Student Representation: Joint Statement from DUSA and the University: 2012/13
Introduction
The University, in partnership with the Dundee University Students' Association (DUSA), encourages students to become actively involved in providing constructive feedback in all aspects of University life.
The above partnership has developed a network of student School Presidents to work with student class representatives, DUSA Executive Officers and other elected members of the Student Representative Council (SRC). The four DUSA Sabbatical Officers each has responsibility for one particular College. They will meet School Presidents regularly to discuss issues and provide support. This network has been created by DUSA and the University to facilitate the collection and dissemination of students' views on the quality of their learning experience, at all levels in the institution, and to provide students with feedback on the actions taken by the University to enhance their student experience. The DUSA Deputy President oversees student representation structures within the University and will act as a first point of reference for all members of the SRC where issues may arise.
The University participates in a number of national student surveys delivered by external bodies including the National Student Survey (NSS), the International Student Barometer (ISB), the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) and the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES). The outcomes are used to inform the future development of academic programmes and to enhance central service support through annual programme monitoring, programme review and School Learning & Teaching Plans.
A detailed description of the student representation system from various starting points is provided below:
- Key Groups Involved in Student Representation
- Student Representation on University Committees
- Student Representation on College and School Committees
- Staff-Student Liaison Committees at School/Programme Level
- Student Feedback Mechanisms for Taught Programmes
- Student Representation in the Review of Taught Programmes
- Student Feedback Mechanisms for Research Programmes
- Support for Student Representation and Feedback
- Link between DUSA's SRC and Colleges and Schools through School Presidents
- Representation through Halls' Committees
- National Student Survey
This joint statement seeks to reflect the spirit of the Student Partnership Agreements currently under development by the Scottish Government under the terms of their report on 'Putting Learners at the Centre: Delivering our Ambitions for Post-16 Education' (paragraphs 52 and 53 refer).
Key Groups Involved in Student Representation
- the University Learning & Teaching Committee reporting to Senate:
- through the outcomes of programme reviews and annual monitoring of School Learning & Teaching Development Plans
- responding to issues raised by College/School committees
- monitoring operation of student representation and feedback across the Colleges and Schools
- responding to the findings of the National Student Survey (NSS) and other external surveys.
- the University's e-Learning Sub-Committee, reporting to the Learning & Teaching Committee
- the University's Postgraduate Sub-Committees, reporting to the Learning & Teaching or Research Committee and Senate:
- responding to issues raised by student representatives, by school postgraduate advisors and by surveys of postgraduate students including the outcomes of PRES and PTES
- monitoring postgraduate student representation and feedback across the University.
- Deans/School Secretaries and College/School Boards
- responding to issues raised by student representatives, by College/School committees and by the School postgraduate advisors
- monitoring student representation and feedback across the College/School, normally via the College/School committees
- outcomes of programme review and programme and module monitoring.
- School Postgraduate Advisers
- monitoring the operation of the thesis monitoring committee for research students in the College/School.
- Deans/School Secretaries/Programme Leaders
- organising and operating Staff/Student Liaison Committees (SSLCs) within the School/programme
- responding to issues raised by student representatives and by the SSLCs associated with the School/programme
- approving approaches to student feedback within the School/programme
- annual programme monitoring
- programme review.
- module leaders
- implementing student feedback mechanisms approved by Dean/programme leader
- annual programme monitoring.
- Student Services
- responding to issues raised by student representatives
- responding to the findings of the National Student Survey, PRES and PTES.
- staff in general
- encouraging students to engage in representation and feedback, both formal and informal in ways that promote future improvement
- taking students' suggestions seriously and considering appropriate responses.
- students
- engaging in the representation and feedback networks responsibly and constructively
- staying abreast of current student issues through DUSA publications and SRC policy and motions.
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Student Representation on University Committees
Student representatives are designated ex officio members of the following University committees:
- Court: DUSA President and a matriculated student elected by the student body, that failing, the Deputy President of the Students' Association
- Senate: DUSA President, Deputy President and Vice President Student Activities or Communications and Campaigns (plus a School President from each College and a postgraduate student representative)
- Learning and Teaching Committee: DUSA President and Deputy President
- e-Learning Sub-Committee: DUSA Vice President Communications and Campaigns
- Postgraduate Sub-Committees: DUSA Deputy President
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Student Representation on College and School Committees
Student representatives, including School Presidents, are normally designated ex officio members of School Boards. The core role of School Presidents is described in the School Presidents' Agreement. As each of the four DUSA Sabbatical Officers has responsibility for one particular College, they sit on that College Board.
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Staff/Student Liaison Committees at School/Programme level
School Responsibilities
Each school is responsible for:
- working with the School President and relevant class representatives to establish and maintain a structure of Staff-Student Liaison Committees (SSLCs) that reflect the scope and nature of academic provision and the student body in the School.
- SSLC's may reflect the School structure within the College or the programme structure -particularly in the case of cross-School or multi-subject programmes
- overseeing the operation of its SSLCs.
General remit of SSLCs
To provide a forum:
- to receive and discuss students' views on any aspect of their learning and general experience, including the learning environment and student support facilitated by the structure of elected student class reps and School Presidents
- to enable staff to seek students' views on any aspect of their learning and experience
- to report and make recommendations to College and School committees and / or any other body (College and School Board or Programme Board) approved by the College Board
- to discuss the outcomes of the NSS, PTES, PRES and ISB
College and School Boards or SSLCs may extend this remit as they judge appropriate.
Membership of SSLCs
Student membership should reflect the structure and nature of the student body but should include the School President. All students should have the opportunity to nominate and elect at least one representative (for their programme or year of study) including the School President.
Staff membership should be nominated by the relevant School or programme boards.
The number of student members on any SSLC should preferably exceed the number of staff members.
School Committees
The relevant School committees should monitor the operation of their SSLCs and:
- receive reports from SSLCs and considering resulting actions, including referring issues to College, School or programme boards or the Director of relevant Academic & Student Support service
- respond to issues raised by SSLCs by:
- considering what action should be taken
- reporting back to the SSLC, on actions. If consideration at College and/or School level concludes that no action should be taken, then the reasons for this decision should be reported back to the SSLC.
University Monitoring of SSLCs
The University's Learning & Teaching Committee will:
- consider and respond to issues raised by SSLCs that are reported to it by School Committees or School Presidents via the DUSA Deputy President
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Student Feedback Mechanisms for Taught Programmes
Routine (annual/each semester/or each cycle of delivery)
All students should be given an opportunity to comment on their experience in ways that:
- invite comments on effectiveness, including strengths and limitations
- invite suggestions for future changes that would improve student learning or student experience
- allow specific comments on each discrete element (each module).
School Boards should be responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of feedback mechanisms, considering:
- levels and location of collection of feedback: at programme or module or individual student level
- mechanisms used (questionnaires and/or face-to-face methods) and the detailed content (questions)
- protocols for issue, analysis and reporting back the outcomes of student surveys to the student body.
Feedback regarding taught provision should be analysed routinely and reported via the annual monitoring process. Schools / programme teams should maintain the following information in relation to student feedback:
- annual analyses and summaries associated with annual monitoring should be archived for a period of 5 years to support periodic programme review and possible audit
- 'raw' input information from students should be archived for one year to support any potential audit exercises.
Procedures
Schools/Programme teams should choose approaches that:
- encourage students to make frank comments
- respect student confidentiality
- encourage high levels of student participation in feedback
- respect students' time
- ensure that students have access to the results of student feedback
- focus on future improvement
- adhere to the University's data protection policy.
Role of Student Representatives in the Internal and External Programme Review Processes
All internal and external reviews include a student representative on the review team. These normally are DUSA Sabbatical Officers who have received training from staff from the Policy, Governance & Legal Affairs Directorate as well as the out-going DUSA Executive as part of the hand-over process.
All internal and external review boards interview a panel of students and graduates as part of the programme review process.
Programme Review
Routine feedback may be complemented by periodic feedback mechanisms e.g. cohort surveys and discussions with students and graduates to inform programme review.
University monitoring of student feedback procedures
The University's Postgraduate Sub-Committees will monitor operation of student feedback procedures at the institutional level.
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Student Representation in the Review of Taught Programmes
Evaluation by Staff
Evaluation by staff should include analysis of student views over the period since the previous programme review. This should normally include:
- a synthesis of comments reported via annual module and programme monitoring
- outcomes from specific surveys/discussions.
This should inform reflection by the programme team, and be reported in the Programme Evaluation Summary submitted to the Programme Review Board.
Programme Review Boards
All Programme Review Boards should meet with a representative sample of students from the programme. This sample should normally include student members of the SSLCs.
Programme Review Boards may include a student and/or graduate representative as a member but they should also normally include a DUSA Sabbatical Officer as a full member.
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Student Feedback Mechanisms: Research Degrees
The University's Code of Practice for Supervised Postgraduate Research includes the following provisions for feedback from research students:
- the thesis monitoring committee system that includes the following features:
- each student meets with a School-convened thesis monitoring committee at least twice each year. (Note: the committee does not include the student's supervisor).
- the scope of discussion includes both progress and the quality of research supervision
- the outcome of the meeting must be documented and the report should remain confidential to the thesis monitoring committee, the supervisor and the relevant Postgraduate Student Advisor [Note that parts of this record may only be available to the committee and the Postgraduate Student Advisor]
- exit questionnaire: an anonymous survey questionnaire sent to all research students following after their thesis examination committee
The University's Research Degrees Sub-Committee will monitor feedback from research students, reporting to Senate.
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Support for Student Representation and Feedback
The Policy, Governance & Legal Affairs Directorate and the Library & Learning Centre work with DUSA to provide support that includes:
The University Records Management Service will provide guidance on data protection issues.
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Link between the DUSA's SRC and Colleges and Schools through School Presidents
The student body and their elected student class representatives are linked to DUSA through the network of School Presidents who serve on DUSA's SRC. The DUSA Executive is responsible to the SRC for their actions and the Deputy President takes the lead role for student representation within the University. The SRC includes student representatives with responsibility for specific groups of students including international and postgraduate students.
The School Presidents liaise with the DUSA Sabbatical Officers to consider matters at the College level. The roles and responsibilities of the various levels of student representatives and the composition of the SRC are described in the DUSA website in the section on 'Here for you'.
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Representation through Halls' Committees
Student representation in the Residences is based on the constitution adopted by the SRC.
The students residing in University Residences (currently Belmont, Heathfield, Seabraes, and West Park) form the respective Residents' Associations. Residents of each Flat/Villa (usually between 5 and 10 occupants) elect their Flat/Villa representative in the beginning of each academic year. The Flat/Villa representatives form the Student Council of that Residence. The Council elects the Residence Committee, which consists of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Convenor, among its members. The Committee runs the Residence's affairs during the academic year and represents the residents before the University, the Dundee Student Villages and DUSA. The Presidents of the individual Residence Committees elect one of them as a Residences Representative to sit on to the Student Representative Council, who is also be entitled to sit on the University of Dundee/ Dundee Student Villages Liaison Group.
The Residence Councils and their Committees receive guidance, help and support from the Student Support Worker.
A list is available of all Residences Reps, their Committees and Presidents.
National Student Survey
The University and DUSA jointly promote engagement in the National Student Survey (NSS) and together encourage appropriate responses to the issues that students raise via their survey responses. Further details are available from the NSS page on the QAF website.
DUSA and the Directorate of Policy, Governance & Legal Affairs, University of Dundee: November 2012
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