The student experience What do students need?

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The student experienceWhat do students need?
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Some history

• So much has changed, but students are reporting
  no change in what they get. Why?
• Running on shifting sands.
• Leaps and bounds in development, student
  engagement, teaching methods.
• Striding backwards in terms of student support
  and wellbeing.
• Does anyone remember Maslows triangle?

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Good old Maslow!
NUS President
Excellent teaching
Go to lectures
Roof over head
Eat
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• Case not made focussing on funding students over
  that of funding the institutions they come from
• Money in students pockets
• Students staying on course, beyond being pulled
  through the door
• Bursaries vs Waivers
• Increased student engagement lead to more support
  in the form of cash bursaries

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Student finance policy

• A legacy of changes and tinkering with the
  system, based on no evidence
• Lack of reflection on student opinion
• Underpinned by assumptions
• Parental support The expectation of financial
  support from parents but no evidence of
  affordability, how they can support?
• All based on income assessment with no
  means-testing.

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Lack of research

• Role of personal income
• Parental contribution, term-time working
  drawing on overdraft
• Meeting the gap between
• bursaries, grants maintenance loan and
• cost of studying plus cost of living.
• Measured up against the outcomes for different
  groups of students.

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Student finance policy

• Little research to understand the extent to which
  the nature of the repayment schedule is
  influential.
• Little done on the role of ALF, hardship other
  discretionary funding in terms of take-up and
  impact within HE.
• So much more

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Who we are letting down

• Pound in Your Pocket Financial Wellbeing
• I feel a lack of control in terms of my financial
  situation
• Disabled students (53)
• with NHS (52)
• full-time, young and adult FE students (51)

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Who we are letting down

• I find it difficult to understand my financial
  entitlements
• student parents 52
• NHS 51
• disabled students 50

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Who we are letting down

• I find it difficult to concentrate on my studies
  due to financial worry
• undergraduates aged 21-24 (53)
• as well as student parents and (49)
• NHS (49)

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How are we letting them down?

• Bursaries vs Waivers
• Over two thirds of students, no matter which
  grouping, stated they would prefer cash over any
  other form of support.
• Hidden Costs
• Not merely publicising costs, but including them.
  This is an access and a performance issue.
  Students should neither be disadvantaged nor
  advantaged! because of their ability to pay.
• More than just volume?
• Bureaucracy and structure

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How are we letting them down?

• Institutions have the power to address these, to
  continue to improve and develop, supporting their
  staff students.
• Together we will tackle the framework and the
  inequalities which we all face at a national
  level.

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The irony of the marketplace

• Market system insists that undergrads be more
  demanding
• Always been a market in Part-Time and PGT
• The Market has never worked for them
• Their expectations probably met what they got,
  but what these students get has rarely been good
  enough.
• There is no evidence that the market has lead to
  an improvement in quality.

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Where next

• We are barely treading water
• Funding is constantly being cut
• Working against our initiatives