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Student Representatives at UCS:A guide for students

UCS Quality Assurance and Enhancement team

These slides are accompanied by notes exploring the content in greater depth

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Course Representatives …

• Normally one per cohort (year group) for each course

• Elected by their peers

• Represent their peers

• Collaborate with their lecturers and their course leader

• Supported by and work with the UCS Union

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So, what does the

role involve?

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Summary of the role• Regular liaison with your course leader

– Maintain regular contact with your peers and your course leader

– Communicate emerging issues to your course leader

– Communicate responses and developments back to your peers

– Contribute to course monitoring and improvement processes

• Course Committees– Gather your peers’ views and concerns in preparation for meetings

– Attend and contribute to course committee meetings

– Feed back to your peers on course committee discussions and decisions

• UCS Union– Attend and contribute to Union Council activities

and report back to the students on your course

It’s not just what you or your immediate friends think – try to represent the views of your whole cohort

Respect majority and minority views – try to communicate division as well as unity of views

Enable anonymous feedback

Tips for being representative …

Providing feedback

• Raising issues from your cohort

• Expressing observations and thoughts on evidence you see at course committees from a student perspective

• Commenting on progress with course team action plans

• Contributing to discussions and debates

Helpful feedback is …

Balanced

Positives as well as

negatives (and

‘OK’s)

Objective and

subjective

Representative

ConstructiveNot just observations but also suggestions on how improvements might be made

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Day-to-day representative activityWork with your Course Leader and course team to …

Note emerging issues and student opinions, as and when they become apparent (try to keep track of interactions and their impact)

Feed back to fellow students

Enable opinions to be sought from students on proposed changes, developments or enhancements to your course

Contribute to course monitoring and enhancement processes

Course Committee

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Your role on the course committee

• You are a full and equal member of the committee, and your contributions will be respected and valued

• You will have full access to all the information that the course committee considers

• You can contribute fully without fear of reprisal or negative consequences

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Preparation for Course Committees

• Look at the last meeting’s minutes and action plan and identify any items that your fellow students may wish to provide feedback on

• Explore reports or survey results you are provided with, to identify any particular strengths or concerns

• Collate your fellow students’ views and concerns (perhaps by asking for a slot at the start or end of a teaching session)

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What if I can’t attend a course

committee?

Provide written feedback to the committee to ensure your cohort’s views are presented (this can be shared through your Course Leader, the Course Administrator or the Committee Chair)

Seek to meet with the Course Leader after the meeting to discuss the meeting and the feedback you provided

UCS quality monitoring:

• Risk-based– Looking out for early indications that there may be

an issue that needs to be addressed

• Monitoring– Maintaining a continuous watch to ensure that

standards on your course are maintained and that your learning experience is of good quality

• Enhancement– Looking for opportunities to improve provision

the RiME process

Monitoring activity

Evidence is received

Course Committee

receive report of course

team progress on action plan

Effectiveness of actions

considered

Action plan agreed

Course Team ensures

action plan is implemented

and monitored

Course Team considers

evidence, draws conclusions,

proposes actions to address

emergent issues

Course Committee

receive report of course

team

Conclusions and actions considered

Action plan agreed

NSS and UCS Student Survey thoughts …

Pay attention to:

– Number of respondents (response rate and count)• Significance of results

– Comparative figures• Previous year• Within Department or Centre• UCS and national figures

Part of the whole …

Support documentationon MyUCS Student Voice area

Guide on preparation for

course committees:

https://my.ucs.ac.uk/Studen

ts/Student-Voice/Student-R

eps-at-Course-Committees.p

df

National Student Survey fact sheet: https://my.ucs.ac.uk/Students/Student-Voice/NSS.pdf

UCS Student Survey fact sheet: https://my.ucs.ac.uk/Students/Student-Voice/Course-Data-Support/ISS.pdf

Destination of Leavers

survey fact sheet:

https://

my.ucs.ac.uk/Students/S

tudent-Voice/Destinatio

n-Data-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Partnership

Let us know how we can better facilitate this partnership working: By providing you with the information you need to fulfil your

representative roles By improving the means by which you and your fellow students are

able to contribute to the review and enhancement of UCS By helping UCS students feel a part of UCS, sharing our enthusiasm

for seeing it improve and its reputation grow

Higher education providers take deliberate steps to engage all students, individually and collectively, as partners in the assurance and enhancement of their educational experience.

UK Quality Code for Higher Education

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Further information

The Student Representative Code of Practice sets out the processes, support and

responsibilities associated with enabling student representatives to fulfil their role effectively

A formal description of

the role of student

representatives is set

out in the

UCS Management of C

ourses Policy

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Where can I go for advice or

support?

UCS Union

Location: Ground floor, Library Building, UCS Ipswich

Tel: 01473 338155

Email: su.democracy@ucs.ac.uk