Students are at the heart of everything we do in colleges. We are organised around students’ needs and aim to make sure that the system works for them. In one sense, they are the consumers of the education we offer: customers who need to be satisfied. But they are also partners in learning: human beings choosing to engage in a social process that will change them.
Our experience as college principals over many years has convinced us of the great value of meaningful day-to-day student engagement at all levels of college life.
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Portsmouth College changed its timetable and curriculum delivery following detailed discussion with more than 500 current, past and potential students. Seven years ago, the principal interviewed students and asked them, “What would be your ideal FE experience?” Based on the research, the college changed its start time, the length of its day, the length of teaching sessions and its ICT investment strategy. It became the UK’s first college to give every student and staff member an iPad, making flipped learning the norm.
Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) had a vibrant students’ union with record election turnouts and a large and active student council with representatives from every tutor group. Students were involved in a wide range of campaigns and community activism and were always encouraged to see themselves as full members of the college community with a stake in its development and whose contribution mattered and could make a real difference.
We both joined the Association of Colleges (AoC) last year, bringing with us a commitment to raise the profile of student engagement work in colleges. We have seen lots of good practice across the sector and we want to help celebrate and disseminate it. From the start, we have worked closely with the National Union of Students (NUS), the country’s largest democratic student body. We also took advice from our member colleges and other organisations such as the Learner Voice Practitioner Network, which brings together colleagues who work closely with college student unions.
A charter for student engagement
As a result, the AoC has developed a charter for student engagement, which colleges can sign to make public their commitment to a culture of partnership and engagement at all levels. This includes ensuring that student representative structures are active and inclusive and that there is support and training to aid student participation, leadership, advocacy and deliberation.
This commitment to student engagement goes beyond the college level. It also means promoting opportunities for students to develop the values, knowledge and skills needed to become informed, critical and active citizens in a democracy. The AoC is keen to connect student representatives in our work so that the student agenda can help to shape the college agenda at national as well as at institutional level. For example, we are going to involve student governors in our annual conference as part of opening up the debate about further education and its future to those whose futures most depend on it.
Valuing student engagement is good for colleges as service providers, but it also supports our core educational purpose. If our students are to play their part as informed, active and critical citizens, they need to acquire the habit of democracy and practise the skills of participation, deliberation, advocacy, critical judgement and leadership, which are the building blocks of any vibrant democratic society. These capabilities don’t emerge fully formed when a young person turns 18, they need to be nurtured and supported in a learning environment based on equality, respect and openness.
Creating global citizens
We must never take our values and institutions for granted and, just as with any other kind of infrastructure, our democratic infrastructure needs continuous repair and renewal.
Our democracy faces many challenges, global and local: from climate change, injustice and inequality to the growth of xenophobia and extremism. The idea of sharing and spreading power more widely and equally will always be contested by those who prefer to concentrate power in fewer hands. The best response to these threats will be built on the values, capabilities and confidence of citizens themselves.
Colleges are well placed to nurture democratic practice in their communities and they do this very publicly by committing to the aims of the charter and putting them into practice in all their work.
Steve Frampton is the Association of Colleges’ president and was previously principal of Portsmouth College, and Eddie Playfair is a senior policy manager at AoC and was previously principal of Newham Sixth Form College
