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Hi Ed I was interested in your 'Friday puzzler' specifically because, with my colleague Derfel Owen, I have recently been collecting stories of student engagement from around the world, now published by Emerald in the 'Student Engagement Handbook', and including a chapter from Nottingham Trent. You are right that the term 'student engagement ' is very 'fuzzy', and I'm not sure we've clarified the meaning of student engagement in the book - indeed possibly the opposite. However, these stories illustrate well the three distinct areas you mention (curriculum, QA and community). They also demonstrate some excellent examples of how students, in your words, can be drawn into 'being involved in processes and mechanisms to change the way that universities operate'. It has been exciting to see that there have been initiatives worldwide, from very different contexts and underpinned by different philosophies, highlighting what can be achieved through giving attention to collaboration with students in change processes. So I don't think we should assume that students won't engage with change, but that we have to work really hard to find ways to 'entice' them (in the words of an Exeter student) and to involve them in genuine and meaningful activity. I'm not wanting to sell this book to you, or anyone else, as it is very expensive. I do, however, think it is worth mentioning because it may be helpful to you in characterising your new role; also because I felt humbled to collect chapters from so many people who have been putting such enormous amounts of time and energy into characterising student engagement, into changing the educational environment, and into ensuring that students are given opportunities to engage in numerous and complex ways with their education... and these stories are worth reading. Best wishes, Liz. Elisabeth Dunne Head of Student Engagement and Skills University of Exeter +44 1392 724510 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Principal Fellow of the HEA University of Exeter Teaching Fellow ________________________________ From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Foster, Ed [[log in to unmask]] Sent: 17 January 2014 15:01 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Student engagement Dear all I’ve just changed role and am taking on a role with a strong focus on student engagement. I feel that the term ‘student engagement’ is often a bit fuzzy and appears to include at least three distinct areas of work: • Engagement with the curriculum (Kuh, NSSE and friends) • Engagement with QA processes (QAA in particular) • Engagement with the wider university community and beyond (clubs & societies, students’ union politics, causes, self-perceptions as societal change agents etc.) I’m looking a lot at the QA literature at the moment and am really struck by the fact that it doesn’t problematize student engagement enough. In an age where young people are apparently less engaged with political movements, or see themselves as less capable of transforming society for the better, why would they naturally sign up to ? I wanted to just check whether or not this is a valid assumption and have been recommended: http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/research/public-attitudes/audit-of-political-engagement/. There are also reports in the Understanding Society resource, for example https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/2013/08/01/cultural-activities-linked-with-young-people-volunteering I also use the Sodexo Student University lifestyle survey http://avanconspourluniversite.sodexo.fr/documents/student-survey-uk.pdf for background reading about students I find stuff like this quite useful for helping to avoid assumptions and wondered: • Does anyone else have useful evidence about young people engaging/ disengaging generally? • Does anyone have useful reports that they refer back to help keep an overview of the current student body? Hope you don’t mind the Friday puzzler Ed Ed Foster Student Engagement Manager Nottingham Trent University 0115 848 8203 NTU is hosting the European First Year Experience Conference, 9-11 June 2014 Deadline for submissions Friday 24 January www.ntu.ac.uk/EFYE2014<http://www.ntu.ac.uk/EFYE2014> #EFYE2014 [cid:image002.png@01CEFC0F.697CD220] DISCLAIMER: This email is intended solely for the addressee. It may contain private and confidential information. If you are not the intended addressee, please take no action based on it nor show a copy to anyone. In this case, please reply to this email to highlight the error. Opinions and information in this email that do not relate to the official business of Nottingham Trent University shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by the University. Nottingham Trent University has taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are virus-free, but we do advise that the recipient should check that the email and its attachments are actually virus free. This is in keeping with good computing practice.