Course Rep Training

1. Course Rep Training

2. Congratulations • Congratulations on being elected as the Course Rep for this year! • We hope this will be an exciting opportunity which will allow you to help to make a change to your course and University experience. #TeamGlos #bluearmy

3. Who we are! Louise Fensome SU Full-Time Education Officer Jenny Barnes Representation & Democracy Coordinator

4. And who are you?

5. Your Students’ Union

6. Who Are We? Vision To have a positive impact on all students at the University of Gloucestershire Mission To effectively represent our members by being a student-led and sustainable organisation, creating a better experience at the University of Gloucestershire Values • Helpful • Professional • Trustworthy • Democratic • Fun

8. Full Time Officers 2014 - 15 From left to right… Louise Fensome Education Officer lfensome@glos.ac.uk @yoursued Ben Parfitt Sports Officer bparfitt@glos.ac.uk @yoursusports Kesh Patel President rpatel@glos.ac.uk @yoursupres Catherine Innes Community Officercinnes@glos.ac.uk @yoursucom

9. Any Questions? If you think of any later feel free to drop us a line! t: Park SU Office (main): x 4360 FCH SU Office: x 5358 Oxstalls Office (sports): x 5187 e: su@glos.ac.uk : @yoursu w: www.yourstudentsunion.com SU Staff Contact Directory

10. Roles & Responsibilities

11. The Aim: To improve the education the University of Gloucestershire delivers to its students through bringing to light the issues faced by the students on your course.

12. Your Role • The role of the Course Representative is an exciting one that allows you to represent the views of your peers, and help to shape your education! • Your University is for students, so why not help make it student led, by making demands of and questioning the current system. • Your feedback is invaluable to the University as it helps us to improve across the board and offer the best possible teaching and learning environment to UoGstudents. • It is important that representatives highlight both good and bad things about their course, so we know what we are doing well as well as what we need to improve on, so we can spread any good practice around the University and change weak areas.

13. Your 6 main responsibilities: 1. Talk to the students on your course to find out any academic issues they are having. -To find out more information about how your course mates feel about any issues. -Help give you a good argument in Board of Studies meeting- get a statistic! -Find out any improvements your course mates want to see OR find out anything they think is great about their course before a Board of studies meeting.

14. 2. Attend Boards of Studies meetings to feedback and discuss the issues faced by the students on your course -If you don’t tell the University what’s wrong, they aren’t going to change anything! -It’s an opportunity to tell them face to face what you want to be done and quiz them on how they are going to do it

15. 3. Feedback any decisions made in Boards of Studies meetings to your peers. -Ensures everyone knows what changes are going to be made -Ensures everyone is happy with the changes that are going to be made -Lets everyone know what can’t be done & why

16. 4. Talk to your School Rep -Attend Rep Forums -Get bigger issues resolved (including non-academic issues) e.g. ones beyond your course -Get involved in helping to build a School Community

17. 5. Bring a student perspective to potential University policy changes such as proposed changes to assessment deadlines. -without a student perspective it’s difficult to know what you want! -avoids further problems later on

18. 6. Engage students with national issues affecting education. -e.g. Rising Tuition Fees -Pass your knowledge of the issues onto your course mates -It’s hard to push for change if you don’t know what is wrong!

19. What is NOT your role • To deal with individual students issues e.g. a student who is unhappy with their grade. • To deal with students personal issues.

20. Helpzones • There is a Student Helpzone on each campus, where staff are available to provide advice and support on academic and personal matters, including questions about obtaining an extension to an assessment deadline; accommodation, finance, health, etc. • You can visit the Helpzones web page at: • http://www.glos.ac.uk/helpzones, • or phone 01242 71444, or email the Helpzone for your campus: • helpzonefch@glos.c.uk • helpzoneoxstalls@glos.ac.uk • helpzonepark@glos.ac.uk

21. Specific Student Services -Accommodation (accommodation@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714544 -Chaplaincy (chaplaincy@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714592 -Counselling (counselling@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714542 -Disability, Dyslexia and Learning Support Service (disability@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714541 -Employability: Careers Centre (careers@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714795 -Employability: Degreeplus (degreeplus@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 715032 -Employability: Student Placements (placements@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714316 -Mental Health and Wellbeing (mhw@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714542 -Money Advice Team (moneyadvice@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714535 -Student Achievement Team (studentachievement@glos.ac.uk) Tel: 01242 714444

22. What you get out of being a Rep • Being a Course Rep brings loads of great rewards, as well as providing you with skills that employers love! As a Course Rep, you will: • Develop loads of skills including: communication, negotiation, interpersonal skills, public speaking, leadership • Get to have your say in how your course is run • Meet all your course mates and make new friends • Get accreditation on the Degree Plus Award and the HEAR • Get involved with your Students’ Union and gain accreditation in the SU Volunteering toolkit • Sit on top University meetings that will expand your knowledge of how the Universityworks • Make a change and leave your mark on the University

23. Any Questions?

24. Education for Sustainability

25. Education for Sustainability (EfS) • EfS – a way of teaching and learning that can be applied to all courses • Develops students to become graduates with the knowledge, understanding, skills, values and attributes capable of being agents of change for sustainability • It supports leaders and decision makers of tomorrow to consider an alternative positive future • our current ways of life are putting increasing pressure on society and the environment which is limiting quality of life for current and future generations This is a set of principles which can be adapted to the context of any course, any student and any future career path

26. Why is EfS important? The University of Gloucestershire aims to be a sector leader embedding EfS in all of its taught programmes EfS is being demanded by students and graduate employers: NUS-HEA Student Survey 2013: • 87% believe ‘sustainability is something universities should actively support and promote’ EMPLOYERS: • Highlighted the need for sustainability literate graduates in the following surveys: - BITC 2010, Ipsos-MORI 2010, Sky Future Leaders Survey 2011, British Council 2011 QUALITY ASSURANCE AGENCY (QAA): • EfSis a QAA priority, it was included in the Teaching and Learning chapter (B3, p8) of the new UK Quality Code HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMY (HEA): • QAA and HEA have released national guidance on ESD in curriculum development and graduate outcomes in 2014

27. Course Reps and EfS EfSuses active, ‘real-world’, participatory and transformative approaches to education As a course rep you can: • Question lecturers on the integration of EfS into your courses • Press for curriculum development to give you more experiences of EfS teaching and learning approaches • Ask for more relevant education which equips you for the future Be an active learner and ensure you are gaining the most from your time at the University of Gloucestershire! For more information get in touch with Meg Baker in the Sustainability Department: rcesevern@glos.ac.uk or Jenny Barnes: jbarnes@glos.ac.uk to join a more in-depth EfS workshop *More information on EfS and your role as a course rep is provided in the course rep handbook. See also, http://insight.glos.ac.uk/sustainability/Education/hefcelgmquality/Pages/EducationforSustainableDevelopment.aspx

28. Communication

29. Activity • Talk to someone you don’t know (2 mins) -what happened? -what skills did you use?

30. Activity • Draw what you hear (5 mins) -Partner 1- think of something you want to change about your course. Describe this to your partner. -Partner 2- try to DRAW what your partner has described -Partner 1- did this drawing match what you were trying to explain? Now SWAP!

31. Negotiation

32. Skills you need to negotiate? • Listen carefully to the arguments of the other party • Clarify issues you are not clear about by asking how, why, where, when and what questions. • List all the issues which are important to both sides and identify the key issues. • Identify any areas of common ground. • Understand any outside forces that may be affecting the problem. • Try to be assertive about what you want rather than passive or aggressive

33. Scenario 1 • You are in a Board of Studies Meeting. You bring up that you and your course mates all feel that the assessment deadlines are too close together for this term. • The staff members present agree that it’s unfortunate; however they feel that they need to remain where they are, as they all want their students to have finished most of the module before writing their assignments. • How do you negotiate a deal?

34. Scenario 2 • You are in a Board of Studies meeting, and you bring up that many of the students on your course are unhappy with the standard of feedback they are receiving. • The staff members present feel that they are giving sufficient feedback. • How would you negotiate a change in feedback and find a positive solution to the problem?

35. Meetings

36. Boards of Study meetings • You and the members of staff in your School (e.g. Course leaders) will discuss any issues raised by students. • The aim is to work towards a positive solution to resolve issues. BEFORE MEETINGS -Talk to the other students in your department and research any issues they are facing. -Submit these issues to your Personal Tutor, so they can be included in the agenda. -You will receive an agenda prior to the meeting-make sure you print this off! -If you have big concerns about an issue, talk to either your School Rep or a member of staff to build a good working relationship.

37. During Meetings • Ensure that all your arguments are clear and make a good point. It can be useful to have facts and statistics to back up your argument. • Try to talk about the experiences of the students in your department as opposed to personal experiences. • Work towards actively creating positive solutions. • Ask questions during the meeting if there’s something you don’t understand. • Be polite throughout the meeting, allow others to speak, and don’t become too emotional about your point.

38. After Meetings • Make sure you know what decisions were made at the meeting. • Inform your course mates about what happened at the meeting.

39. The Quality Assurance Agency • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVrRlAFH_3U Get involved with Quality Assurance Survey time!

40. Feedback You will feed back to: -Your module review tutors -Members of Staff at Boards of Studies meetings -Your course mates -School Reps WHY IS FEED BACK IMPORTANT? -Lets everyone know what’s going on -Means actions can be taken -Means you can hold staff to account for their actions IT MEANS WE CAN IMPROVE EDUCATION!

41. Meet your School Rep

42. Any Questions?