Higher education: Put students first

When I was asked by universities secretary John Denham to look at how the student experience will change over the next ten to 15 years, I was hampered by the lack of a crystal ball. Higher education is rooted in the societies and economies in which it operates. In the course of my own career studying and working in higher education I have seen huge changes that have followed from and led to political, economic and social change.

There are now far more universities and colleges in the United Kingdom, offering a much wider range of courses to a larger and more diverse student population. New styles of communication outside higher education have led to expectations of 24-hour, seven days a week availability of support. Parts of the media now talk about students as “customers” – although this is not yet something I often hear students say about themselves.

There have been some headline-grabbing topics among the issues examined in the nine reports commissioned by Denham from leading academic authorities. The question of who pays for higher education, and in what proportions, has proved controversial both north and south of the border. I do not have the answers on this, but have made the point that linking fee contributions to modules rather than whole programmes would bring the flexibility that is needed between part-time and full-time study.

The press has also picked up comments about the future of degree classification. A working group chaired by the vice chancellor of Leicester University, Professor Bob Burgess, has recommended introducing the Higher Education Achievement Report, to supplement the traditional degree classification. The idea behind this is to give students and employers a better description of what students have achieved beyond a stark one-off degree class, such as a first or a 2:1. It is fully in keeping with the fact that both student experiences and future expectations are broader than the areas covered by the academic curriculum.

In making my report to the secretary of state I wanted to make the point that the student experience should be at the heart of higher education. I am interested in student involvement in quality processes. In Scotland the Student Participation in Quality Scotland initiative is one valuable model for doing this. As my report argues, student experience should be viewed as a “joint venture” between students and providers of higher education.

This venture should start before students get to university or college. More work is needed to prepare students better for higher education, through a programme of support for universities and colleges to enhance their understanding of their prospective students' expectations. We also need to make it easier for students to adapt to higher education once they are there – through better induction that promotes interaction between staff and students as well as academic preparation. The aim is to give students the knowledge they need to take ownership of quality enhancement with staff and engage with them in dialogue about improving assessment, curriculum and teaching.

It also means rethinking how we do things. Traditionally universities and academics have set up teaching and assessment programmes, and then looked at what students have learned. By turning this on its head we would focus primarily on students’ experiences of the designs, and subsequently on the designs themselves. If we do this we emphasise the role of universities and academics in helping students to engage with the material they are learning, and how to adjust their engagement so that we derive the outcomes students, academics and employers seek.

The idea of joint responsibility of students and higher education institutions forms the basis of a future student experience that will ensure a successful future for our universities and colleges in an increasingly competitive international environment.

Readers of The Journal will know better than I do what their own motivations were for signing up to spend time as students in Edinburgh. Many of today’s students will play an important part in shaping the way higher education changes over the coming decades. I am confident that higher education can transform the lives of students for the better. It is up to all of us—students included— to make the changes we need to make sure that this continues to be the case for the generations of students to follow.