The NUS/QAA 'Understanding the barriers to student engagement' report has been published and is available to download. This report has been produced in partnership with the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) as part of three NUS/QAA collaborative projects undertaken in 2011/12.
The report has been produced based on the experiences and evidence developed from working with the students’ unions and institutions that participated in Strand 3 of the NUS/QAA collaborative projects and is designed to contribute to the knowledge of the higher education sector on the barriers to engaging students in their learning experience.
The report is structured around the five key themes:
Theme 1 - A partnership approach.
Theme 2 - Communicating with students.
Theme 3 - Understanding and developing the role of student representatives.
Theme 4 - Delivering student engagement at different levels within institutions.
Theme 5 - Raising issues, but who finds the solutions?
Each theme sets out a particular issue or process, which has the potential to become a barrier to student engagement if it is not tackled or delivered effectively. In the report, further detail and examples of how students’ unions and institutions have approached these barriers accompany each theme.
We know that new practice on student engagement is being developed all the time and existing mechanisms are being continually reviewed and improved. We hope this report will be a gateway to further sharing of good practice and discussions on student engagement locally and nationally. To help facilitate the sharing of this good practice, there is a section on the new Quality Matters website dedicated to the report. The report is available to download and we will be encouraging students’ unions and institutions to upload new case studies on the report themes on a rolling basis. If you are interested in contributing a case study, please contact Ellie Russell, Project Officer (Developing Quality Engagement) ellie.russell@nus.org.uk.
You can download the full report here.