Learning & Teaching Conference 2022

The need to research, pay attention and support ‘Student Engagement’ in Western Higher Education continues to grow, with increasing measures placed upon our institutions relating to retention, satisfaction and student success. Creating a learning community where our students truly thrive and can be inspired are motivations most educators can get behind, but beyond our feelings towards education, our Universities are increasingly faced with government interest and measures relating to the ‘outcomes’ of University study. 

The time of “doing things the way we have always done them” in the University is changing, and it is more important than ever, especially during times of shift due to COVID-19, that we come together to reflect on how our should remain student centred. This talk will ask participants to look beyond the metrics and begin thinking about what students’ may deem their engagement to be in 2021, and how we can create new environments and practices that support the post-pandemic world we are moving into where students have a sense of belonging. 

Students of today are not just the Google Generation, but also the Netflix Generation who are box setting their degrees, and now the Pandemic Generation who may have never experienced a rich campus experience. How will these students, who still enrol into our universities ten years after the £9K+ tuition fees, want us to support them? How can we as Universities, who often rely on tradition, innovate our teaching and services to support flexible learning for our students? How can we ensure a sense of belonging in a socially distant, more online world?  

This talk will reflect on the above and outline the need to keep belonging, student support and student engagement a priority in Higher Education, to ensure our students matter, and work together to be partners in our students’ success.