Student Engagement News – an update from Rebecca Houchen
What do you know about student engagement, and why are we doing it?
When Deborah arrived at the beginning of the year, she was keen that we look at how we as staff could engage with our students more, something that she had been leading the way on in her previous role at the University of Lincoln. So Deborah along with Kay Simpson (SBS Management Accounts) and I began to look at how we could pursue this as a Directorate.
What do we currently do?
We already have access to a range of activities that involve interaction with students – whether that be prospective, current or alumni. As a Directorate we have actively involved students in the review of student facing processes and many of us will have volunteered at a graduation ceremony or two at some point during our time at SHU. If you haven’t – why not think about volunteering for this year’s ceremonies? Taking place in November it’s great to be part of the students’ special day celebrating their achievements! You might be taking the opportunity to volunteer at Clearing next week by working in the call centre. If you fancy finding out what this is all about why not go on one of their Clearing Suite Tours next Thursday? We’ve even had the chance for some of our Events Management students to organise activities for away days.
What are we doing now?
Currently, we are looking at how you can become involved in mock interviews which Deborah updated you all on late last month. This is a great opportunity for you to make a real difference to our students’ lives by helping them with the employment process. If you haven’t already expressed an interest and would like to get involved then please contact Gill Beck.
Recruitment training is going to be offered by HR for those of you without previous interview experience and a refresher session available for those of you who want to brush up on your skills. Interviews are expected to start in October and we’re hoping that we can have several of you volunteering each week to work with colleagues in DEEP to really make a difference!
Where can we go to next?
There’s lots of ways we can get out there and get more involved with our students here at SHU. As a starting point I’m currently working with Academic Delivery Managers across several Departments to see what input staff can have in student courses. Suggestions to date include being a model for a Physiotherapy course looking at musculo-skeletal problems during a workshop; acting as an angry patient or relative as part of a role play; or feeding back your experiences if you happen to be a service user of certain medical services.
Once we have an idea of the activities on offer we’re hoping to advertise these through the weekly blog throughout the year.
Any Ideas?
Do you have any ideas about how we can increase engagement with our students? If you do, we would love to hear from you, so drop me an email or give me a call on x 2521.
