The Student Journey Project: Findings so far

van Hooff, J, Connolly, S and Taylor, S (2013) The Student Journey Project: Findings so far. UNSPECIFIED. CARPE.

Preview

Available under License In Copyright. Download (360kB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper reports on the ‘Student Journey Project’, a 3 year £48,000 cyclical project running from 2012-2015. The Student Journey Project is a qualitative, longitudinal project which utilises a small number of student case studies to try to understand what the ‘real’ student journey is like at MMU, covering the learning, living and social & community experiences (including what areas and topics are of particular importance to our students). It is envisaged that information from the project will be used to help highlight, prioritise and target improvement works. The project is jointly run by the Student’s Union and Business Improvement Team. Young et al (2007) argue that institutional practice in the UK has been slow to reflect the ‘Adaptation Perspective’ (Zepke and Leach, 2005) popularised in pedagogic literature, which encourages institutions to move towards adapting to the needs of students, with course content, teaching methods and assessment reflecting the diverse demands of the students. The Student Journey Project is designed with this approach in mind, with the action research methodology designed to capture and respond to the student voice. We argue that student engagement and success is crucial to discussions of quality assurance in higher education as outlined in the QAA strategy 2011-14.