I wanted to be on the student strategic advisory committee because I am really interested in giving further input to QAA on how students are impacted by changes in the sector. I think this kind of space is vital to ensuring that students' voices are represented at every level of decision-making in higher education and, most importantly, that we're engaging them as partners rather than just beneficiaries of services provided by different institutions. The opportunity to be part of these discussions and chair this committee is one that I'm very grateful to have.

I think the best way of proving the quality of a sector is by asking those directly benefitted by its successes and affected by its shortcomings. Any conversations about HE quality can only go so far if students are not involved in the process of setting it. Student engagement in this process allows us to test and discuss any proposed changes on people that will most directly feel their impact. It can also serve as an educational opportunity for students, so they can see what the standards should be in contrast to those they see in their day-to-day educational experience.

There is something really powerful about empowering students to change the communities they are a part of for the better. That is the mission of the SU I am an officer in, and it has directed my every decision and project in this role. There is a gigantic difference in projects, plans, and campaigns when students are involved and feel like they have ownership of them, versus when we organise something internally and just roll it out to students as an opportunity to participate. In the first example, students also get experience of community organising as well as representing their peers. Student engagement simply improves their university experience in all aspects (academic, community building, and extra-curricular).

Alex has been Vice President of Higher Education at the National Union of Students since July 2024. His main role is to represent students in Higher Education and to advocate and campaign for their best interests. Prior to NUS, he spent a year as the Education Officer at Exeter Students’ Guild and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Exeter.

Alex loves enhancing the student voice and sees it as crucial that students have the ability to feed into and co-create the education system that they are so intrinsic to.

He sees student representation as a true privilege and a great opportunity to ensure that the concerns of students are not just heard but acted on.

I applied for the committee because I enjoyed my role as a sabbatical officer at Southampton University Students’ Union (SUSU), especially parts related to quality assurance in HE. As an Education graduate and current PhD student in Education, I have always had an interest in how HE is changing. QAA is a great organisation that brings universities across the UK together to tackle challenges, and I have enjoyed learning more about the HE system in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

When decisions about students are made without students, it reduces the likelihood those decisions will be accepted, or even be successful at tackling the challenge. Working with students takes the guess work out of quality in HE, and often leads to more innovative solutions to the most wicked problems.

I’m most passionate about student engagement within change. Whether it’s changing the furniture in a common room space to changing the modules on a programme, students should always be part of the conversation. Collaborating, and where possible, partnering with students helps make change possible and offers benefits to both the university and to the students.

I wanted to be on QAA's Student Strategic Advisory Committee to help enhance the educational experience and outcomes for the diverse student population across the UK's higher education institutions.

Student engagement in all areas of further and higher education is vital as it ensures courses and degrees are relevant and effective. When students are involved in shaping their education, it leads to higher motivation, satisfaction, and overall success, building a culture of continuous improvement.

I am most passionate about representation; I believe student engagement and representation go hand-in-hand, you simply cannot represent without engaging.

Dola is the current President: Education at the University of Sunderland Students' Union having graduated with a Master's in Public Health in 2023. Her role involves being the voice for students on academic issues, contributing to the development of educational policies, advocating for continuous improvement in academic support for students and improving academic services.

I believe student engagement is important in every aspect of the academic journey. Student engagement in quality ensures the student voice is incorporated in the process of enhancing the quality of provision as this directly affects the student experience, academic outcomes and student satisfaction.

I am particularly passionate about student engagement in all decision making that directly impacts on student success. When students are actively involved in decisions affecting their academic journey it helps align institutional strategies and policies with student needs and expectations. I also take keen interest in students’ academic success and ensuring they get appropriate academic support.

I’m Vice President Education at the University of Essex Students’ Union, in my second term of office, representing students' academic interests. I studied BA Creative Writing and worked in marketing alongside my degree. From 2021-2023, I served on the Advisory Board of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation which works to support the wellness of young people and empowers them to build a kinder, braver world.

I lead a team of over 400 Student Reps and believe students should be co-creators in all aspects of their education. Student engagement is currently a major challenge for the sector, and I’m leading a project with our Pro Vice-Chancellor Education called ‘Developing Engagement with Education’, as part of the SU’s Big Plan which are the Student Leader’s flagship projects in response to over 13,000 pieces of student feedback. As part of my work representing students on a range of University committees, I see the clear links between quality and standards, and the lived student experience of students. How we approach and engage students in quality and standards is how we set and raise the bar of the education we deliver and ensure we can transform lives.

I’m passionate about data-driven student voice, education policy, ensuring we put students at the forefront of change, revolutionising the way we communicate with students, and taking a collaborative approach with universities and the HE sector to build a sustainable future.

I have been working in partnership with multiple departments across several universities amplifying diverse students’ voice. The opportunity to participate in student voice projects and research has enabled me to gain knowledge within the area, adding to my personal experience of being a diverse learner myself. I am now undertaking a PhD that explores inclusive student voice for diverse learners. I feel that my personal experience and knowledge within the area could continue to support diverse learners’ representation within the committee.

Students are the voice on the ground. Their perception of quality needs to be heard, understood and considered in policy change to ensure that perceptions of quality are aligned with students’ expectations. This is particularly so for diverse learners, such as myself, who are often not represented in quality assurance but who require a seat at the table.

My interests include student voice, student mental health, representation and social justice.

I was the Vice President Education at Edinburgh University Students' Association for the 2022-23 academic year and really enjoyed learning about quality processes and student engagement in the sector. I am interested in widening participation and want to draw from my experiences working in HE and as a former apprenticeship and access course student.

I think one of the benefits of working with students is having a fresh pair of eyes to look at how things work, and to ask questions. Often students have strong first-hand knowledge of how decisions in policy and practice can affect themselves and their peers.

As a former VP Education I am most interested in academic representation and enjoyed working with programme and subject representatives. I also really enjoyed representing our postgraduate taught and PhD students, and getting to learn about their research between staff-student meetings.

Cinnomen is a BSc student at The Open University studying Forensic Psychology, which will be her fourth OU degree. She was the 2020-22 Vice President Education for The Open University Students' Association and is a current academic rep, so she has both recent lived experience and an active interest in student engagement, academic policy and academic representation.

She fully believes in the importance of quality and standards across HE and has been actively involved in both quality assurance and quality enhancement activity at the University, such as acting as Co-Chair for the Peer Review Group that monitors the teaching and learning delivered by our Boards of Studies and by her work as the student lead on the body writing the new Teaching and Learning Plan that has been implemented at the University.

She is passionate about student engagement, belonging, social mobility and student voice, with a specific focus on mental health in HE, accessibility, intersectionality, and amplifying minoritised voices and has always ensured that the student perspective is kept front and centre in all that she does.

Outside of studies, she is a full-time carer, and uses her spare time, what little there is, to ensure and build a sense of community for distance learners by both chairing the Creative Writing Society and being Vice-Chair of Societies at her institution.

Being part of student representation is what gave me a chance to feel a sense of belonging when I returned to Education at 30. I feel very passionate about the learner voice in all aspects of the learning experience, even those parts the learner may never be fully appreciate or be aware of. In FE and in colleges, we get that chance to work with, get to know, develop and guide some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, who face extreme barriers in life, let along in education. It’s vital to help ensure these voices are kept at the forefront in this type of committee, and I feel in my previous role of Student President and Vice President I have been trusted by learners to amplify their voice and champion them.

Student engagement is so important because in order to create the best education experience, we need to keep the student at the heart of what we do. And ultimately, we are accountable to those learners, if we don’t have them, why are we all here?

I am most passionate about co-designing with our learners for student engagement, being creative in ways we get their engagement in quality processes. In quality (and representation) we should never stand still, the learners are dynamic and diverse and ever changing, quality should be the same.

I am Emmanuela, a Masters student of Economics at Swansea University. Alongside my studies, I am an Admissions Assistant, Senior Student Ambassador, Student Reviewer, Student Opinion Panellist, Student Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion as well as a previous Academic Quality Services Intern at my University.

I had my first internship experience with the Academic Quality Services (AQS) team in Swansea University and I’ve been drawn to quality evaluation and enhancement ever since then. Due to my keen interest, I continued with the AQS team as a Student Reviewer for Quality and later became a member of the Student Opinion Panel.

Student engagement in quality is crucial because it enhances learning outcomes, fosters critical thinking, and promotes a sense of ownership and accountability in education, leading to improved academic performance, skill development, personal growth and overall satisfaction with the educational process. Student engagement in quality is essential for fostering an enriching educational experience that benefits both students and educational institutions.

I am most passionate about fostering a sense of curiosity, intrinsic motivation and inclusion in students. By creating an environment where they feel valued and excited to learn, we can inspire lifelong learners who actively seek knowledge and personal growth, both inside and outside the classroom, for students from all backgrounds and needs.

SSAC aligns with my passion for improving the student experience and my commitment to educational excellence. I am excited about the opportunity to contribute my skills and insights to support QAA’s mission. I believe that student voice input at a strategic and operational level is crucial to ensure that educational institutions remain responsive to the aspirations of students. I am particularly enthusiastic about the potential to drive meaningful and tangible change through collaboration.

Student engagement directly impacts learning and the engagement of students. I believe that when students are actively involved, they are more likely to be motivated, and their feedback can drive improvements to ensure that educational programmes are as effective as they can be.

I am most passionate about fostering and building a sense of community. This past academic year, I addressed there being a lack of a sense of belonging at The University of Manchester, and I am passionate about addressing this issue on a wider scale.

I’m Marija, the Academic Representation Officer at the University of Portsmouth. Having come from a different educational background, I quickly realised there are aspects of the English system that don’t always work for students effectively. I took on this role to advocate for students, and to raise awareness of different approaches that could improve their experience.

I’m extremely passionate about progressive education and making real, meaningful changes. Student engagement in quality is vital because students often bring fresh perspectives and are quick to point out what isn’t working. Their input is key to improving things, not just keeping the status quo. I’m especially focused on making sure student voice representation is genuine and not just a formality, while pushing for academic changes that actually help students and move the system forward, rather than sticking to old methods that have often run their course, or aren’t working anymore.

While studying law at university, I took on many student leadership roles to promote the change I sought to achieve such as representing students from minority backgrounds on the student council and being a course representative for my peers. This opened my eyes to the many issues experienced by students in their pursuit of building their careers and better lives for themselves.

The unique opportunity to join the QAA Student Strategic Advisory Committee allows me to utilise the skills and experience I gained from my time at university to realise change on a much greater scale than would ever be possible through just a single institution. I hope that my tenure with the SSAC will achieve a lasting legacy that all universities who work with QAA will feel for generations to come.

From my experience, student engagement is everything when determining the value of education and every student I have talked to has agreed with me. This was proven to me during my time working in representative roles on behalf of other students. By being able to negotiate students' concerns with university staff on their behalf and lobbying the university through the students' union, I witnessed dynamic shifts in the experiences of students where adaptations in teaching style, classroom environments and course structure allowed students to engage with their courses in ways they could understand. This massively contributed not only to their academic success but their overall experience of university.

To me, what really lies at the bedrock of student engagement is students' emotional and behavioural perceptions of education. Whenever students develop a positive view of the value of education, they will want to engage with it, prompting them to cognitively engage with the learning process and therefore maximise their resources and time in not only engaging with learning, but understanding how to adapt their style of learning in a way that works for them. To be able to achieve this, I believe, is the ultimate end goal of supporting student engagement because it is what allows students to independently develop a healthy and sustainable relationship with education as well as being able to maintain a work/life balance that suits them.