Engagement Week Update Feb 2012

‘I MY EDUCATION’ 2012—an overview

From the 13th – 17th of February 2012 Brighton Students’ Union ran a campaign which aimed to provide opportunities every day on every campus for students to get engaged and feed back on different issues that have an impact on them-selves at University. The main principle of this event was to encourage students to think deeper about their education, and become a critical partner, rather than a passive participant, and will also be-come a part of the SU’s QAA Institutional Review, Student Written Submission.

The week encompassed many different aspects of academic life, and the University are welcome to get involved in any aspect they would like. With keen participants already in-cluding Information Services, the Careers team and the ASK scheme from the CLT.

Monday: I QUALITY RESOURCES - Explored the idea of what excellent quality resources looks like

Tuesday: I COURSE REPS— Talking about partnership in the curriculum and the role of course reps within the university. Also the launch of the Course Rep of the Year Awards 2012

Wednesday: I A GRADUATE CAREER— Looking at what it means to be a graduate from Brighton University incorporating the excellent work the Careers team do, and investigating the effectiveness of the Careers Planning

Agreement

Thursday: I FEEDBACK— Getting students to look at constructive ways to feed back on their degree regardless of year of study, and also promoting the NSS

Friday: I EXCELLENT TEACHING - Reflecting on what excellent teaching looks like, as well as examining L&T and A&F practices throughout the institution looking for Best Practice,

including the launch of the Union’s Teaching & Learning Awards 2012.

Sophie Richardson, HE Representative from NUS National Executive Committee and Christina Yan Zhang the NUS International Officer attended speaking to students on campus and giving them a change to hear about national issues in Education. Students were be invited to provide feedback including: Thought Walls, The chance to make a video blog, Student forums, ‘Keep, Start, Stop’ ballot boxes. Events were held everyday on eve-ry campus to reach the maximum number of students. There was the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win an iPad (draw to happen this Friday) and information about student support and resources provided throughout the week. The week was a great success not the least due to the support of course reps and school reps who volunteer their time to help out on stalls and speak with students on every campus. The feedback from staff and students has been really positive and a huge amount of qualify feed-back has been collected. A huge thank you to all of the staff and students who took part—we look forward to running another successful Engagement Week next Year! Amy Rutland | VP Academic Affairs E: bsuvpa@brighton.ac.uk

Better than the BAFTAs - Excellence Awards 2012

Valentines Day on Engagement Week saw the launch of Course Rep of the Year Awards 2012. Now in their second year Brighton Stu-dents' Union's Excellence Awards are our way of celebrating great Course Reps. There are over 800 Course Reps across the University of Bright-on - they are a key link between every student and the University. Everyday they work hard to make improvements that benefit students. Staff and students can nominate a Course Rep by clicking here Click here The Excellence Awards are also Brighton Students' Union's annual celebration of great teaching and academic support. Now in their 2nd year the awards are an opportunity for students to

recognise and reward outstanding staff contributions to your learning & academic experience. There are several different categories of awards and students can nomi-nate members of staff in one, some or all the award categories as long as you are eligible Students can nominate staff for an Excellence Award by clicking here Click here Since the launch of the Excellence Awards 2012 during Engagement Week - 80 nominations have been made for Course Rep of the Year (compared to 79 in total last year) and 204 nominations have been made for the Excellence Awards for staff. Nominations close at 5pm on Monday 19th March.

Keep Doing …. Fresher's events, Dance Rivals, asking for feedback, friendly and approachable lecturers, Students’ Union Shops, career advice...

Start Doing …. Longer library opening hours (longer on week days and at weekends), more social space on campus, opportunities for students from different years to meet and bond, Student Union Bar, more career advice, lower food prices on campus, more green

activity—switching off lights that aren’t necessary...

Stop Doing …. Long lectures with no interaction, organising classes with long gaps in-between, disorganised room bookings and moving classes...

Some examples of the Keep, Stop, Start Comments!

Engagement Week Statistics

1,200 feedback forms received

Over 550 miles travelled by the project team over the week

6 stalls every day for a week

12 MDF boards for thought walls

Over 5,200 sweets

120 18" Heart shaped, helium filled

balloons; 6 3 feet wide heart shaped balloons

What Happens next with the Engagement Week Data…? 1. School Reps and Students’ Union Staff are inputting the data and then analysing the results. 2. Information on the feedback from each schools will go out to all course and school reps for discussion with students and action at faculty board and course board meetings. Each School report will consist of;

- Overview for the University

- Overview of key issues by School - List of Keep issues - sorted by UG/PG; course; year group

- List of Stop issues - List of Start issues

- Suggested next Steps - how to use the data;

These reports will be emailed to School and Course Reps; posted on UBSU.net and Course Rep area on Student central

3. A paper will go to Academic Standards Committee and other relevant committees looking at the key areas for action. 4. The results will feed into the Student Written Submission the Students’ Union is preparing for the upcoming QAA Institutional Review

Further Information For further information about Engagement Week please do not hesitate to get in touch! Amy Rutland | VP Academic Affairs E: bsuvpa@brighton.ac.uk Facebook: VP AcademicAffairs Brighton-su Twitter: bsuacademic Blog: Brighton SU Academic