Student Engagement in Quality - A UK
Case Study: Partners & Producers

Dan Derricott
University of Lincoln1Overview• Quality: what are trying to achieve• Benefits of engaging students in quality processes• Emergence of student engagement in the UK• Dominant narrative: Students as Partners• Alternative narrative: Students as Producers• In Practice: examples of student engagement in quality• Principles of good student engagement2• University of Lincoln
Roots trace back to 1861
Established 2001 by will of local people
12,000 students
620 academic staff; 620 support staff47th/120 - Guardian University Guide
2013
Top quarter for student satisfaction(National Student Survey)
www.lincoln.ac.uk @UniLincoln

3Quality

What are wetrying to achieve?
• Assure minimum academic
standards and harmonisation /comparability• Ensure students have goodquality opportunities to learn andachieve those academic
standards• Enhance the opportunities tolearn. Constantly striving to bebetter.
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Benefits of engaging students in quality
assurance & enhancement activities• Students bring an expert opinion on what it is like to be a
student in the year 2013
• Students perspective on teaching and learningcomplements (but does not replace) the opinion ofacademics• Students bring new ideas; energy; enthusiasm; creativity• Students help challenge norms and assumptions• Student engagement is a process, not a product. It is
one method for achieving quality assurance &enhancement.
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The emergence of student engagement in quality
assurance & enhancement in the UK
A brief timeline6• 1980s – provision for student written submissions• 1990s – HEQC: no student written submission, but meeting withstudents compulsory. Started to train students as course reps toengage locally.
• 1997 – QAA established• 2002 – ‘Student Written Submission’ re-introduced into new
Institutional Audit method. First QAA staff employed; major conferenceheld.
• 2002-03 – Scottish sector adopted student engagement as a major
principle in their approach in their ‘enhancement themes’. Introduced
Student Reviewers and SPARQS.

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• 2006 – QAA Conference in Glasgow heard from NUS Scotland
President & Head of SPARQS on positive impact. QAA Boardagreed Student Reviewers should be rolled out across the UK first piloted in 6 English universities and reported on to a national
conference (it was well received).
• 2007 – More staff in QAA; QAA Student Engagement Strategy:
support for students’ unions, student member of the board• 2009 - the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)
commissioned the Open University's Centre for Higher Education
Research & Information (CHERI) to report on the state of student
engagement. This resulted in HEFCE funding the Higher Education
Academy and the National Union of Students to further develop
resources and support for engaging students.

8• 2010 - QAA Board receives 'think piece' document
arguing for a formal expectation that Universities
engage students in quality processes - and that QAA'treats students as the primary stakeholder group inall its work'• 2010 - QAA's new strategic plan: 1st aim is to ensure
QAA is meeting students' needs• 2012 - UK Quality Code is revised and a new chapter/ expectation on student engagement is introduced
that all providers of Higher Education must complywith9

The current situation - highlights• All major reviews of Universities and Colleges thatdeliver higher education courses have a full student
member of the panel (over 100 student reviewers)• Students at the University or College being reviewed cansend a written submission to the reviewers - giving thestudent perspective on all areas of standards & quality• Two student members of the QAA Board of Directors• Formal committee of the Board of Directors: the Student
Advisory Board
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Current concepts around the role of students inhigher education
Partners vs. Producers

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Dominant narrative: Students as Partners• Rejection of students as passive consumers of education• Students as partners in their learning & research ///Students as partners in educational change & quality
processes• Emphasises students' active role in their education• Three perspectives supportive of this:• Academics - Higher Education Academy• Students - National Union of Students• Regulators - Quality Assurance Agency
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Academics• Higher Education Academy(HEA) runs a 'Students asPartners' project to support
academic staff in engaging
students as partners in theirlearning / research• Promotes a more active style ofteaching & learning as very
positive, including researchengaged-teaching• HEA accredits teacher education
courses so their support forstudents as partners issignificant
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Students• The National Union of Students(NUS) has a Student
Engagement & Quality Unit that
supports students' unions tofacilitate student engagement inquality and institutional change.

• Published 'A Manifesto forPartnership' in 2013: radicalcase for a certain type ofpartnership• NUS Officers are members of
the boards of all key sector
bodies. Student engagement
nationally.
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Regulators• The Quality Assurance Agency(QAA) published a brand newchapter in the UK Quality Codeon student engagement inquality assurance &enhancement.

• Expectation that providers ofhigher education engage
students, individually andcollectively, in the assurance
and enhancement of theireducational experience. 7
indicators of good practice.

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Alternative Narrative: Student as Producer• Rejection of students as passive consumers of education• Conceived at the University of Warwick, developed andadopted institution-wide at the University of Lincoln• An organising principle for teaching & learning centredaround research-engaged-teaching / inquiry-basedlearning• Deep radical political roots. A response from academics
in a crisis of meaning and identity for Universities.
• Walter Benjamin - Author as Producer talk in 1930s• Humboldt 'modern' University in Berlin - research &teaching• US Reinvention Committee. Research & teachingconflict.
• Student protest movement 1962: students more thanstudents16• Student as Producer seeks to restate the meaning ofa universities; to re-engineer the relationships
between teaching & research and between teachers& students• Practically it has seen students engaged actively inthe design of the curriculum and the approval of newcourses / re-approval of courses.

• Extended the principles beyond the curriculum:Students as Producers of their University.
• http://studentasproducer.lincoln.ac.uk
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Partners vs. Producers?

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In Practice
Examples of student engagement in quality

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Student
Representatives• Common across Universities• Elected by peers at course anddepartment level• Usually supported by Students'
Union• Members of course or
department committees thathave responsibility for quality• Views presented by Student
Reps are considered in quality
monitoring and evaluation
processes
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Students as Change
Agents• University of Exeter• Students lead projects to changepart of their teaching andlearning experience• producing essay-writing guides
for science subjects• developing schemes for second
and third year students to help
first years with language tuition• improving academic assessmentand feedback practices• integrating new technology into
lectures and other teaching21

Support Departments• University of Lincoln• Student Engagement Strategy• Every support department has aStudent Engagement Plan and aStudent Engagement Champion• Human Resources - students on
staff appointment panels• Estates - students involved withbuilding design & refurbishment• Library - designing new induction
processes
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Student Reviewers• Quality Assurance Agency• Large group of students
recruited nationally and given
intense training. Over 100.
• Full member of the review panel,often with a particular focus on
the experience of students• Paid the same fee• Ask different questions, from adifferent perspective. Studentfocus.
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Principles of student engagement
Higher Education Academy (1)• Authenticity: where there is a clear rationale for students – and others – to workin partnership, each partner has a stake in the agenda and in taking the workforward• Inclusivity: the absence of barriers that prevent engagement in partnershipwork• Speaking ‘with’, not ‘for’ or ‘about’ students• Being open to radical transformation, not just slotting partnership work into
existing structures and processes• A need for partnership work to be acknowledged and assented to by all parties
involved• Development of shared purpose, values and principles• Taking time to understand our perceptions of one another and how that affects
partnership relationships
24Principles of student engagement
Higher Education Academy (2)• Joint decision making and accountability arrangements• Equality of value whist recognising difference and the unique contribution eachpartner makes• Acknowledgement of power relationships: being clear about where ownershipfor issues and agendas lies and how outcomes of work will be used. Being
prepared to challenge structures and practices that re-affirm existing
inequalities.
• Taking time to build trust• Creating an environment that encourages risk taking• Identifying resources to support partnership working• Embracing a shared commitment to evaluation and learning• Celebrating successful outcomes of and approaches to partnership working
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Student Engagement in Quality - A UK
Case Study: Partners & Producers

Dan Derricott
University of Lincoln
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