“The 21st Century student at Welsh universities is enthusiastic,

committed and keen to engage with university leaders. Students bring

an added dimension and viewpoint to discussions that can be hugely

beneficial and Wales is leading the way in student engagement and

interaction”

WISE words on student participation

WISE (Wales Initiative for Student Engagement) has undergone many changes in the last year to further bolster plans on encouraging students and student unions to get involved with shaping the learning activity at their universities and colleges.

The summer of 2012 saw Wales becoming the first country in the United Kingdom where all of its universities have a Student Charter developed in partnerships with their students. Student Charters set out the mutual expectations of students and universities. Charters are short, clear documents that let students know what they should expect and what is expected of them.

Re-launched by the Minister for Education and Skills, Leighton Andrews AM, in February 2012 to a crowd of well over 100 students and university and further education representatives from across Wales, WISE has gone from strength to strength.

Refreshing its approach, taking in Colegau Cymru as a new partner, and reaching a number of key milestones, ‘WISE’ foundations are now set for 2012-13.

Exceeding a number of key actions in 2011-12 through working in partnership, valuing feedback, harnessing expertise, a number of successes have been achieved. To name but a few:

• Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) provided guidance to universities on the publication of Student Charters leading on to the Higher Education Academy (HEA) providing intensive, developmental support to institutions. This guidance was developed in collaboration with National Union for Students (NUS) Wales and Higher Education Wales (HEW). By the summer of 2012 Wales had become the first country in the UK where all of its universities have a student charter that has been developed in partnership with students

• HEA Wales delivered Wales’ first national learning and teaching conference that focused specifically on enhancement themes - the inaugural Future Directions conference - Graduates For Our Future in April 2012. One conference track was Students as Partners, exploring and celebrating partnership both as a concept, as well as practical examples. Case studies were collected from institutions and students’ unions across Wales to showcase the best examples, and the Students as Partners publication was launched at the event. Over 160 delegates attended the event from Wales and across the UK

• NUS Wales organised the most well attended ‘Course Representative Conference’ to date for course representatives, officers and representation staff across Wales. The conference was attended by representatives from eight Welsh universities and included workshops on the National Student Survey (NSS), Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) review, engaging atypical students and understanding the student learning experience

• Wales has included bilingual students for the first time on QAA institutional review teams and has led the way in student reviewers - in both English and Welsh language, working with the QAA, HEFCW and HEW

• NUS Wales delivered associate trainer training to institutions across Wales - training officers and staff to effectively train their course representatives

• NUS Wales produced the first report on complaints procedures in FE and disseminated this to the FE Student Services Managers’ Network

• A partnership approach to skills and employability saw HEFCW, NUS Wales, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and HEW develop the launch of the first ever jointly signed skills and employability framework action plan

• Four students’ unions delivered the inaugural Student Led Teaching Awards in Wales, supported by HEA and NUS, working in partnership with their institution in order to diversify and enhance the ways in which students are consulted on and involved with decisions about developments in their learning. The awards were an opportunity for students to recognise and reward excellent teaching in their institutions

These are only a few of the numerous achievement delivered through WISE in 2011-12.

For further information on WISE visit www.wisewales.com

WISE words on student participation

WISE has gone from

strength to strength