The ‘Full Monty’: a collaborative institutional approach to student engagement

Student engagement has become a prominent focus within the higher education sector, the recent emphasis for promoting student engagement has clear links to a personalisation agenda and a culture where benchmarking across a number of measures in higher education has seen a strive to achieve an exceptional student learning experience (Little and Williams, 2010). Coates describes student engagement as “a broad construct intended to encompass salient academic as well as certain non-academic aspects of the student experience” (Coates 2007: 122). Therefore it is becoming increasingly clear that student engagement is the responsibility of all institutional staff and not just those who are ‘student facing’. Sabri (2011), identifies that academic and administrative staff are instrumental in ensuring students are engaged and motivated in order to achieve good practice within institutional practices. The University of Lincoln has taken a comprehensive approach to developing a partnership ethos between students and staff by concurrently delivering our Student as Producer initiative which embeds research-engaged-teaching and our Student Engagement Strategy which drives student engagement in quality assurance & enhancement and governance. Both strands promote a mixture of institutional change and bottom-up departmental activity to develop engagement. In essence this means that staff and students are working together in new and interesting ways right across the institution. First, we will present reflections on the development of the University’s approach to student engagement and experiences from academic and professional service departments. These experiences will be illuminated by the institutional lead for student engagement, an academic member of staff from the School of Sport & Exercise Science and a professional services colleague from the Library. Specifically, we will offer an insight into the Universities collaborative approach to student engagement, illustrated with examples of good practice and reflections on the challenges, barriers, tensions and cultural change required. Second, we will present our student-led study into the experiences of their peers who engage explores the reasons for first engaging, the highs and lows of engaging, the impact on learning, the impact on their approach to wider student life and the impact on their career ambitions. Two current undergraduate students who have worked on this study will present the findings together with their personal reflections on engaging in a variety of opportunities. They will help delegates see the experience of engaging through students’ eyes and identify the kinds of opportunities that have the greatest impact on students’ learning experience and wider outlook