Academic Policy & Governance

For hundreds of years, students have come to the University of Glasgow hoping to change the world, to find their place in the world, or simply to learn more about the world. Our student experience reflects the University’s proud history, its diversity of talents, its places in the world and future ambitions.

We hope all our students will enjoy a fulfilling, rewarding and enriching experience with us. There are multifarious opportunities for students to complement and deepen their formal learning and study, and to contribute to the life of the University, city, or the wider world. Our strategy for the student experience prioritises opportunity, wellbeing and belonging.

It is a companion to the University’s Learning & Teaching strategy and, insofar as research students are concerned, our Research Strategy. Taken together, the strategies will ensure that students develop the skills, knowledge and experience that enable them to be successful in their studies and, as global citizens, in their future lives and careers.

Over recent years, the University’s popularity has resulted in rapid growth in student numbers and, by any measure, increasing diversity. We have seen a particularly marked increase in international students, with many more studying at our joint schools, overseas. We are also seeing a growing number of online learners, including students who are enrolled on short courses.

We developed this strategy at a particularly challenging time for our students, as the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. There is growing evidence to show that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted on the mental health of the younger-age population, which is also more vulnerable to inflationary pressures and consequent rises in the cost of living.

The University of Glasgow Strategy 2025 describes our commitment to a world changing student experience:

• Our graduates achieve more than a degree: as students, they are able to access a panoply of social, sporting, volunteering and cultural experiences, which enable them to connect, develop new skills and enhance their prospects.
• We give students the space, time and guidance to forge their own paths and take their first steps as future world changers.
• Drawing strength from each other, and inspiration from the people, societies and cities we serve, our diverse body of staff, students and alumni come together as one Glasgow community, driven by a unifying desire to change the world for the better.

There are five key principles which underpin our student experience strategy, and these are that:

1. It is the powerful combination of an inspirational education and a broad and vibrant set of co-curricular activities, which sit at the heart of the Glasgow student experience and prepare our students for the next steps in their lives and careers.
2. For students to be productive and benefit fully from the Glasgow student experience, we must do everything we can to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
3. Our unique quadrumvirate of student organisations, the Glasgow University Union, Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow University Sports Association, and the Students’ Representative Council, plays a fundamental part in the social, cultural and educational lives of students. The Glasgow student experience is realised through effective partnership between the organisations and with the University.
4. Our places (Glasgow, Dumfries, Chengdu, Hainan, Singapore, Tianjin) and the provisions of our campuses in these places, are instrumental in the experience of our students.  For all students, our virtual infrastructure ensures that, wherever we are in the world, we can remain connected to one another. And for our distance learning students, our online campus sits at the heart of their experience.
5. Our strategy and the experience we offer our students are anchored in the University’s values and must be socially, financially, and environmentally sustainable.

Our strategy can be described in terms of three pillars:

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1. Opportunity

Irrespective of circumstance, our students should have the opportunity to discover and develop themselves; push personal boundaries; try, fail and succeed; build self- confidence and ambition. They should be able to do this through clubs and societies, volunteering and work experience; sports and cultural activities. They should have the opportunity to do so in both familiar and unfamiliar environments, domestically and internationally. And there should be an impelling institutional framework within which students can plan, organise, reflect on and recognise their achievements.

Complementing the ambitions for Students’ Professional and Skills Development outlined in the University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy, we provide these opportunities not only to enrich and bring meaning to the student experience, but because they contribute to the employability of our graduates.

We will achieve our ambitions through:

• The curation of a menu of opportunities for students to acquire new skills and experience, online and on campus, relevant to the interests and needs of those pursuing undergraduate, taught postgraduate and research degrees.
• The provision of high-quality careers advice, to help students plan confidently for their futures.
• The expansion of opportunities for students to acquire work experience, through internships, volunteering, part-time work and applied research, within the UK and more widely across the world.
• The development of an impelling framework, which enables students to derive maximum benefit from their experience and includes:
  • Self-help tools and support to assist students with their planning and reflection.
  • Means of celebrating achievement in the form of accreditation and awards.

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2. Wellbeing

Our intention is to foster learning communities that support, inspire and empower our students to fulfil their academic potential and to flourish more widely as individuals. Our wellbeing framework describes an institutional and holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing, which serves to minimise the number of students who leave the University because they feel unsupported in their studies and maximise the number of students who feel healthy and well.

Wellbeing, inclusion and belonging (the second and third pillars of this strategy) are critical to the success of our Learning & Teaching Strategy.

We will achieve our objectives as they relate to student wellbeing through:

• Nurturing safe and supportive learning communities (setting out expectations at induction; promoting the use of the SafeZone app; and reforming our approach to matters of misconduct, including the concept of restorative justice, so that students have confidence we deal effectively with bullying and harassment).
• Promoting a culture of continuing personal, academic and professional development.
• Promoting sport and active lifestyles.
• Encouraging mental health and wellbeing and destigmatising mental ill health.

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3. Inclusion and belonging

The University comprises many intersecting communities which may be defined by academic interests, by backgrounds and shared experience, by needs and ambitions, by geography, and other factors. There is a place at Glasgow for everyone and we embrace diversity, valuing and respecting the perspectives and contributions of all our students.

For these reasons, we do not hold to the notion of a single student experience, but to the idea of student experiences, which will be many and various. Nonetheless, our physical facilities and our programme of opportunity should be open and accessible to all, whilst also catering to the diversity of needs and interests. In the same way, our student organisations each have their distinctive identities and followers, whilst remaining open to all.

This strategy and its commitments apply equally to students pursuing taught and research degrees, to those who have come to Glasgow from overseas and those who are long term residents, to those who study online and those who study on a campus. In providing for all, the strategy acknowledges that a substantial proportion of students will be with us for a year or less and the challenges that this brings

The strategy also acknowledges that, alongside students in Dumfries, there is a growing number of Glasgow students in Chengdu, Hainan, Singapore and Tianjin. Whilst the University of Glasgow is rooted in its place and people, we recognise that people make Glasgow, whether in Scotland, China or Singapore.

We will enable everyone to find their place and feel part of the University by:

• Explaining and upholding our University values.
• Improving welcome and induction and transforming the online experience for students as they join the University.
• Ensuring that cost and accessibility do not represent barriers to participation in campus life.
• Providing for the physical and social needs of students who commute to the campus from other areas of the city region and beyond.
• Celebrating diversity, by curating an annual programme of events and festivals that reflect the many nations and beliefs represented within the campus community.
• Building on the work of the Understanding Racism, Transforming University Culture report, the review of gender issues and gender-based violence and other key inclusion initiatives, such as our review of provision for disabled students.
• Acknowledging and addressing the very real barriers to engagement that are often experienced by non-native speakers of English.

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Our ability to provide an exceptional student experience is critically dependent upon three factors:

1. Partnership:

2. The provision of attractive, safe, accessible and flexible self-study, social, recreational and residential facilities, on campus and online and specifically:

3. A financially, socially and environmentally sustainable approach, which will be achieved by: