All further education colleges in Scotland have arrangements that enable students1 to contribute to the improvement of the quality of their educational experience. These range from the informal contacts between staff and students to student membership of each college’s2 board of management, which was provided for in legislation. Over the years colleges have adopted systems that have provided them with information about students’ views and have given students opportunities to be represented at various levels in their organisations. The HMIE report Learner Representation in Quality Assurance Arrangements in Scottish Further Education Colleges reported on the position in 2002 and made a number of recommendations. Since then, HMIE had introduced a new review model with a more comprehensive approach to engagement with learners. Also, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC), the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) and, latterly, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) had provided funding for Student Participation in Quality Scotland (SPARQS) to assist students and institutions to improve the engagement of students in quality processes. SPARQS had recently carried out a mapping exercise into how students were represented across the FE sector in Scotland.
Given the welcome emphasis on enhancing the contribution of learners to quality improvement in recent years, it is timely to look again at the various arrangements in Scottish colleges that ensure the representation of learners. This report describes and evaluates the ways in which students were represented and the ways in which colleges gathered students’ views. Finally, the report makes a number of recommendations for improvement.