College sector overview report 2023 to 2024: Learner engagement
Learners leading learning
The learner voice is strong in the majority of colleges. Students’ Association (SA) representatives contribute positively to college board meetings and strategic committees to influence improvements to the learning experience and college environment.
SA office bearers and college staff work well together to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for learners. SAs organise a wide range of activities to engage learners and promote diversity. These include freshers’ events, cultural celebrations, LGBTQ+ awareness days, learner clubs and social and sporting activities.
SA representatives work well with staff teams to improve and enhance pre-entry and induction arrangements. A few SAs make effective use of ‘you said, we did’ campaigns to highlight the influence of the learner voice on college decision making. Some learners have undertaken training to become mental health ambassadors. This is appreciated by their peers, who welcome access to support from appropriately trained fellow learners alongside staff. However, many learners in some colleges are not aware of the SA and its role in improving and enhancing the learning experience.
The majority of class and programme representatives meet regularly with curriculum managers and attend programme team meetings to discuss suggestions for improvement. They are comfortable raising issues about the learning experience, making suggestions for improvement, and believe staff take their views seriously. However, in a minority of colleges, learner representation at programme team meetings is low and some learners are not aware of who their representative is or what the role entails. Learners on part-time programmes, in particular, are less aware of the class representation system than full-time learners. This results in the views of some learners’ groups not being captured sufficiently well to support self-evaluation, action planning and curriculum improvement.
Evaluation leading to improvement
Almost all learners believe they are valued and listened to with their views leading to positive change. The SFC Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey (SSES) for AY 2022-23 recorded a 55% response rate from full-time learners, an increase of 12.1% from the previous year. Almost 27% of part-time learners responded which is an increase of 9.0% from the previous year. Almost 95% of full-time FE learners and 89% of HE learners who did respond were satisfied with their college experience. Satisfaction rates for part-time learners were 94% for FE and 92% for HE. However, too many colleges have poor response rates for the SSES, limiting the breadth of learner feedback.
In addition to the SSES, all colleges use various in-house questionnaires and feedback forums to gather learner opinions. Most colleges make effective use of online facilities to increase learner participation and attendance in these activities. Learner representatives meet regularly with managers to share views on learning experience. Learners are satisfied that their requests and needs are met and that their feedback is used constructively by staff to improve services, particularly in relation to access to counselling and financial support.
SAs offer training to class and programme representatives on supporting their peers and conveying feedback to staff and college fora. A few SA teams are making effective use of online platforms to enable class representatives to communicate with each other, share resources and access online meetings. However, class representative training is not completed timeously enough in many colleges in order to support their role in learner engagement and quality improvement.
Learning, teaching and assessment
Most learners value the professional practice that teaching staff bring to class activities to enhance lesson content and delivery. Learners report that the feedback they provide to teaching staff leads to improvements in how lessons are delivered. This includes changes to the sequencing of units, the pace of learning, and the quality of resources.
Teaching staff across colleges engage positively with learners, creating flexible learning opportunities and using online resources to meet individual needs, particularly for those in remote areas. Although remote learning has grown, learners express a preference for on-campus classes commenting on the benefits for their social and mental well-being.
Most teaching staff facilitate productive discussions with learners to evaluate the impact of lessons and develop resources that provide a variety of learning options. They contextualise wider skills well within class activities to help learners prepare for the workplace, articulate to further and higher education or progress into university. Whilst most staff actively seek and use learner feedback to enhance teaching, many do not involve learners sufficiently in improving learning experiences.
