New student partnership guidance from UCL's Student Voice project

The UCL Student Voice project continues to develop new resources, tools and guidance to improve student-staff partnership across UCL. The initiative is led by the Office of the Vice-Provost (Education and Student Affairs), and draws in expertise and best practice from departments and faculties across the institution.

Since the project began in March 2019, a number of new measures have been introduced to help gather the feedback and ideas of students. These student perspectives influence and guide improvements to the student experience, in line with the UCL 2034 strategy.

Helping you to engage students' voices

As a result of their conversations with staff, the Student Voice project team have made progress in several key areas.  

Greater support for Staff-Student Consultative Committees (SSCCs)

Staff-Student Consultative Committees (SSCCs) are a vital departmental forum for students to provide updates on their academic experiences, and for statt to understand and respond to student feedback and ideas. To help get the most out of SSCCs, the Student Partnership team has launched a new guide to chairing SSCCs [PDF], to benefit both staff and student co-chairs.

Staff chairs of SSCCs will soon be able to access more support through the SSCC Chairs’ Network, which will facilitate peer support and sharing of best practice. The SSCC Chairs’ Network will be present in the marketplace of the Teaching Administrators’ Conference on 2 April, where staff can register their interest in joining the community.

Top-up training for Student Academic Representatives

The Student Partnership team worked in collaboration with Students’ Union UCL to offer additional training sessions for Student Academic Representatives.

Student Reps took part in a training session on accessing and using student survey results in term one. There was another training session in term two offering guidance to Lead Department Reps on completing the Annual Student Experience Review (ASER) for their department.

These sessions complemented the Students’ Union’s online training available to all Student Reps via their dedicated Moodle page.

Expanded resources for ‘Closing the Loop’ on student feedback

The You Shaped UCL campaign ran again in 2019-20, highlighting improvements inspired by students’ opinions and ideas. UCL-wide changes such as the opening of the Student Centre and divestment from fossil fuels were publicised via a poster campaign and an animated video, while departments could download You Shaped UCL materials to promote student-led improvements locally.

The Student Partnership team are preparing a new presentation to help demonstrate UCL-wide changes in SSCC meetings, which will be shared with SSCC chairs soon.

New Student Partnership pages on Teaching & Learning Portal

UCL staff can discover more about working in collaboration with students to create a better education experience via the new Student Partnership webpage. This re-designed page hosts plenty of information and guidance on making the most of initiatives such as SSCCs, Student Quality Reviewers and ChangeMakers.

The Templates & Guides page, meanwhile, hosts a comprehensive range of materials for promoting UCL’s latest student feedback campaigns.

Further information

Discover more about the project on the Student Voice project page, or contact Tom McMahon (Student Partnership Manager) for more information.