for election.
The main enablers that would encourage respondents to vote in the future elections related
to:

Seeing something change as a result of student feedback

Knowing what happens as a result of student feedback
Preferred Communication Channels
Given that one of the main issues that has arisen from the survey is lack of awareness and
knowledge of the student representation system, students would prefer to receive future
information using the following internal channels:

My student email
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
My lecturer or tutor

Blackboard
Student Associations
The key future priorities for the student associations are very similar for both FE and HE
students with a clear focus on educational delivery. These include:

Improves learning and teaching

Improves the learning and teaching resources at my institution
Both FE and HE students believe that the students association should also ensure that the
student voice influences decisions at their institution.
However it should be noted that FE students feel more strongly that the student association
should make sure that the student representation system works well.
Furthermore, FE students also feel more strongly that the students association should
provide advice, services and campaigns that help the welfare, and wellbeing of students.
The areas that are of least importance to both FE and HE students are:

It organises social events to bring students together

It runs clubs and societies that I can join to develop new interests
Suggested future Improvements to student representation
The main suggestions offered by respondents to improve the current system of student
representation related to:

Improve the marketing of class representatives and student elections
The main factors that will influence respondents to become more interested in the system of
student representation were:

More information on the system of representation

Communication of the actions taken as a result of student feedback
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Main findings from the qualitative survey
A key requirement of the qualitative research was to explore three topics which had emerged
as issues in previous surveys with students:
1. Why some students do not feel part of an academic or social community,
or part of the wider University of the Highlands and Islands community.
2. Why students are unclear how their comments are acted upon and to
ensure that any future representation framework is valued across the
student population.
3. What needs to be done to ensure that any future student representation
framework is seen as relevant to all students including HE and FE
students.
The programme of qualitative research identified a number of key reasons why students do
not feel part of an academic or social community. These included a number of factors
relating to the demographic profile of students, such as:
• Most students from within the Highlands and Islands region come to study, not
to engage with the college or UHI. So few actively volunteer to take part in
systems of student representation.
• Many students are straight out of school, so are unused to opportunities to
contribute to the running of their academic partner. Younger students are less
likely to have the confidence to speak up.
• Many are FE students. They are less likely to have moved to the area, to have
committed to studying at the academic partner long-term and are more likely to
have a wider social network outside the academic partner. As a result, this
means that they are less demanding of the academic partner and its facilities.
• Similarly, mature students are more likely to have well-established social
networks of their own and less likely to engage with a predominantly younger
student body.
• HE students studying on VC based courses, and distance learners, do not
have the same opportunities to meet new people as other student cohorts.
Respondents also highlighted a number of organisation-wide issues:
- Lack of opportunities to socialise with other students out-with their course.
- Lack of planned social activities with a limited number of clubs or societies
available on campus.
- Lack of social space to relax and meet new people in between classes.
- Transport to and from campus determined whether students can stay on campus to
socialise. For many, this meant there was little opportunity to be on campus late
afternoon/early evening.
- Little opportunity to visit other UHI academic partners for planned social or sports
related activities.
A second area for the qualitative research to explore was why some students were unclear
about how their views were acted upon and to determine how much value they place on
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student representation as a mechanism for giving students a greater voice to improve the
student experience.
There was little evidence to suggest students received regular information on the work of the
class reps, student association or other student engagement. As a result, few respondents
were aware of how the current student representation processes were used to shape the
future direction of the organisation and few perceived them to be an important part of
improving the student experience.
A number of reasons were identified from the qualitative interviews as contributory factors:
• There appears to be quite a relaxed approach to encouraging students to
become class reps. Given that for many students the decision whether to
become involved in the class rep process will be their first exposure to student
representation, the current approach does not highlight the importance of the role
and the potential impact that class reps can have on shaping the future direction
of the organisation.
• Whilst some of the academic partners have worked at raising the profile of the
class rep role, the emphasis has been on the benefits to the individual (e.g. skills
for their CV) rather than emphasizing how the voice of the student plays an
important role in shaping the organisation. As a result, there is a need to raise
the profile of the role highlighting; o What it is
o What it involves (time commitments & responsibilities)
o What impact it has (to the individual, other students and the organisation)
By emphasising the importance of the role, applicants will be able to make a
more informed choice about whether they want to fully engage in the process.
The rationale for this approach is to address the number of class reps who drop
out or regularly miss scheduled meetings
• Potential applicants are not informed of the type of guidance and support
they will receive in the role. Some of the key factors why people disengage from
the process related to the need to manage study workload/exams with student
representation responsibilities, how to understand key issues and how to break
down intimidating barriers. Class reps may be asked to reflect the views of their
fellow students. However, they are not currently given any advice on how to
canvas and record opinions/views from their fellow students. As a result, when
they present any issues to senior management, they cannot demonstrate how
widespread an issue is or how strongly fellow students feel about an issue. It is
subsequently difficult for senior managers to determine what priorities they
should address, or whether the class rep is only representing their own views.
• There needs to be a public commitment to student representation being
made by the senior management teams at each academic partner. Part of this
commitment should be a requirement to regularly communicate what
improvements have made as a result of the senior management teams listening
to the voice of the student. By publicly communicating what actions have been
taken to all students, it increases the visibility of student representation and gives
the role additional credibility amongst the student body. Once students can see
that positive actions are the result of the student voice being heard then more
students will be willing to participate in future student engagement frameworks.
• Academic partners have significant challenges when trying to actively
communicate corporate information directly to the student body. Many
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students do not appear to regularly check their student email account, don’t
realise they have a student account or struggle with managing the volume of
emails they receive. As a result, direct communication through email is often
missed or lost. Consequently, the senior management teams should give
consideration to how best to communicate the benefits that student
representation has made to the organisation to the wider student population.
The third area for the qualitative research was to determine what needs to be done to ensure
that any future student representation framework is seen as relevant to all students including
HE and FE students.
The key issue that emerged from the research is the general lack of awareness of the
student representation system, with the exception of the class representation system.
While the base use of the class rep system appears to be on quality of academic
performance, the students are asking for a greater say on issues that affect the wider student
experience, such as transport, social activities, etc.
A number of the academic partners have recognised this, and have developed a number of
additional approaches to the class rep system.
North Highland College UHI has developed a formal learner engagement strategy. The
purpose of the strategy is to “allow learners to co-create their learning experience and involve
them in all aspects of college decision making”. The learner engagement strategy identifies a
number of clear objectives that learners can contribute towards, the student representation
mechanisms available to the students, the approach to review and implementation and how
the action points will be communicated back to the student body.
In addition to the core representation mechanisms, North Highland College UHI has
introduced a learner council, which meets monthly with the SMT to address the student voice
on wider college issues and overall student experience. This type of forum has given the
voice of the student a higher profile within the academic partner and the senior management
team’s commitment has been visibly demonstrated to all learners. In addition, the SMT has
introduced a supporting programme of training for all staff to ensure they are aware of the
voice of the student agenda. Again, this has helped the voice of the student agenda become
embedded into the college culture.
Another additional mechanism that has been introduced at both North Highland College UHI
and Moray College UHI is an annual student survey. The survey is run in-house and well
promoted on campus and achieves high levels of response rates. The colleges also run
regular focus groups to source cross-campus feedback from students.
These types of mechanisms to source student opinion, raise the profile of the voice of the
student agenda, provide valuable management information and are sustainable and
transferable practices. In addition, the commitment from the management teams to agree
the action points and deliver on them provides credibility to the student representation
process amongst the student body.
Another mechanism to ensure that learners have a greater say on the wider student
experience would be the further development of the students’ associations.
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It is recognised that not all academic partners currently have a students’ association and,
where they do exist, their history and impact varies in terms of positively contributing to the
student experience. However, one of the key findings from the research is that there is a
student expectation that the students’ associations should play a greater part in the
development of the social agenda on campus. The research highlighted that each students’
association is given the scope to develop their own manifesto, beyond the core functions of
sitting on the Board of management committee meetings.
However, this “laissez faire” approach means that each students’ association is setting its
own agenda. The feedback from the respondents in the research suggests the students
expect the students’ association to play a greater part in the core areas of student life,
namely:
•
Organising sports clubs and societies on campus.
•
Organising key social activities (such as Freshers Week).
•
Developing social space / facilities on campus for learners.
•
Organising inter/intra campus social events throughout the academic year.
Given the varied agendas set within the current students’ associations, there may be scope
for academic partners and their students’ association (where they exist) to collaborate more
closely on how to turn high level goals into practical actions that will make a difference.
Through collaboration, the students’ association and the Academic Partner can more clearly
identify their respective roles and responsibilities.
One of the key results to emerge was that respondents did not feel part of the UHI
experience. They related only to their local campus. At the moment, there are few
opportunities for the student engagement officers or student association representatives to
meet on a cross-campus basis. By providing greater opportunities for key individuals
involved in the student representation structures to meet to discuss UHI wide issues (rather
than academic partner specific issues) there will be greater opportunity to share good
practice / innovative practice across the academic partners.
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Strategic organisational issues for UHI
A number of key organisational issues were identified during the course of the research. We
have outlined below a number of strategic issues which, if addressed, will raise the profile of
student representation within UHI and its academic partners.
Review of internal communication systems
One of the most important aspects for UHI to consider is how it currently communicates to
students enrolled at UHI and its academic partners. The study highlights that students
require the communication processes to be effective in two directions. Firstly, the
communication channels should offer an effective mechanism for students to provide upward
communication to managers within their place of study and secondly it should also be
effective at delivering communication from the managers back to students.
It emerged during the study that one of the key organisational challenges facing UHI and its
academic partners is actively communicating corporate communication directly to the student
body. Currently there is a reliance on sending students information by email. However, it
should be noted that a number of limitations emerged with this approach:
•
•
Not all students who participated in the qualitative research were aware they had a
student email account
Not all students who participated in the qualitative research could remember how to
access the account or had forgotten the numeric passcode.
These issues could be addressed during the on-boarding / student induction process.
However, many qualitative research participants who were aware of their student email
account simply felt overwhelmed by the amount of daily emails received and tuned out of
using the account as a result.
In response to the limitations of the student email system, some academic staff have set up
informal social network forums to enable them to communicate course related information to
their students. However, this is at the discretion of the academic staff and UHI has no direct
control over the nature of the content on the sites.
The use of alternative organisational processes seems to vary across UHI. For example,
some academic partners can use SMS messaging to communicate with students while other
academic partners do not use this approach.
Consequently, consideration should be given to how best to communicate important
corporate information to the student body across UHI and its academic partners. In
addition UHI should give consideration to developing a communications policy which ensures
that it can effectively cascade information throughout the organisation and provide students
with timely and accurate corporate communications.
Embedding the “voice of the student” into the organisational culture
It was clear from visiting all of the academic partners, that the impact of the student
representation mechanisms was significantly influenced by the level of public commitment by
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the senior management teams to putting the ‘voice of the student’ at the centre of decision
making on improving the student experience.
For example, North Highland College UHI has developed a formal learner engagement
strategy. The purpose of the strategy is to “allow learners to co-create their learning
experience and involve them in all aspects of college decision making”.
While the core focus of current student representation mechanisms is on improving
educational delivery, some of the academic partners who have fully embraced the ‘voice of
the student’ agenda, have introduced a number of additional feedback mechanisms to
ensure wider issues that affect the student experience can be addressed. These have
included the introduction of learner councils, regular use of student focus groups and annual
campus wide student satisfaction surveys.
We would recommend that UHI and its academic partners make a public commitment to
student representation and develop a learner engagement strategy similar to the one
developed by North Highland College UHI.
It was also clear that where academic partners had fully embraced the concept of ‘voice of
the student’ they had worked with the staff to train and develop their skills, attitudes and
confidence in dealing with student feedback. In some cases, formal training had been
implemented and staff were given feedback during their personal development reviews on
how well they had embraced the objective of including student feedback in decision making.
Consequently, we recommend that UHI consider adopting an organisation wide training
programme for staff to raise awareness of the student representation agenda. Furthermore,
consideration should be given to working with the HR functions to ensure that the
fundamental principles of ‘student voice’ are reflected in job outlines and performance
discussions.
Effective marketing of the student representation roles
One of the key aspects that staff should be given guidance on is how to promote and select
class representatives. The study highlights that there appears to be a ‘laissez faire’
approach to encouraging students to become class reps. As this is the first introduction to
student representation for many students, this relaxed approach to selecting candidates
actually undermines the importance of the role and appears to be a contributory factor in high
drop rates or poor levels of engagement.
Therefore, we would recommend that UHI adopts an organisational wide approach to
selecting class reps. In the first instance there should be an organisational wide information
pack outlining the role in detail. Key messages should include:



Developing employment skills
Showcasing how they can they influence student life
Examples of improvements to the student experience that previous years have
introduced to help other students.
Prior to candidate selection, information should also be provided on expected time
commitments, how to collect views from fellow classmates, how to raise issues with senior
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managers and how to feedback to classmates what is being done with any action points
raised.
This would service to highlight the importance of the role, provide information on how it
impacts on student life and provide a legacy for any future class reps to build on.
We would also recommend that a universal approach is taken to selecting class reps.
Similarly, consideration should also be given to raising the profile of the student elections. In
particular students require more information on the role.
To encourage higher participation in the voting process, students also require more
information on the candidates, what they stand for, and how they intend to improve student
life.
With regard to student associations, there is a requirement to provide clear guidance to the
current student associations as to their role within UHI. We would recommend that the
student associations are provided with a set of high level goals which provides a clear
direction of travel for the student associations to effectively contribute to the student
experience within UHI.
Each association can then outline a local manifesto as to how they aim to achieve the
strategic direction required. This approach will ensure that year on year the student
associations are aligned with organisational needs and are working towards a common set of
values regardless of personnel changes.
Effective communication on how student representation influences student life
It was clear from the study that the student perceptions on the effectiveness of ‘voice of
student’ mechanisms related to the transparency of the process, particularly with regard to
the communication of actions and implementation plans arising from student feedback.
The key to ensuring full transparency, demonstrating senior management buy-in and
commitment to delivering on ‘student voice’ is to communicate the actions taken by senior
management teams as a result of student feedback.
It is equally important to communicate why actions have not been taken or any constraints
that prevent actions from being taken.
Without any information on what is happening, students assume that their voice is not being
heard and this serves to undermine both the process and the class rep who may have been
involved in raising the issue on behalf of their classmates. Where this happens, both
students and class reps disengage from the process.
It is therefore important that senior management teams prepare a formal briefing paper /
newsletter on what the student issues are, what has been achieved, what is planned and the
timetabling of actions as well as an explanation of why issues cannot be acted upon. This
communication loop should not rely on verbal feedback from the class reps, but should be a
formal internal communication document.
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