New HEPI report considers when and how universities and policymakers should listen to students

Michael Natzler, HEPI’s Policy Officer and editor of the collection, said: 

‘There is huge potential for higher education institutions to listen to and engage students more effectively. This collection shows authentic engagement delivers value to students, to universities and to taxpayers. This happens when universities invest the time and resources to listen to students and to act upon what they say.’

Bruce Johnson, Managing Director of EvaSys, said:

‘The way a university approaches and acts upon the student voice can make a tangible difference to future outcomes for the institution – we see this time and time again across our customer base.  Those who consistently close the student feedback loop by offering reflection and proposed action to issues raised evidence positive pull through in sector-wide results such as the NSS. Student surveys are a valuable tool for capturing the student voice, but a critical element is in the response to that voice. This is what facilitates true partnership working with students to enhance their learning experiences.’

Nick Hillman, HEPI Director, writes in his Foreword to the report: 

‘There is in fact no such thing as a singular “student voice”. Students come from a wide range of different backgrounds, have very different experiences during their time in higher education, like to express themselves in different ways and move on after study to hugely different lives. … A university that treats its students primarily as customers is merely an institution; one that listens to its students is a community.’

Eve Alcock, former Student Union President at the University of Bath, writes: 

‘Many of the decisions student governors have to make can directly contradict the priorities and mandate they have as elected representatives – hiking rent prices, restructuring out whole departments that serve students, lifting student number caps, to name but a few. … The very reason that student governors have a seat at the Board table – for their knowledge of the student experience and representation of a key stakeholder – is the same reason why their voices are often ignored.’

Graham Galbraith, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Portsmouth, writes:

‘Students pay more for their education, there are more full-time undergraduates than ever before, (happily) the student body is also more diverse than it ever has been and (rightly) students are more confident in demanding what they need from universities and their lecturers. They do not merely accept what a university or individual academic wants to offer: they challenge us and make us innovate and change.’ 

Rensa Gaunt, Students’ Disabled Officer 2020/21 at the University of Cambridge, writes: 

‘I had been involved in disabled people’s organising at the University of Cambridge for several years before becoming a sabbatical officer at Cambridge’s Students’ Union. Lobbying always felt very antagonistic: although students on the ground had a good understanding of what was and was not working, by the time an issue filtered up to senior management through various committee structures and representatives, any solutions had either been watered down beyond relevance or, more commonly, abandoned.’

Jonathan Neves, Head of Business Intelligence and Surveys, Advance HE, writes:

‘Student surveys and polling represent some of the most powerful tools available to represent students’ views on their experience, providing a statistically valid complement to other more direct or in-depth approaches to gathering feedback from students. In our sector in particular, survey findings generate headlines, and crucially, can influence policy. … The finding that less than half of students actively feel their voice is heard is perhaps lower than we might have hoped.’

Helena Lim, Head of Opportunities at EvaSys, writes: 

‘The whole point of gathering student feedback is to directly impact on and improve learning and teaching. Further, closing the student feedback loop to students is a highly effective way to facilitate two-way communication between students and institutions and provide a constructive framework to enable lecturers to reflect on and enhance their practice.’ 

Andy Westwood, Professor of Government Practice at the University of Manchester, writes: 

‘The existing higher education model has always had a clear vision of how students should act … This does create demand and interest in student voice but only in the way that its architects and regulators think it should – that is making rational economic choices, exerting consumer rights on value and making complaints accordingly.’

Michael Natzler, author of the chapter on the OfS Student Panel:

‘The Office for Students’ Student Panel drew lots of attention when it was set up in 2018 as a way for the regulator to listen to students. The panellists are clearly passionate about their work and would like even more opportunities to feed into policymaking at the Office for Students.’

Aaron Porter, former President of the National Union of Students (NUS) from 2010-11, writes: 

‘I witnessed and was able to participate in debates right across the political spectrum, from Tories to Trotskyites, and the NUS was all the stronger because of it. During my time as President, the “No Platform” policy was reinforced and I still support a democratic body deciding that a handful of groups who offer nothing but hate and promote violence should be excluded. But this should not extend to those we simply disagree with or find disagreeable. No platforming Conservative politicians or campaigners like Peter Tatchell does not make sense to me. We can disagree with them – they are not advocating violence and we should be able to debate with them.’

Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education at the University of Derby, writes:

‘Often people argue that the university should be a safe space for discussion. But that is not what “safe space” means today. It means a place where ideas that are deemed unacceptable by the emotionally offended can be excluded. But that is not a university. … Students should leave their safe spaces, managerial committees and destressing programmes and get back to raising their traditional voice. This may seem nothing like a return to the student radicalism of the 1960s but in contemporary therapy culture it would be equally radical.’

Professor Dilly Fung, Pro-Director Education at the London School of Economics, writes: 

‘Students are increasingly being drawn into programme design, review and enhancement but many still feel that their voices, values and creativity are excluded from this key area of activity. … Students may have a seat at the table, but the table may be long and the students may sit at the very far end. … Students should be involved in local, incremental curriculum developments. … But most promising of all is the possibility of co-creating structures and policies in such a way that students’ voices are at the heart of things: the institution’s values, its strategic intentions and its articulation of goals.’

Jenny Shaw, Student Experience Director at Unite Students and Paul Humphreys, Founder of StudentCrowd, write: 

‘The student voice – both collectively and individually – is highly valued within the student accommodation sector because it drives value. Value for students who are better able to have their needs met and value for accommodation teams and providers who only remain viable if students want to book with them.’ 

Cath Brown, Former President of the Open University Students Association, writes: 

‘The mature student who already feels somewhat “othered” is unlikely to want to be crowded into a hall with their younger peers to do what feels like a tick-box exercise in return for free pizza. … This does not mean staff being patronising or making “there-there” noises, but it does entail openness and treating students with respect, as fellow adults. … Moving student voice past the simple ‘feedback’ model’ towards real partnership and valuing experience and insight could pay dividends. And be prepared to pay students for their labour – not with pizza, but on a financial basis, as consultants. For mature students in particular, time is money.’

Roy Kiruri, Former International Students’ Officer 2020/21 at the University of Bristol, writes: 

‘It appears quite clear to me that a serious rethinking of the current model of funding higher education needs to take place – otherwise international students’ fees will continue to rise to deal with universities’ increasing running costs, inevitably resulting in both students and institutions being placed in a precarious position.’

What is the student voice?

Produced by the Higher Education Policy Institute and with support from EvaSys, What is the student voice? Thirteen essays on how to listen to students and how to act on what they say (HEPI Report 140) edited by Michael Natzler, is a new collection of essays which provides a range of views on what and where the student voice resides and how to listen and respond to it. The collection covers a wide range of topics from the role of sabbatical officers as governors to the National Union of Students, mature students and includes contributions from survey experts, sabbatical officers and a vice-chancellor as well as interviews with the Office for Students’ Student Panel. Including a chapter by Nick Hillman, HEPI Director, the chapters are: Students as governors: walking the tightrope and shouting into the void – Eve Alcock, Former Student Union President at the University of Bath What do students think and how do universities find out? – Professor Graham Galbraith, Vice-Chancellor, University of Portsmouth Disabled students: the experts we forget we need – Rensa Gaunt, Former Disabled Students’ Officer 2020/21, University of Cambridge Using surveys to represent the student voice and demonstrate the quality of the experience – Jonathan Neves, Head of Business Intelligence and Surveys, Advance HE The virtuous loop: capturing the student voice through course and module evaluation – Dr Helena Lim, PFHEA, Head of Opportunities, EvaSys The student voice at the heart of the system (but only when they’re thinking what we’re thinking) – Professor Andy Westwood, Professor of Government Practice, University of Manchester The Office for Students’ Student Panel in their own words – Michael Natzler, Policy Officer, HEPI The importance of the NUS for representing the voices of students – Aaron Porter, Council Member of Goldsmiths University, Chair of BPP University and a former President of the National Union of Students in 2010/11 Restoring the real student voice – Dennis Hayes, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Derby Students’ voices in curriculum design – Professor Dilly Fung, Pro-Director Education, London School of Education and Political Science The student voice and accommodation – Jenny Shaw, Student Experience Director, Unite Students and Paul Humphreys, Founder and CEO, StudentCrowd Mature students: a silent or a silenced voice? – Cath Brown, former President of the Open University Students Association International students in the UK – perspectives put in context – Roy Kiruri, Former International Students’ Officer 2020/21, University of Bristol