Championing the student interest: b etween partnership and protections

1. Championing the student interest: between partnership and protections Rachel Wenstone Vice President (HE) National Union of Students

2. What student interest means to us That students choose the course and institution that will help them meet their aspirations That conditions are such as to enable students to access, thrive in and succeed in their learning That students are not exploited or excluded by the system That students are challenged and pushed to exercise and enhance their agency. Education should make us more critical, more purposeful and more able to effect change in our world, otherwise it is useless.

3. Overlapping spheres of student interest In learning and teaching we seek success and transformation for students In regulating institutions we seek protections and assurances for students In governance and decision-making we seek representation and active participation for students

4. Market instruments do not deliver student interest Fees do not create competition on price Public information has a contested relationship with quality and does not seem to significantly inform student choice League tables are blunt instruments in a richly diverse and complex sector Marketing over-inflates student expectations

5. Institutions are more powerful than students Institutions hold the power to award qualifications They determine the terms on which students are allowed to participate They control the information that students have access to Complaints processes are labyrinthine and inaccessible There is a lack of credit transfer and exit regime They wield historical and cultural authority They get away with adopting the façade of student consultation without the reality

6. Regulatory implications Not bringing alternative providers up to standard of publicly-funded institutions but raising the bar on student rights and protections across the whole system For students to be safe and active members of their institutional community they need representation, advice, advocacy and redress These rights should not accrue to students on the basis of payment, but as the way we preserve the high quality and standards of UK HE

7. We’re calling for The right to independently organise to represent your own interests, with access to independent advice and advocacy Student participation in institutional governance at every level Redress and alternatives if your institution fails to comply with external regulators Courses to exist for the full period of registration Clarity about the full cost of the course Independent recourse for complaints and appeals and automatic issuing of Completion of Procedures letters A national credit transfer framework

8. But… Teaching students is one part of the institutional mission, not its sole purpose Students are one part of the learning community and have a responsibility to others and to the cohesion of the community as a whole Unbridled student power would limit the ability of institutions to transform students through challenge and critique

9. Partnership Regulation creates the conditions for students to not be exploited, partnership enables them to thrive in and co-produce their learning community Students working with academics on matters of shared concern and interest Real and authentic relationships, not transactional Students both powerful and responsible