The value of student contributions at board level was very dependent on the individual students and their interaction with the board. Some were reticent and did not contribute much to the meetings. Few students felt that they had made a significant difference to board thinking. However, a student’s presence at meetings served to help focus attention on the student experience as one of the key priorities for the college. Students had greater impact when they were members of committees of the board, where they were more confident in expressing views during in-depth discussion of issues.
Learners and staff were able to exemplify improvements that had resulted from student representation. These were often relatively specific to their programme or arrangements in the department. For example, one class of apprentices had been able to change the timetabled hours to fit better with the students’ normal hours of employment. In other colleges, feedback from students had resulted in improvements to learning materials, the sequencing and timing of units and the amount of practical work in programmes. Students had had influence on the contract for catering in one college. Directly or indirectly, students had also influenced decisions on the use of social or recreational facilities, colleges’ approaches to provision of smoking areas and the opening hours for college facilities such as libraries.
Individual learners and class groups had been able to influence developments that affected them directly and students’ perception was that their views were mostly acted on where possible. The HMIE college review report on Aberdeen College in 2004 noted that:
There were many examples of improvements and developments having taken place in direct response to the feedback from students through class tutors, student surveys and programme review meetings.
The HMIE college review report on Stevenson College, Edinburgh also commented that:
Staff actively sought feedback from learners through a variety of methods, analysed the results and implemented actions for improvement. Where learners had occasion to comment about any aspect of their programme, they felt that staff listened seriously to their comment and took action promptly.
Overall, effective student involvement enabled learners to be active participants and showed them that their participation could bring about change, while helping to develop their citizenship skills.