Share your experience
Respond to a short survey to share your student representation and voice practices.
Student engagement in the development of education through student voice activities has been the norm in the UK for some time. However, over recent years, institutional practices have evolved, creating a vast, varied and unresearched spread of approaches.
This project will explore how institutions hear from and collaborate with students in innovative ways, to then be able to share effective, adaptive and student-centred practices with the rest of the sector.
Project approach
This project will conduct an audit of student engagement in student voice, student survey and student representation activities across the home nations.
The project team aspires to gain survey responses from at least 100 students’ unions and universities, to conduct a full assessment of institutional approaches including election processes, rewards for participation, and engagement with course, school and faculty-level representatives, as well as university-wide consultation committees.
Planned outputs
An extensive resource will be created to showcase best practices and share success stories from the field to inform practice across the UK and internationally, and this will be shared via QAA events.
The project team have presented at a number of relevant events including the Students Unions' Digital Conference 2024 and the NUS Membership Services Conference 2024.
Read a blog about the project
Ashley Storer-Smith (Student Voice Manager at the University of Nottingham SU) and Tom Lowe-Picture (Chair of the RAISE Network and Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Portsmouth) talk more about the project in a blog post on the WONKHE website.
Lead institution: University of Nottingham
Partner institutions: Newman University, Newman Students’ Union, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Hallam University Students’ Union, University of Portsmouth Students’ Union, University of Portsmouth, University of Highlands & Islands Students’ Association, University of Westminster
Other Collaborative Enhancement Projects
QAA supports a number of projects every year, covering a range of topics and interest areas. Each is led by a QAA Member, working in collaboration with other members institutions. You can find more information on all projects, and access resources and outputs, on our website.