Jenni Woods, Widening Participation Coordinator, ADC

As the University’s Widening Participation Officer I attended the UNC Charlotte study tour with a particular interest in finding out about the pre-entry transition and on course support programmes available to help non-traditional groups of students adjust to university life and achieve the best possible academic outcome.

During our visit we were warmly welcomed by a wide range of staff at different levels who gave up their time to talk to us about the various initiatives at UNC Charlotte that encourage access and success. Myself and David Taylor, Head of Widening Participation, worked particularly closely with Dr Sam Lopez, Director of the Office of Multicultural Academic Services and Mr Howard Simms, manager of the UTOP programme as well as a number of student representatives who answered our questions honestly and spoke about the programmes with great enthusiasm.

The University Transition Opportunities Programme (UTOP) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and is credited with establishing UNC Charlotte’s commitment to prepare underrepresented students for the shift from high school to college, which is also the main purpose of the Compact Scheme at Kingston University. Therefore, I was keen to learn more about what the programme consists of and its impact on the students who take part. UTOP is open to all first generation applicants to UNC Charlotte, but predominantly targets students from African American backgrounds. It was introduced to address the lower attainment of black students compared to more traditional entrants (a discrepancy that has also been identified within Kingston’s student population) and has proved extremely successful in closing this gap. UTOP consists of a five week residential summer school and

includes three courses worth academic credit as well as social and orientation activities. Research from the past 10 years indicates that students who participated in UTOP had higher retention and graduation rates than students from similar backgrounds who did

not take part. As well as the academic rigour at its core, staff and students emphasised that the shared experience creates a sense of community and support amongst participants that greatly contributes to their success.

Myself and one of the Kingston students were fortunate enough to be invited to a meeting of the UTOP Learning Community during the week of our visit, as well as a meeting of the Learning Community Steering Group. Learning Communities (LCs) have a 10 year history at UNC Charlotte and play a key role in providing pastoral care and supporting students’ attainment during their first year. There are 16 LCs at UNC Charlotte with around 750 students (approx 24% of all Freshmen). LCs are discipline based (e.g. Engineering, Psychology) or have a common theme (e.g. UTOP, Gender Excellence). They are first year academic programmes that carry credit but also benefit the students through providing a

community of peer support, academic mentors and a stronger connection to the institution. We were shown evidence that LC participants achieve a higher grade point average, a better first year retention rate and are more engaged than non-LC students.

Students in the UTOP Learning Community we observed were in the fifth week of their first semester. The LC Coordinator was Mr Howard Simms, an academic member of staff who also manages the UTOP summer school. The students were given an assignment based

on a set text and completed an activity requiring them to reflect on their first few weeks on campus. However, the class also gave students an opportunity to ask questions and clarify matters that had arisen in their early weeks of higher education. Mr Simms was able to offer

them advice and prompt them to take certain actions, e.g. those who had not yet met with their academic adviser to finalise their timetable were told to do so. The students were also encouraged to become involved in activities outside of their course to enhance their skill set on graduation and Mr Simms spoke them about how to present and conduct themselves on campus.

Overall the UTOP students were extremely enthusiastic and clearly felt they had benefited from their involvement in the programme and the Learning Community (though some did admit they had been reluctant to attend the summer school initially!) The students felt the

summer programme had given them a head start in terms of their familiarity with the university and their preparation for study, as well as the comfort of having familiar faces around campus and a secondary academic adviser in Mr Simms. They trusted Mr Simms

and felt a desire to make him proud of them. The students were also confident of how to access support should they need it and that any academic issues would be identified early.

Kingston’s Compact Scheme is being expanded and developed for 2012 entry as part of our recent agreement with the Office for Fair Access. A number of factors, including the UK admissions process and different structure of our degree courses mean that we cannot

provide a programme exactly like UTOP. However, we will be developing short summer schools (2-3 days) to firm applicants in 2012 with preparation activities and study skills related to particular subject areas, as well as an enhanced induction and orientation

session. We are also keen to pilot one or two “Learning Communities” within the Compact Scheme to support new students as part of the transition process (i.e. during the first 4-6

weeks of term). These would initially be co-ordinated by trained student leaders, with input from Faculty staff, and promote regular contact between Compact students based on common themes or subject areas. It is hoped that, as is the case at UNC Charlotte, the

LCs will begin to encourage strong ties between the students and engagement with the institution, as well as ultimately improving retention and attainment in the first year. We will be working with the students who came to UNC Charlotte to develop these aspects of the scheme and intend to recruit and train student leaders to facilitate the work. Since its inception the Compact Scheme has had a significant impact on conversion rates through engaging applicants and advising them on the most appropriate courses to apply for. Retention amongst Compact students from first to second year has also been slightly better than the university overall.

We hope that by developing these new Compact initiatives, and incorporating some of the best practice we witnessed at UNC Charlotte, we can build on this success and ensure that we are supporting students in achieving their full potential at Kingston University.

Marion Webb, September 2011

I had three main priorities for this visit. The first was to discover more about the variety of mentoring schemes in place at UNC Charlotte to support students once they were enrolled on UNCC courses. I wanted to bring this knowledge back with a view to introducing mentoring schemes for a large number of first year students as part of Kingston’s Access agreement.

Learning points from Charlotte’s mentoring schemes are:

• A Mentoring Committee brings together representatives from all schemes. This would be helpful at Kingston to ensure that inappropriate overlaps are avoided.

• Mentoring schemes need administrative support

• Student clubs and societies are a useful source of recruitment for mentors

• Mentors at Charlotte all receive three days’ training. This training involves topics such as “How to interact with a lecturer”, managing conflict and facilitation skills. It is also recommended that one day of the training should focus on employability skills.

• The Careers Service employs a number of “Peer Career Assistants”.

These assist at careers events, check students’ CVs, manage the Careers social media sites and make presentations to students.

• The Careers Service uses employers and alumni to act as mentors

• Many mentorship schemes contain an observation component.

Mentors are given feedback on their rapport with their mentees, ways in which they provide feedback to students and ways in which they check understanding. It would be helpful for

Kingston’s mentoring scheme to ensure that an observation protocol was established.

I was also interested in the Learning Communities which have been in operation at Charlotte for ten years. These are small groups of students and staff who work closely together with the aim of promoting a sense of belonging and thereby aiming to improve the students’ chances of academic success. Some of these exist within disciplines such as Psychology and Business (and the recently completed evaluation suggests that these subject based communities are the most successful in terms of retention and results) but others focus on themes or groups, such as first generation students. I observed a BEST (Building Educational Strengths and Talents) session for first generation HE students. This was led by a PhD student from UNC Chapel Hill who used a range of drama exercises to encourage these first year students to act out issues around stereotyping. The students participated with enormous enthusiasm (I participated too but slightly less enthusiastically). One of the principles around learning communities is that they should involve experiential learning techniques, such as problem-based learning and they incorporate extra-curricular (“co-curricular”) activities, such as going on “retreats” or volunteering.

Following my work with the Outduction project (http://www. outduction.ac.uk/) I have a particular interest in working with student interns. At UNC Charlotte a variety of internships exist. Some of these are under the banner of “49erships” which are non credit bearing

where students work a minimum of 80 hours a semester in a career related position (placement) to gain professional experience.

Other internships are credit-bearing and the students are assessed by assignments based on their placements, which could take place over the summer outside of teaching time. The Careers Service at UNC Charlotte stresses the importance of “Occupational Literacy”

which is a combination of understanding careers and the demands of various jobs with self-awareness. Interestingly, the Careers Service listed the skills that US employers value as Verbal Communication, Strong Work Ethic, Teamwork, Analytical Skills, Initiative. These are

similar to our KEYS but I did sense that there was less obligation on staff to incorporate these skills into the curriculum.

My conclusions are that many of the ideas from UNC Charlotte could be adapted for the Kingston context. We already make use of student mentors but need to increase recruitment considerably. We could certainly increase our use of student interns and students

generally employed on campus. The Learning Communities model already exists within the APPL groups in Nursing and it would be exciting to see this spread perhaps though personal tutor schemes.

successful in terms of retention and results) but others focus on themes or groups, such as first generation students. I observed a BEST (Building Educational Strengths and Talents) session for first generation HE students. This was led by a PhD student from UNC Chapel Hill who used a range of drama exercises to encourage these first year students to act out issues around stereotyping. The students participated with enormous enthusiasm (I participated too but slightly less enthusiastically). One of the principles around learning communities is that they should involve experiential learning techniques, such as problem-based learning and they incorporate extra-curricular (“co-curricular”) activities, such as going on “retreats” or volunteering.

Following my work with the Outduction project (http://www.outduction.ac.uk/) I have a particular interest in working with student interns. At UNC Charlotte a variety of internships exist. Some of these are under the banner of “49erships” which are non credit bearing

where students work a minimum of 80 hours a semester in a career related position (placement) to gain professional experience.

Other internships are credit-bearing and the students are assessed by assignments based on their placements, which could take place over the summer outside of teaching time. The Careers Service at UNC Charlotte stresses the importance of “Occupational Literacy”

which is a combination of understanding careers and the demands of various jobs with self-awareness. Interestingly, the Careers Service listed the skills that US employers value as Verbal Communication, Strong Work Ethic, Teamwork, Analytical Skills, Initiative. These are

similar to our KEYS but I did sense that there was less obligation on staff to incorporate these skills into the curriculum.

My conclusions are that many of the ideas from UNC Charlotte could be adapted for the Kingston context. We already make use of student mentors but need to increase recruitment considerably. We could certainly increase our use of student interns and students generally employed on campus. The Learning Communities model already exists within the APPL groups in Nursing and it would be exciting to see this spread perhaps though personal tutor schemes.

The value and importance of feedback and formative assessment is well supported and documented in the literature. Most of us will be familiar with Black & Wiliam’s (1998) distinction between formative and summative assessment for or of learning. Although, maybe labour intensive for staff, formative assessments are positively associated with students academic achievements and progress (Black & William, 1998; Hargreaves, 2005; Sadler 1989). As such, feedback and formative assessment should be an essential part of the process of teaching and learning (Black & William’s, 1998; Shepard, 2000). However, this is not always the case as for example the HEFCE (2006; 2009) students’ satisfaction survey shows. Students of most universities rated feedback on assessments and assignments as one of the weakest areas of academic support, and Kingston University is no exception.

To increase the quality and to ease the effort of delivering feedback as well as reducing the administrational burden, educational technologies can be used. Bryan & Clegg (2006) in their edited collection of papers show that a variety of technologies can be used to support feedback e.g. peer feedback, critical thinking,

personal reflection and instantaneous support feedback. The different papers demonstrate that e-assessments have a wider scope than just objective tests using for example multiple choice questions. Similarly, the JISC report by Pachler et al. (2009: 2) shows that technologies are versatile and they argue that “almost all technology can be used in a formative way – if the right conditions are set”. As the HEA literature review by Hounsel et al., (2007) shows, innovative e-assessments offer gains to students and staff that go beyond the administrational gains. Educational technology might combine the wish for optimising staff time and enhancing teaching, learning and assessment at the same time.

The Academic Development Centre (ADC) has for over a decade supported various technologies that support the process of assessment, feedback and administration. In recent years Blackboard Quizz tool and test manager, Qmark Perception assessment tool and the wiki and blog tools have been supplimented by the Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Service, the GradeMark Online Marking tool and the Peer Mark Peermarking tool. Further, individual faculties have implemented other novel forms of technology to ease the administrative burden of delivering feedback to students with e.g. mail merge application.  With the recent introduction of PeerMark we would like to investigate Perceptions on the role technologies can play in supporting assessment, coursework submission, Peer Assessment and online marking.

We are looking for academics and/or administrators who would like to share their experiences with us on:

• delivery of online submission (e.g. Blackboard online assignment, Turnitin),

• digital delivery of feedback (e.g. podcast, mail merge application, Grademark),

• digital peer feedback, etc.

The main source of data collection for this evaluation will be an interview in which the interviewee could share his/her experience, success and constraints in using digital tools, tell us about the aims, change in routine, division of labour, and provide us with recommendation for others who might consider using e-learning tools for this purpose and for staff development.

This evaluation would result in a small report that will be circulated.  However, the long-term aim is to write an academic position paper that would contribute to the enhancement of online submission, feedback and assessment.

To express your interest of participation or for more information on the evaluation please contact Hendrik van der Sluis

References:

Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998). ‘Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment’. Phi Delta Kappan, 80 (2): 139-148. [Online]. Available from: http://www.pdkintl.org/ kappan/kbla9810.htm

Bryan, C. & Clegg, K. (2006) ‘Innovative Assessment in Higher Education’ (2nd Ed.). Oxon, Routledge Hargreaves, E. (2005). ‘Assessment for learning? Thinking outside the (black) box’. Cambridge Journal of Education, 35:2, 213-224 HEFCE (2006) ‘2006 National Student Survey’. [Online].Available from: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/nss/. HEFCE (2009) ‘2009 National Student Survey’. [Online].Available

from: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/nss/. Hounsell, D., Falchikov, N., Hounsell, J., Klampfleitner, M., Huxham,

M., Thomson, K. & Blair, S. (2007). Innovative assessment across the disciplines. An analytical review of the literature. FINAL REPORT. [Online]. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/research/Innovative_assessment_LR.pdf

Pachler, N., Mellar, H., Daly, C., Mor, Y. & Wiliam, D. (2009). ‘Scoping a Vision for Formative e-Assessment’. JISC, 30 April 2009. [Online]. Available from: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2009/feasstfinalreport.aspx

Sadler, D.R. (1989). ‚Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems‘. Instructional Science, 18 (2): 119-144 Shepard, L.A. (2000). ‘The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture’. Educational Researcher, 29, 7, 4–14

Hendrik van der Sluis and Tim Linsey, Academic Development Centre

Welcome to the first 2011 edition of the ADC newsletter, which is being published at a time when prospective students, their families
and supporters, and employers are asking, in the light of impending increases in fee levels, the general question: “What’s the point of higher education?” and, more specifi cally, “What does a Kingston University graduate look like?”
The University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy, which is being implemented by every faculty, is intended to create opportunities for students to graduate with:
• a sound knowledge base within their subject;
• a sense of preparedness for a knowledge-driven economy;
• confidence;
• KEYS: self-awareness, communication skills, interpersonal skills, research and information literacy skills, numeracy skills, management and literacy skills, and creativity and problem-solving skills;
• a reflective approach to their own learning and an appreciation of the benefi ts of lifelong learning;
• an awareness of the social, cultural and economic context of their university experience;
• a respect for the views of others;
• international horizons and an awareness of global citizenship;
• entrepreneurial zeal; and
• commitment to ethical practice.
Although these attributes are aspirational and it is not intended that graduates would need to demonstrate that they had met all of them, this edition of the newsletter does contain a number of examples of how academic staff are working with the ADC to improve the student experience.
Articles from course teams in CISM – Designing an interface for students learning to program; FADA – Connecting contemporary designers; FASS – ‘fear of crime’ surveys; and a cross-disciplinary module – ‘The Challenge of Climate Change’, led by the Sustainability Hub, which illustrates how innovative approaches to curriculum design result in students engaged in subject
knowledge yet also developing those skills so important for academic success and preparation for life after university, whether in an academic or vocational context.
In a similar vein, the newsletter also contains articles from ADC staff who are leading a number of student engagement schemes.
Marion Webb writes about attending a Student Learning and Teaching Network Conference with two of her interns, Jane Gay reports on the review of the Course Representative Scheme, Kelly Barnett describes the highly successful TDA-funded Student Associate Scheme, and Paul Westren writes about the Student Ambassador Scheme.
Evidence from evaluations indicates that each of these initiatives (and there is a number of other related projects) result in, like the subject-related work mentioned above, increased student academic performance and attractiveness to employers. Capturing and demonstrating these skills and attributes is not easy, as Kingston students often do not recognise them as the extracurricular initiatives so lauded and heralded by other universities; rather seeing them as just part of engagement in normal life and often taken on through economic necessity. That is why the work of Stephanie Aiken and the Personal Development Planning (PDP) champions group to develop a tool that can stimulate students to both plan and articulate their personal development, as described in this newsletter, is so important. The website http://developme.kingston.ac.uk links to both University and national resources, and promises to provide an opportunity for students and staff to demonstrate the University’s commitment to developing academically successful graduates who are confident, respectful, aware, reflective and prepared for their next step.
Michael Hill, Academic Development

The Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE) is approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). This enables nurses and midwives who have completed the course, together with the additional requirement of a teaching practice portfolio, to record their qualification on the NMC register. The requirement for nurses and midwives to achieve recorded teacher status is laid out in the ‘Standards to support learning and assessment in practice’ (NMC, 2008). The standards take the form of a single developmental framework, which includes outcomes for mentors and practice teachers.
The ADC works in partnership with the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences to address the quality assurance and quality enhancement issues relating directly to nursing and midwifery staff.
As part of the quality processes, the NMC undertakes an annual review of programmes delivered by the Faculty, and this year the PGCLTHE was included in the review. The reviewers’ visit took place on 1–2 February 2011, entailing scrutiny of documentation and processes, visits to clinical practice areas, and interviews with a range of stakeholders. Verbal feedback was extremely
positive, particularly in relation to standards of teaching and the responsiveness and accessibility of academic staff. The reviewers concluded that all risks were controlled, and scored the provision as ‘good’ in all six aspects, with a commendation for partnership working with local stakeholders.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this outcome. The PGCLTHE will be revalidated in the 2011/12 academic year, and we hope to work with staff and course participants to build on this success and to continue to serve the specific needs of nursing and midwifery staff.

Q. Congratulations, Fan, on your appointment. Why did you decide to apply for this post?
A. Thank you very much. I am really pleased to have the opportunity to work in this exciting role. I’ve always been particularly interested in issues of pedagogy and think that these are now more important than ever. Here in FASS, as with the other faculties, we are working to ensure that we continue to provide a challenging and high quality learning experience for our students as the
landscape of HE funding and provision goes through such rapid and difficult changes. I really wanted to play a role in helping to shape our future in this respect and so that’s why I decided to apply.
Q. What do you see as the priorities in terms of learning and teaching for your Faculty over the next year?
A.Talking with colleagues from our different schools and departments in the last few weeks has reconfirmed these for me.  Student engagement is a big priority for us all. We want to ensure we’re doing our best to give students the opportunities to make connections – with their academic studies, their course cohorts and their own experience of learning – both in terms of individual
modules and their broader programmes of study. Reviewing and rethinking assessment is another key area for us – making sure it’s fit for purpose and that it doesn’t over-burden students and staff. Our third priority is the employability of our graduates. It’s an increasingly tough market that they are entering, and we need to ensure that our graduates are well prepared for those challenges.
Q. How are you proposing to address these priorities?
A. One key initiative that’s been running in a number of schools and departments across FASS is our personal tutor system for Level 4 students. Having a system that enables students to meet regularly with an academic tutor to discuss skills for study, course content and also learn from each other how to make that transition to undergraduate learning can have a really positive impact on students’ overall engagement and success. I want to see how we can build on this and share our best practice across the Faculty. A number of schools and departments are already looking at ways of rethinking assessment in their programmes, which is great, and there are some really good ideas and suggestions coming from these groups. We are planning to run some workshops and staff development sessions for the whole Faculty later in the semester so that we start to review assessment models more collectively.
In terms of employability, I’m looking forward to working with the Faculty’s employability co-ordinator, Joan Johnstone, and the director of CASE, Mata Ayoub, to look at ways that we can support tutors in building awareness of employability skills into their courses. We also have some really successful workbased learning modules in our Faculty, and I hope to encourage the tutors who run these to come and share their stories with colleagues so that we can extend this provision in new areas.
Q. What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
A. I’m really looking forward to working with colleagues across the Faculty, sharing good practice and facilitating new projects to help us achieve our goals.
Interviewed by Marion Webb, Academic Development

One of the challenges we face is to encourage our students to engage in the many opportunities open to them as they undertake their courses. We need to encourage them to appreciate how the different activities they can do, both within and outside of the taught curriculum, can facilitate them in achieving their full potential.
To help students to plan and articulate their personal development, the ADC has worked with the PDP champions group and Bradford University to create a new website for students – http://developme.kingston.ac.uk This offers links to a range of activities and resources, including a skills audit tool aligned to the KEYS framework.
Please visit the site and leave your feedback. Please also show the site to students, or create a link to it from StudySpace.
Stephanie Aiken s.aiken@kingston.ac.uk

In February last year, the Faculty Student Engagement Group agreed that the ADC would chair a working group to address the list of recommendations proposed in the report on the Course Representative Scheme (CR scheme).
Representatives from all faculties met to share practice and to agree an action plan. As a result, a revamped scheme has been implemented this year to address issues around publicity, recruitment and training. To support this, a range of publications have been written and distributed, and can be found on the Learning and Teaching webpages. We have also explored how
University schemes (eg volunteering; PAL; student ambassadors;
ASC advisors, including the CR scheme) that currently promote student engagement could be enhanced by utilising a common strategic approach to their development, recognition, implementation and evaluation.
We have focused attention on providing customised CR training at Kingston College (a partner institution) with a view to rolling out such training with other partners in the future. Kingston College colleagues involved in the Institutional Audit meetings earlier this year gave a very positive account of our work together, and this was highlighted in the fi nal report as evidence of good practice.
We are committed to providing our CRs (and other students involved in University schemes that support students) with skill development opportunities to show our appreciation of their commitment, energy and enthusiasm. The first such opportunity was the chance to attend ‘An audience with Nick Hewer’, who started in ran his own PR company but more recently became
known for his role in The Apprentice. Anecdotal feedback has been positive. Students described his address as inspirational.
Nick Hewer recognised the added value of the extracurricular work such as that of CR afford students, and indicated that this kind of experience was just what employers look for; that it would enable students to stand out in the job market.
This semester we are planning to offer employability-related workshops that will enable the Course Representatives to capture and capitalise on the evidence of their capabilities as part of the PDP process and with a view to securing future employment.
Jane Gay, Academic Development

The Student Associates Scheme (SAS) has been set up to help students who are considering teaching as a career and would like to make a difference in a school and get the ‘feel’ of teaching while they’re still at university.
Kingston University has now been running the scheme for three years, during which time 154 students have been placed in 38 schools across the Aimhigher London South region.
The SAS is a national project funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). As the TDA has now been disbanded, the future funding of the project is in doubt, which is unfortunate as the scheme has shown to have benefited our students and the work we carry out in Education Liaison in many ways.
Benefits of the Student Associates Scheme

There are many benefits of the SAS, including:
• providing the School of Education with more committed and informed teacher training candidates;
• building upon improving the student experience, as the time spent in schools gives students the chance to use their subject knowledge;
• raising the interest and achievements of young people in schools and raising their awareness of higher education. This builds on the positive work of the Education Liaison team; and • building on relationships with our target schools and colleges and strengthening the relationship with staff. Schools I have met with have been extremely positive about the scheme and have expressed how disappointed they would be if the scheme ceased running, and the impact this would have on their institution.
Improving employability Whether or not students decide to go into teaching after their placement, participation in the scheme improves students’ CVs and employability. From the training provided and overall experience, students have the opportunity to develop many of the top attributes and transferable skills sought by employers in today’s competitive job market. These include communication and presentation skills, time and self-management skills, teamwork, problem-solving and project management skills.  Many degrees do not include a placement as a core element of the course; and so the SAS provides an opportunity to get real work experience.
The facts
In a survey carried out, we found:
• 100% of students who took part stated that even if they were not considering a career in teaching, they felt that participating in the scheme (training, placement and overall experience) provided them with skills and knowledge that will benefit them in their career;
• 100% of students who took part felt that their participation in the scheme helped them make a more-informed decision about whether teaching was the right career path for them;
• 70% said that as a result of their participation in the scheme, their interest in applying for Initial Teaching Training had increased;
• 92% reported that they had opportunities to use their own subject knowledge and skills to raise young people’s interest in learning;
and
• 93% of school-based mentors reported that, in their judgement, the student associate had a positive effect in raising the aspirations of young people for higher education.
Kelly Barnett, Student Associates Scheme Manager

The Kingston University Student Ambassador scheme (KUSA) had a great year in 2009/10: good outcomes from our Equality Impact Assessment, extending the range of training provided, and introducing an employability conference, to name but a few. One of our student ambassadors (SAs) also came runner-up in the individual category of the KU Staff Awards, which was fantastic
recognition for the scheme and highlighted the value of working alongside students. Sharing good practice and working more collaboratively both internally and with other institutions will help to build on these developments, and we’re looking at opportunities to do this through conference papers and other dissemination events.
The cross-departmental spend on KUSA wages last year was £81,414. This roughly equates to 11,630 hours worked. Such a figure should serve as a reminder of how important the SAs are to us.
A large part of KUSA’s work opportunities are traditionally linked to Aimhigher and WP projects. We feel it is important to safeguard KUSA involvement in any future work that covers this area, as evaluations continue to show that the ambassador contributions are highly valued by both the staff and young people who participate in these events.
Our current SAs play an important role in our UK recruitment activities, and how we engage with prospective students in the future is a vital concept and one that needs special consideration in light of the increased costs of HE. One of the challenges faced is how best to position the prospect of attending university and in turn support those people in their decision-making process. It will be interesting to find out how the SAs themselves view the situation and their thoughts on responding to the changes.
To conclude, mutual benefits must be evident – to the people who are engaged in this outreach work, the staff who co-ordinate them and of course the SAs themselves, who are gaining valuable work experience while developing a range of transferable skills that will assist their transition into employment – something that can only be good for Kingston University.
To quote a recent SA who graduated in 2010 with a first-class honours: “Being inspirational is a transferable quality, and one needs to be inspired to inspire.”
Paul Westren, Student Ambassador Co-ordinator