Loughborough Students’ Union

Education Award

1. How has the union ensured that students have been able to campaign on and solve issues that they face and ensured that it is viewed as the primary source of student opinion by the institution?

Three years ago, our President described being an academic rep as the “worst thing I’ve done at Loughborough: frustrating, pointless and everyone thinks you are a saddo.”
This year, most rep posts were contested, almost a quarter of students voted in online elections and more than 95% of reps were positive about their experiences.
What’s changed and how have we made it happen?
* Departments’ Programme reps are led by their President
* Department Presidents’ Group meets fortnightly with the VP-Education to discuss University issues and learn from each other.
* Rep training, including skills, data and history, is tailored to each department - not generic.
* This year, core training was supplemented by 500 hours of advanced training gaining 98% satisfaction feedback scores.
* Our Education Intern uses sophisticated analytics, creating information dashboards on department NSS and Module data to brief reps with evidence to support their face-to-face accounts of student experiences.
* Our Loughborough Academic Awards recognise both outstanding teachers and great reps.
* Our recognition scheme tracks volunteer time and rewards reps with quality Education-branded items and awards.
Union staff have attended all department staff student liaison committees to explain their support role, promote partnership and gain understanding to support reps.
Department Presidents produce a report for students detailing achievements
Union research is well respected; reports on progress and students views are discussed and endorsed by the University Teaching and Learning Committee.
Strong top University/Students’ Union relationships have developed rich partnerships at department level.

2. How have the course representatives worked to involve students in the review and improvement of services and education provision?

One of the most high-profile events of the year is Your Education Week.
Dozens of events and interactions discover the biggest student issues.
Reps are heavily involved, both within their department and Union-wide, and engaged more than 2,000 students. Events included:
Stalls with interactive boards; messages in fish bowls; questionnaires; and, most importantly, face to face conversations.
Opportunities for students to meet and question the University leaders in forums that included:
o the Academic Summit with the Vice-chancellor and VP Education.
o Programme Reps conference with the PVC-Teaching and the Head of Academic Practice.
o University Director of Finance explaining how fees are spent and seeking feedback on communicating to students.
Other activities through the year include:-
Our staff undertaking sophisticated department-level analysis of NSS and Module feedback questionnaires, tracking history and delving into comments to provide illumination. These are discussed with programme Presidents and reps to help with ongoing discussion with students.
New Mid Module questionnaires have provided quick analysis to tackle issues before it’s too late.
Reps use department and module Facebook groups to engage students’ conversations about their experience.
* Department Presidents produce reports back to their department students outlining issues that have been resolved and those that are ongoing. These reports include sections from Department leaders to show how important they are. Students know their input gets results.
Our Student Voice Unit and VP Education, Programme Presidents and Reps work as a team to understand the issues, how they inter-relate and to get improvements.

3. What projects or campaigns have been run this year to enable students to become active partners in their education?

10 Education Priorities
Central to our work are 10 priorities derived from all the research and interaction outlined above.
These priorities form the basis of campaigning and advocacy at all levels from departments to Senate, aiming to put them at the top of the University agenda.
* Reps took these Priorities up at department level, working in concert with the VP Education campaigning at top University level.
Peer Mentoring:
* Our research found that students who were struggling with their course felt most unhappy and unsupported. We successfully campaigned to launch a peer mentoring and learning scheme supported by a full-time staff member based in the Union.
o She has trained almost 400 per mentors/peer assisted learning volunteers to launch programmes. This will have a significant impact.
* We have helped drive a review of University Tutoring and established stronger support by splitting academic and welfare tutors, defining their roles more clearly.
* We have initiated training for the academics who chair of staff/student liaison committees to help them engage students more effectively in meetings.
Postgraduates:
* Reps and students pointed to low participation in student engagement from Post Graduates particularly Research students.
We campaigned to get them more support and have now appointed a Post-Grad student consultant in the Union. She has had great success in engaging Research students who have met as a representative group for the first time. They secured new facilities for all Research students to meet and interact in a PGR informal learning centre.

4. What changes have been made in the institution and what positive impacts have been made for students as a result of this work?

At our recent Education Conference, our PVC-Teaching stated unequivocally
“Your 10 Priorities are our 10 Priorities”.
True to these words, we can summarise these achievements against our priorities:
Priority1 - Longer Library opening hours and more informal learning space
Priorities 2&3 - Improvements to lecture and exam time-tabling; more notice, less bunching.
Priority 5 - Improved information on Lecturer availability
Priority 6 - Major improvements to the VLE; a dramatic increase in lecture capture
Priority 7 - Better tutoring systems
Priority 8 - A review of hidden course costs outcomes Include: £100 for all Art Students towards course materials.
Priority 9 - Better personal development support which incorporates co-curricular activity (including within the union) into formal learning.
Priority10 - Ongoing engagement with our Student led teaching Awards
Other Achivements:-
Better information and systems for Academic Misconduct and Impaired Performance through Union campaigns.
Improvements to assessment and feedback practice
The peer assisted Learning and Mentoring programme
A clearer statement of how fees are spent
Most importantly, Programme Presidents’ reports and other feedback have recorded 200+ substantial improvements at department level, all of which will have a significant benefit to those students affected.
This remarkable year is the culmination of a journey our outstanding partnership between the Students’ Union, Academic Reps and the University at all levels. It is a model of how genuinely putting student interests first and working together can dramatically improve the University education experience. It deserves to be recognised by NUS as a beacon to others.

Nominated by Andy Parsons, Students’ Union Staff

What the judges said…

“An extremely clear range of campaigning tactics demonstrated. 10 clear priorities set about towards with very impressive performance against them.” Mark White, Association of Colleges

“Loughborough’s entry demonstrates improvements that are both comprehensive and specific, ranging from broad structural improvements to schemes targeting clearly identified problems. The peer mentoring supported by a full-time member of staff was particularly impressive, with quantified results.” John Gill, Times Higher Education