1. Engaging with students…
Elgan Hughes
@BCUPresident
Birmingham City Students’ Union
BCU President until tomorrow!

2. Who am I?
• 2nd Year elected Sabbatical Officer
• Graduate of Bsc (Hons)Engineering Product
Design
• Engaged student throughout my university
experience – Student Rep. BoS. Rugby!
• Recent heavy involvement in academic
student engagement activity
• Passionate about students getting the most
out of their time at University

3. What are we going to do?
Today I hope to tease out your thoughts and
opinions on:
• SU and Institution perspectives
• Discussing a few questions / statements
• Sharing our thoughts with each other
• Develop an opinion to take away

4. Student Engagement
What was it like before this new era of student
engagement?
Did you not engage with students at all!?

5. Why Student Engagement now?
Split – as best you can! – into small groups and
think why the sector is focusing so much on
student engagement…
..and why is it relevant to the AUA?

6. Why Student Engagement at BCU…
• Generating the Learning Community across 8 Campuses
– (From consistent NSS/SES Feedback)
• Co-creation of the learning experience
Recipient / Consumer / Participant / Collaborator
• Embed students at the heart of what we do
• Encourage activities to be student led with students delivering at the interface!
• Join up the spheres focussing on the Academic Sphere (HEA What Works?)
• Develop the partnership with the Students’ Union
– Shared and owned vision
– Secondment of SU’s Head of Engagement
– Joint SU : University working groups
– Continual Partnership dialogue

7. HEA What Works? Model

8. Partnership - A National Agenda
“Students' unions now focus on cooperation, not
opposition”
(Greatrix, THE, May 2012)
“However, of late, the “them” and “us” are no
longer so diametrically opposed; we often stand
side by side”
(Grattan & Meakin, walesonline.co.uk Oct 2012)

9. Partnership - A National Agenda…?
“We have to move beyond defining a good
relationship between an institution and a
students’ union as students’ union officers and
senior management working together. This will
mean enabling academic staff, as well as
students, to be part of the conversation on
determining how partnership will work.
(NUS Manifesto for Partnership, 2013)

10. Partnership - A National Agenda…?
“By working together to a common agreed purpose,
steps can be taken that lead to enhancements for
all concerned”
(QAA Chapter B5)
“A distinctive feature of the programme is that
participating teams comprise at least 50 per cent
students or student representatives, with
appropriate representation from academic staff and
senior managers”
(HEA Students as Partners Initiative, 2013)

11. Partnership - A National Agenda…?
"Partnership is central to the experiences of
students in Wales. Students [sic] unions ensure
partnership between the universities and its
students works at its best.”
(Leighton Andrews, 2013, Minister for
Education, Welsh National Assembly, QAA Wales
Annual Conference)

12. Is this student engagement?
• The VC and the President getting along?
• The VC and President getting along and meaning it?
• A few sabbatical officers at university meetings?
• A student representative on a course committee?
• Joint staff and student working / steering groups?
• Inviting University VIPs to the SU Ball or Annual Review?
• A bit of ‘top up’ funding for the SU?
• Students participating in surveys and questionnaires?
• Senior management and Senior management?
• Staff and students at a very local level?
• Joint Strategic documents?
OR
• Consistent vision and mainstream partnership working in order to…?

13. QAA Student Engagement?
SEVEN PRINCIPLES/INDICATORS
• HE Providers with their student body define and promote
opportunities for any student to engage in educational
enhancement and quality assurance
• HE Providers create and maintain an environment within which
students and staff engage in discussions that aim to bring about
enhancement
• Arrangements exist for the effective representation of the collective
student voice at all organisational level, and these provide
opportunities for all students to be heard
• HE Providers ensure that reps and staff have access to training and
ongoing support
• Students and staff engage in evidence-based discussions based on
mutual sharing of information
• Staff and students disseminate and jointly recognise enhancements
made Effectiveness is monitored and reviewed at least annually

14. In English…(Taylor & Hobley)!
• Make sure students are encouraged to get
involved – tell them how and sell the benefits!
• Make it easy for them – and not a one-off – part
of what is the norm
• Have proper representative systems in place
• Train and support your reps
• Always use evidence and make sure its shared
• Tell people what has happened as a result and
recognise achievements
• Check it is working – review regularly

15. BCU’s View on Student Engagement

16. How do we deliver
Student
Engagement?

17. Administration SAP Project
• We encourage all aspects of the University to
get involved
• Including Administrators!
• Ian Hamley – Dir. Faculty Administration ELSS
• Library Services: Mapping the Student Journey

18. Administration SAP Project
Shaping the Administrative Services within a
Faculty: supporting the ‘student journey’
• Staff and Student (3) Partnership
• Student voice directly into a process
• Staff reacting and changing approach
• Student delivering part of the solution

19. Your Turn
In groups think about your role, service,
department:
• How could you better engage with students?
• What impact would you like to see?
• What challenges can you identify?

20. “Student engagement at BCU encourages students
to be partners and proactive change agents, to
share their ideas of learning and teaching as they
seek to enhance learning opportunities that are
supported throughout the whole student journey.
We believe student engagement is a mind set, a
culture that is adopted through collaboration rather
than merely a series of projects, initiatives and
piecemeal reactions to poor satisfaction scores in
surveys. This partnership, and the benefits it brings,
is demonstrable in the relationship between BCU
and BCSU”
(Chapman et al. 2013, Student Engagement; Identity, Motivation and
Community)

21. What does it mean for Students …?
“I’ve not felt that we’ve been the students and
they’ve been the staff, we haven’t been told what
to do, it has been refreshing and quite nice to have
this equal standing. I think it has worked well so
far because we have a good mix of approaches,
how we work and we have learnt off each other...
you feel like you are learning and growing rather
than just being told which is quite nice...we just
feel like a team, there is no hierarchy or anything
so it’s great.”

22. What does it mean for Staff…?

23. Creating the learning Community…
National Student Survey

24. A Quick Plug…
• BCU Book: Student Engagement,
Identity, Motivation and Community
• 16 Chapters all co-authored by students
and staff
• Overview of our student engagement
activities and impact
www.bcusu.com/learning
http://www.bcu.ac.uk/about-
us/celt/student-engagement/publications

25. Check out others…
• National Union of Students
• Higher Education Academy – Dr Abbi Flint
Students as Partners
• RAISE Network
• Alex Buckley (HEA) – ‘Pedagogy or Politics?’
• Chris Taylor & Karl Hobley (QAA
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Newsroom/Events/Pages/
Developing-Student-Engagement.aspx )
• Any others?