Learning & Teaching

Listening and engaging with Student Voice is central to our values enabling us to work towards the shared goal of progressive change improving student experience to promote shared ownership and responsibility for the enhancement across learning and teaching and student life more widely. 

Practical benefits: enhancing learning and teaching practice, ensuring relevance and rigour to meet students' needs, informing curriculum design and development through partnership and co-creation, supporting students as agents of meaningful change, as well as building a sense of community. 

Reflecting on practice: recognising what is working well, learning from each other, and finding creative solutions to enhance practice. 

Opportunities for dialogue and exchange: better understanding of the student perspective, justify why changes made or cannot be made, providing clarity and reducing miscommunication as well as sharing good practice.

Yet, students tell us that they are often not aware of how we are engaging with their feedback (reflected in e.g.,  NSS responses and SRC rep feedback) reducing student engagement and agency.  

Student Representation, Course Evaluation and Student-Staff Liaison Committees (SSLC) are core engagement processes between students and staff and they form part of the regular activity of the University of Glasgow Academic Quality Framework. These provide both formal and informal opportunities for engaging with student feedback.  

Formal process include Course Evaluation Questionnaires through Evasys, Summary and Response Documents (SaRDS) [weblink], and the Staff-Student Liaison Committee (SSLC). These are the ‘Student Voice Feedback Minimum’. 

Informal processes include You said, We did; discussion in class & feedback via Mentimeter, One Minute Paper, subject convenor talking to student groups, and school student-staff meetings. 

Formal and informal processes are inter-related and mutually beneficial. Ensuring their effective communication and visibility is key. 

Think about ways you can improve student experience on your course, programme and subject: 

• Ensure ‘Student Voice Feedback Minimum’ (see below) in a timely manner 
• Consider how you are making responses and changes visible to students and staff. For example: 
  • Review how you communicate feedback and store the records of SSLC meetings, SaRDS and other initiatives with the students and so they are easily accessible for students and staff. For example, a dedicated space on your course/subject/programme Moodle. 
  • Enhance dialogue with students to provide opportunities to engage in feedback. For example, provide a short overview of course changes such as ‘They said, We did’ from the previous cohort and explaining future initiatives in introductory and final teaching session; provide opportunities to gather and respond to informal feedback during a course. 
  • Develop visible partnerships with SRC reps and the wider student body. For example working with SRC reps to explore opportunities to co-chair meetings; open meeting for staff and students at subject/school level; providing opportunities for Student Voice as part course/programme development.  

Staff-Student Liaison Committee (SSLC) 

• Held once a semester 
• Election of Chair and Office Bearers 
• SaRDS standing item on agenda 
• Minutes posted (e.g., via programme Moodle) and made accessible to relevant students. 

Course Evaluation Questionnaire (Evasys)

• Sent out once a semester towards the end of the course. 
• Use core questions, but additional questions can be added as appropriate.

Summary and Reponse Documents (SaRDS) 

• Complete Summary and Reponse Documents (SaRDS) in response to EvaSys within 3 weeks.
• Send onto SSLC and make the document available to students and staff (e.g., via course Moodle). 

We have been working in partnership with the SRC to better understand the issues in relation to Student Voice from a student and staff perspective. This is part of a longer-term process to develop more effective practices for both students and staff.   

We are reviewing our processes and mechanisms for engaging with Student Voice as well as developing webpages with resources including sharing good practice. If you have any examples of good practice, we are keen to hear from you, please contact student-voice-working-group@glasgow.ac.uk.

Further information including links to key information can be found on the Learning and Teaching webpages.