New podcast explores student engagement

Our latest podcast focuses on the challenges and opportunities raised by approaches to student engagement.

Hosted by QAA's Dr Matt Denton and introduced by our very own podcast veteran Dr Kerr Castle, our new podcast considers how strategies for learner engagement might develop to address the needs of a higher education environment which has, in recent years, been radically affected by the impacts of a series of traumatic developments: the COVID-19 crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing student mental health crisis.

Our podcast considers how educators and providers are responding to the changing ways in which students, often now also facing work, family and carer responsibilities, are engaging with their studies, and asks whether traditional modes of engagement really matter if their academic attainment metrics still look fine.

Our host Matt is joined by The University of Manchester's Professor Rebecca Hodgson, the University of Westminster's Tom Lowe, and NUS Vice President for Higher Education Alex Stanley.

"The success of a student's time at university shouldn't just come down to their academic achievement," says Alex. "There's so much more to what engaging as a student actually looks like."

Alex suggests that students need to feel supported to participate in internships and other opportunities that will promote their graduate outcomes, to join clubs and to network with their fellow students, to interact with people outside their normal social spheres and to become active in their university communities, as well as to engage with the range of welfare and support services their institutions offer.

"There's a whole variety of things that we should be looking at and, as such, adjusting the ways we engage with our student populations," he says.

Tom agrees that "there are so many ways a student can engage with their university" – and fears that we are currently "measuring student performance in quite rigid ways".

"To one lecturer, a performing student is a student who passes their module," he explains. "And perhaps to our university spreadsheets that's a performing student too. But if you ask an individual on the ground what they want a performing student to be, then that would be a student who's engaging with the debates, making the most of the reading lists and the extracurricular opportunities, and thinking about their career going forward.

"Is our benchmark perhaps too low in regard to what we deem to be a performing student, a successful student? Does it matter the way students are engaging?"

He points out that we each have our own definition of what engagement should look like, based on our own experiences of being a student. He imagines that we as educators can be frustrated by students who choose to engage in different (sometimes predominantly digital) ways – even though they might still be passing their modules.

He goes on to ask if those students are nevertheless missing something – and supposes that students who experience a "more passive" journey through their studies might, as Alex suggests, be losing out key opportunities to hone their social skills.

Rebecca agrees that "the outcome of a degree shouldn't be the only outcome of a university experience" – even if some students may believe it should be.

"We would be letting them down if we aren't showing them and encouraging them and giving them multiple means by which they can engage, so that they can get the most out of their university experience, and for that to then essentially enhance their lives," she says. "Because that's what it should do – going to university – it shouldn't be about getting a degree, it should be about enhancing your life for the rest of your life in terms of what you then go on to do."

How to tune in

QAA Membership podcasts can be found on Buzzsprout and other popular streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. On these platforms, you can explore our full catalogue of podcasts, whose recent topics include awarding gaps, academic integrity, evaluation, competence-based education, work-based learning, embedding employability, the TEF and the Quality Code.

QAA Members may also be interested to know that QAA's Student Engagement Toolkit will be published in the new year. Please continue to watch this space – and check your updates – and follow us on LinkedIn and X – for all the latest details.