Feedback from colleagues
Colleagues who have involved the Student Expert Panel in their projects explain why they've appreciated their engagement, and how it's affected the outcome of their work.
"Prior to entering lockdown, I met the Panel to receive feedback on our proposed MOOC 'Introducing HE', a widening participation project intended to demystify coming to university. It was one of the most productive half-hours I had spent in recent times: assumptions on course content were tested; new content was developed as a result; and the project name was changed to 'Next Steps to University'.
Post lockdown, the Panel continued to have an influence on the project with several members offering talking head films of their York experience, adding authentic and honest testimony to the course. The project has been a huge success with over 1200 learners on the first run in May. I can't thank the panellists enough for their contribution - the feedback from potential future York students provides ample evidence that their views on content were incredibly useful." Iain Barr, Head of Lifelong Learning
“The Student Expert Panel provided considered insight into the concerns of students expected to study in the autumn term 2020, both inside and outside the classroom. They highlighted the importance of face-to-face contact with teaching staff, particularly in relation to seminars, and the provision of adequate study space on campus, if space in the library is restricted by Covid-19 safety measures.
The case for student employment on and off campus was clearly articulated and the University's plans to provide a full on campus experience next year accords with their view, and is a strong steer that frontline student-facing services must be physically available to support students on campus, in addition to being available online. The consistent spectrum of views from undergraduate and postgraduate taught members of the Panel was incredibly helpful in identifying the key challenges that face the University in the autumn term 2020.” Wayne Campbell, Academic Registrar (2019-23)
"The Student Expert Panel contributed to the recruitment process for the Inclusive Learning Adviser (Academic Support Office) joining the audience for the candidate presentations and providing insightful feedback. It was important to have student perspectives as part of the recruitment process, particularly in relation to the student voice and the co-production principles underpinning the work of the Inclusive Learning Project.
I worked with the Student Expert Panel again as part of the development of the SPOCs. Panel members were involved at the start of the development process to help inform the content, and again at the end as part of the quality assurance and review stage before the SPOC went live. The panel members provided excellent feedback, which has helped to finalise the SPOC for this run and to give us ideas on how we can further develop the SPOC. The feedback points were very insightful and considered accessibility and inclusivity issues. I would definitely be keen to work with the Student Expert Panel again in the future." Jan Ball-Smith, Faculty Learning Enhancement Project Manager
"My meeting with the Student Expert Panel was one of the most positive, informative, and encouraging encounters that I had as chair of the UTC working group on interdepartmental and cross-faculty teaching. The members of the group were highly engaged, thoughtful, and frank. They had all prepared carefully for the meeting, reading the options document I'd forwarded, and offered sharp comments, in addition to participating energetically in open discussion. I learned a lot from our extended conversation." Barry Lee, Philosophy and Chair of UTC Interdepartmental and Cross-Faculty Teaching Working Group
"It has been fantastic working with the Expert Panel this year. Since joining and learning about the Panel, I was pleased to hear about such a fantastic resource, with a breadth of student experience. Due to the wide range of students on the Panel, from a variety of backgrounds, you can gain a real sense of the student experience, and even highlight particular groups you would like to work with. It is so easy to gain feedback from the Panel in this way, and I look forward to doing the same next year too.
The students on the Panel are an asset to the University. I have had the pleasure of working with two students in particular, throughout the year, who have supported the development of our new Black Access programme. Their openness and honesty has enabled us to gain authentic insights into the experience of black students at York, and this collaborative approach has been essential to the development of our programme. From initial focus groups, through to joining our planning team, these students have made a real impact in creating the programme, and sharing their ideas with us and other students working on the project, from around the University.
Their willingness to contribute has been constant over the last nine months of working with us. Their passion for their work is clear, and they provide balanced views to each of their points. I am sad to say that these two students, which have become part of the Black Access team, will be graduating this summer. We wish them every success, but they will be a great miss. However, I am confident that the Student Expert Panel will continue to recruit such passionate, enthusiastic and proactive individuals to the Panel. This is a resource which should be used to support all areas of work across the University, and I would highly recommend sourcing feedback from the Panel." Laura Whitelock, Access & Outreach
"Talking to the Student Expert Panel was a great way to engage the target group for our Turing scheme funding application. There is a strong weighting in the application on demonstrating how institutions will try to level up the access to international opportunities. The students provided really helpful insights into what can be done to improve how we promote our opportunities, make them more accessible to students from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds, and how we can better support students going abroad. We asked them about their priorities and concerns and factored their responses into our application. We would like to continue working with the Panel to regularly assess the impact and improve access to our mobility programmes." Sarah Leach, Global Programmes
"My colleague and I from the Maths Skills Centre found attending the Student Expert Panel session really useful and enjoyable as it gave us a perspective on our services that we hadn't considered. We have used the feedback to target and send communications at a number of points throughout the term, offer a trial of evening appointments to ensure all can access services and create a video explaining the services in relevant terms as students can be apprehensive about attending. In addition, we are planning to contact YUSU at the start of the autumn term for a list of societies so that we can arrange to present our services to interested parties.
The Student Expert Panel were very honest, collaborative and thoughtful. They listened very carefully to the questions and suggested useful and appropriate ideas. I particularly liked the way that they built on each others' ideas and asked questions to ensure that they understood the situation. Their ideas will definitely be built into the online course." Sue Russell, Academic Skills Manager, Academic Support Office