Fwd: The student voice: enhancing learning, not just satisfaction - Monday 25th January at QMUL

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matthew Williamson <m.williamson@qmul.ac.uk>
Date: 2010/1/11
Subject: The student voice: enhancing learning, not just satisfaction - Monday 25th January at QMUL
To: ISL@jiscmail.ac.uk

Dear colleagues

It is with great pleasure that I can announce the second in the 2009/10 Educational Research Seminar Series, hosted by Educational and Staff Development at Queen Mary, University of London. The seminar takes place on Monday 25^th January at 3pm in Room 602 on the sixth floor of the G. O. Jones Building (formerly known as the Physics Building) on the Mile End campus of the College.

After a very successful first seminar, on the QMUL Graduate Attributes project, this second seminar is presented by Gwen van der Velden, the Director of Learning and Teaching Enhancement at the University of Bath and is entitled The student voice: enhancing learning, not just satisfaction

As spaces are limited, I would be grateful if you could email me to let me know if you wish to come along to this seminar.

About the seminar:

This seminar sets out the approach taken at the University of Bath which aims to engage students in a role of academic citizenship, rather than just as consumers. Despite Lord Mandelson's suggestions to the contrary, most of our students still engage with their studies as an experience rather than a product.

Bath is a university that was founded in the 1960-s as part of a socio-economical effort to broaden access to the intellectual wealth of universities. Many of the principles of democracy are still present in our efforts to encourage academic citizenship for students and this realisation has transformed our quality management in recent years. Based on good preparation and full access to university information, students at Bath not only take part in setting teaching enhancement agendas, they also share with staff the responsibility for implementing change. In recent years the National Student Survey, Students' Union's surveys and other sources have shown us that our students are appreciative and very aware of this approach, whilst external indicators show us this may be a way of avoiding the consumerist attitudes that are promoted in current discussions about the student fee-cap.

The seminar will set out the underlying principles of student engagement at Bath, what this means in practice for quality and educational management, and provide an insight in the ways in which impact of this approach are measured. Gwen will be accompanied by the Vice President of Bath Students' Union, to give a student perspective on the issue.

About the speaker:

Gwen's career started in the Netherlands and included student activist, teacher and educational innovator. At the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (now Radboud University, NL), she supported individual staff in the Science Faculty developing advanced teaching practices. On her departure to Britain, she received an award for Excellence from the University of Nijmegen and was put forward for a national award for HE teaching innovation.

Having joined the University of Kent in 1995, Gwen worked with a number of Universities on institution-wide implementation of e-learning. Since the mid nineties, she has led teams of academic staff developers, student learning advisors, quality officers and teaching innovators and took on advisory roles for national HE organisations. Her current professional interests include the professionalisation of educational development, supporting governance change to empower the student voice and the re-alignment of quality assurance and enhancement.

Gwen also holds a number of roles at national level, including membership of the Planning Executive of the Standing Conference for Academic Practice (SCAP), chair of the Learning, Teaching and Quality Network within the '94 Group and membership of the planning group for the Heads of Educational Development Group.

The remaining seminars for this year are:

22^nd February

Dr Roni Bamber, Head of Centre for Academic Practice, Queen Margaret University Evaluation: institutional needs versus individual motivations

29^th March

Dr Margo Blythman, Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design, University of the Arts Implications of change for the working worlds of staff in higher education

26^th April

Dr Chris Trevitt, Director of Studies, Oxford Learning Institute, University of Oxford Research supervision at Oxford: tales from the development experience coalface

24^th May

Professor Stephanie Marshall, Director of Programmes, The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education Leadership in Learning and Teaching

28^th June

Dr Matthew Williamson, Education Adviser, QMUL, and Dr Giles Martin, Learning and Teaching Development Adviser, QMUL Transitions to Higher Education: reflections on a three-year study

All the best

Matthew

Dr Matthew J. Williamson

Education Adviser

Educational and Staff Development

Queen Mary, University of London

E1 4NS

Tel: 020 7882 2813

www.esd.qmul.ac.uk