The general objective of the project Student Participation Without Borders (STUPS) is to increase student participation and lay the foundations of a European network focusing on the development of new practices to promote student participation with the aim of finding genuine solutions to one of the most pressing challenges of higher education.
To complete this goal, specific objectives of the project seeks to increase and improve the knowledge, cooperation, training and awareness of student participation, which is an invaluable source of social innovation. This is key to establish efficient governance and a more inclusive higher education system.
The Student Learning Experience is used by course rep training to help course reps in asking their fellow students specific, meaningful questions around each of the areas of the learning experience, allowing student input to be mapped across various headings to ensure it is broad-ranging. It is possible to use the headings of the Student Learning Experience for other similar engagement purposes, such as agenda items for a course committee meeting, topics for focus groups and surveys, or a mapping tool for teaching staff to reflect on how much input they are getting from student representatives across the different areas of learning.
The following sections gives tools for conducting the peer assessments of student centered learning: – Section 2 briefly outlines the philosophy of the peer assessment of student-centred learning, Section 3 describes the peer assessment process and preparations needed before the visit, Section 4suggests a set of core meetings that should take place during the peer assessment visit to give the peer assessment team information on the teaching and learning related policies and practices in the institution.
The data for this edition was collected by surveying the European Students’ Union’s national unions of students in the following areas: student participation in governance, the social dimension, quality assurance, recognition, mobility and internationalisation, structural reforms, student-centred learning and financing of higher education. The questionnaire also included general questions about the Bologna Process and its future. In total, between 37 to 40 NUSes from 40 EHEA countries responded to the questionnaire, from Norway to Malta and Iceland to Armenia.
The charter easily visualises all recognised student rights related to the dimensions of: – governance and management; – academics and quality; -social, cultural and sports; -and equality and inclusion. It also shows the potential for student participation in all these spheres and lists the existing channels for exercising these rights. The aim of this digital deliverable is to increase students’ knowledge of their right to participate in the University, and to bring them closer to the structures and processes available for this purpose.
For the elaboration of this tool, the best practices and innovative methodologies have been selected from all the contributions collected by the STUPS consortium through an international participatory process. These practices have been distributed over 10 sections to cover the main topics requested by the university community, around the dimensions of governance and management; academic and quality; social, cultural and sports; and equality and inclusion.This digital publication offers valuable resources for university managers and student organisations, with multiple visions and solutions to the problems and challenges facing student participation in the EHEA.
This European Index of Student Participation, created by the STUPS project, aims to objectively, transparently and reliably measure and compare the potential for student participation offered by each higher education system in the European Union. The index makes use of indicators to categorise the situation of the item at the national level. To measure the potential of the item in each higher education system, a scale of ratios (%) is used to assess the weight of the student sector within the composition of the bodies. Other indicators are measured on a ordinal scale represented as a traffic light according to the following conditions: – The indicator is fulfilled to its full potential (green); – The indicator is only partially fulfilled (orange); – The indicator is not met (red)
Student participation has become an integral part of the higher education system. Lack of or insufficient student participation activities is an acute problem for universities, not least due to the increasing integra- tion of processes of quality development and assurance in recent years. Since acute problems usually re- quire short-term solutions, universities need short-term measures to increase student participation. Mate- rial incentives can be helpful, but can support long-term commitment of students only to a limited extent. Numerous studies show that intrinsic motivation predominates in student participation. In light of this, a conflict of goals must be addressed for universities: There is a need for short-term results; at the same time, intrinsic motivation can usually only be generated/increased in the medium or long term. The present re- port proves that for a (sustainable) strengthening of student participation in processes of quality develop- ment and assurance of higher education institutions, one thing is pivotal: factors relevant for successful participation must be strengthened and impediments minimized.
