Student journey

Meeting students’ expectations is becoming more important for universities. Clare Foyle and Jean Mutton explore what institutions are doing to engage students in influencing change projects in learning, teaching and professional services.

Middlesex University has boosted staff confidence, reduced mundane tasks and produced a better student experience, simply by improving their admissions system. Karolin Arvidsson sets out how they did it.

Earlier this year Efficiency Exchange published a blog by Ellie Dunstone, a student at the University of Cambridge who is involved with the CATS student society there. In this blog, James Adams, the founder of CATS, shares his personal journey of how CATS developed. Like we saw with Ben Stone, founder of Student Coin, James saw an opportunity to create more value in his university life, not just for him, but others too. CATS benefits students physically through raising awareness of signs and symptoms or cancer aswell as providing valuable skills that can enhance the employability of their volunteers.

Some universities are attempting to map the student journey in order to better understand the student experience. In this blogpost consultant Jean Mutton explains how service design techniques can help to develop a deeper understanding about what is driving students.

How to prepare students for the job market is becoming an essential part of how universities can prove they are value for money and value for our students. Yet, the job market is uncertain and fast changing. Ian Herbert shares with us how the ‘Earn to Learn’ (EtoL) scheme is enabling the University of Loughborough to provide students with work experience by collaborating with organisations and policy makers.

Do you have a Nightline service on your campus? Are you a student who wants the support of people who understand what you are going through, or perhaps want to get involved and support your peer through their difficulties. No one should be ashamed of struggling and there are plenty of organisations that are there to offer support, such as the Samaritans, Studentminds, CALM and the student run association, Nightline. In this blog Sarah Rodway-Swanson talks about Nightline, the service they provide and explains how you can get involved. We all have mental health, it is important that we look after it just as much as we care of the rest of ourselves.

The notion of the student as a consumer is one that is gaining popularity. But NUS vice president (higher education) Megan Dunn says universities need to start seeing students as full members of their community who should play an active role in it, rather than customers, easily impressed by shiny new buildings.

The University of Leicester has developed an approach to engaging senior leaders with the student experience. In the latest of our blogs from the nine Innovation and Transformation Fund projects, Claire King writes that the university believes it can provide valuable insight for institutions looking to develop similar approaches.

Like all service users, students have their stories of where their experience could have been improved. Jean Mutton presents some of the findings from a Jisc study seeking to identify these 'pain points'.