Respect for Student Voice

Professor Luke Sloan shares his view on the challenges involving student voice in Higher Education. 

How should we demonstrate respect for what our students have to say about their experiences? Besides some notable exceptions, the latest National Student Survey (NSS) data suggests that we could be doing better in this area. However, the data around Student Voice shows progress in places – so what’s going on? 

Although there is still work to do, we’re within benchmark for the questions about the extent to which students have the right opportunities to feedback on their course (Q22) and how clear it is that we act on student feedback (Q24). This suggests that we’re heading in the right direction with our improvements to Module Enhancement and work on Student Staff Panels. Working with the Students’ Union has been integral to this, and we should take a moment to be proud of what we have achieved. 

And yet, we are under benchmark for the question asking to what extent students’ opinions about their course are valued by staff (Q23). On the face of it this doesn’t make sense. It’s clear that we act on feedback, but our students feel that we don’t value what they have to say. What does this mean? 

My diagnosis of this is that our students don’t feel that we respect what they have to say. Under the pressures of time and modules packed with content, we risk presenting a tokenistic response to student voice. As staff, we find it difficult to respond to competing suggestions from students, and rather than explaining this and being authentic, we can sometimes become defensive. This is not the case in all circumstances of course, but the NSS data indicates that something like this must be happening enough for it to impact on our students. 

This is not something that can be fixed by policy, processes, or monitoring. But I wonder, if we drew parallels with how we expected to be treated, seen, and heard as members of staff… would this help us to reflect on our own practice and to make more time to properly close the feedback loop? 

Let’s think about all those times we’ve made a suggestion to improve something, perhaps in our department or a wider University process, and maybe the suggestion was ignored or told it simply wouldn’t work. In such a situation, we would all feel frustrated by what we would perceive as a lack of respect for our opinions and suggestions. 

Putting ourselves in the position of our students can be a powerful reflexive tool. When we think of students as equals, as co-partners, co-designers, and co-researchers in our educational endeavour (Healey, Flint & Harrington 2016), the situation is not so confusing. Everyone wants to be treated with respect. Everyone wants to be seen, heard, and acknowledged. The NSS shows that we are making progress, but we need to keep it up. 

There are multiple ways we can move forward and build on what we’re doing well. One is to follow the nine values in the ‘Students as Partners’ model (Healey et al. 2016) to encourage students to engage with us, and demonstrate that we value their input. Watch this 2 minute video by Dr Alyson Lewis, Lecturer on the Education Fellowships Programmes for some ideas, link to top tips video. We need to embed these values in all our everyday experiences, from corridor conversations through to sector wide surveys. 

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me. It means to be seen, heard, acknowledged and valued. Staff and students – we all want that. 

Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2016). Students as partners: Reflections on a conceptual model. 

References  

Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2016). Students as partners: Reflections on a conceptual model. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 4(2) DOI: https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.4.2.3