TY - JOUR
T1 - Student academic representation in the UK
T2 - An exploration of recruitment, training, and impacts
AU - Winter, Jennie
AU - Turner, Rebecca
AU - Webb, Oliver
AU - Valle, Luciana Dalla
AU - Benwell, Claire
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024/6/18
Y1 - 2024/6/18
N2 - Student academic representation is a staple feature in UK and international higher education. It provides a vital quality function whereby students, who are elected representatives of their programme, canvas the opinions of peers to inform quality assurance processes. In the UK, there is increasing regulatory pressure for universities and student unions to be dual owners of representation activity and much work has been done to enact this model. Nonetheless, little is known about the experiences of those serving as student representatives, despite this being a community of thousands of students across the UK, who hold an instrumental position in institutional quality assurance. We developed an instrument (SARA) to evaluate experiences of 773 active student representatives from 15 UK HE institutions. It explored key areas, including recruitment, training, working approaches and development outcomes. Data indicated low engagement in training in some key areas (e.g., representation of diverse groups and data gathering) and a narrow range of working approaches. These patterns may compromise the value of student representation both from the institutional perspective and that of individual representatives seeking to enhance their skills. Recommendations are suggested for enhancing future practice.
AB - Student academic representation is a staple feature in UK and international higher education. It provides a vital quality function whereby students, who are elected representatives of their programme, canvas the opinions of peers to inform quality assurance processes. In the UK, there is increasing regulatory pressure for universities and student unions to be dual owners of representation activity and much work has been done to enact this model. Nonetheless, little is known about the experiences of those serving as student representatives, despite this being a community of thousands of students across the UK, who hold an instrumental position in institutional quality assurance. We developed an instrument (SARA) to evaluate experiences of 773 active student representatives from 15 UK HE institutions. It explored key areas, including recruitment, training, working approaches and development outcomes. Data indicated low engagement in training in some key areas (e.g., representation of diverse groups and data gathering) and a narrow range of working approaches. These patterns may compromise the value of student representation both from the institutional perspective and that of individual representatives seeking to enhance their skills. Recommendations are suggested for enhancing future practice.
KW - quality assurance
KW - student academic representation
KW - student voice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85196305900&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/context/professional-research/article/1024/viewcontent/Student_Academic_Representation_in_the_UK_.pdf
U2 - 10.1111/hequ.12548
DO - 10.1111/hequ.12548
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85196305900
SN - 0951-5224
VL - 78
JO - Higher Education Quarterly
JF - Higher Education Quarterly
IS - 4
M1 - e12548
ER -