Tag: Lens

  • Reframing student voice through a rights-based lens

    Reframing student voice through a rights-based lens

    Student voice has never been more central to the higher education conversation.

    Across the sector, there’s growing consensus that higher education institutions must not only listen to their students but actively build institutions around their insights and experiences.

    Yet, for all the best intentions and sincere efforts, turning student feedback into meaningful, institution-wide change remains a challenge.

    At the University of Kent, we’ve been reflecting critically on our own approach. Like many, we’ve long celebrated the volume of student engagement we facilitate, such as surveys, focus groups, informal conversations.

    But we’ve come to recognise that collecting feedback isn’t the same as using it, and that celebrating the act of “listening” can sometimes obscure a harder truth – we didn’t always know what to do with what we heard.

    Reframing student voice through a rights-based lens

    Our turning point came through an unlikely source – the work of Professor Laura Lundy. Originally developed to support children’s rights under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Lundy’s model provides a practical framework for ensuring young people’s voices are not only heard, but also acted upon.

    It centres around four interdependent elements – Space, Voice, Audience, and Influence.

    We began to ask – what if we adapted this model to the higher education widening participation context?

    Applying Lundy’s model in this way helped us shift our thinking from engagement as consultation, to engagement as partnership.

    It challenged us to ask harder questions about power, process, and accountability in the way we involved underrepresented students in our outreach and access work.

    We already had a thriving cohort of over 300 student ambassadors – many young, idealistic, and deeply committed to helping shape a more inclusive university. But too often, when they shared ambitious or creative ideas, we found ourselves retreating behind operational constraints – “That won’t get through the next committee,” or “It’s a great idea, but we don’t have the budget.”

    We weren’t dismissing their input out of disinterest, on the contrary, we were invested. But in practice, without the power to act, we were unintentionally reinforcing the idea that their contributions didn’t lead to change.

    Feedback gathered with care and enthusiasm was left to languish in reports and spreadsheets. There was no systematic way of translating insight into action, and no clear feedback loop to close the gap.

    Space

    The development of our new Access and Participation Plan (APP) back in 2023 offered the ideal opportunity to put this into practice. The Office for Students made student involvement a clear expectation and we chose to go beyond compliance.

    In partnership with Kent Students’ Union, we launched a Widening Participation Student Advisory Panel, inspired by a successful model from the University of Southampton. We recruited 25 students, most from underrepresented backgrounds, and built a structure that allowed their contributions to be actioned.

    Voice

    If we wanted students to play a meaningful role in shaping our widening participation strategy, we had to go beyond asking for ideas. We had to equip them to contribute in an informed way.

    That meant building knowledge, not just platforms. We didn’t just ask for feedback, we trained them:

    • We explained the regulatory context
    • We shared internal data and metrics
    • We discussed financial constraints and institutional parameters
    • We connected them directly to our APP Operations and Steering Groups

    Our aim wasn’t to dampen creativity, but to anchor it in context. Students needed to understand the world they were trying to change. That understanding made their input sharper, more strategic, and ultimately more powerful.

    Audience

    Students invest time and energy into sharing thoughtful feedback. They deserve more than tokenistic “thank yous” or vague assurances that their views have been “noted.”

    We took steps to ensure student voice reached the people who could act on it. That meant involving senior leaders and decision-makers in engagement processes, creating spaces where feedback was taken seriously and visibly discussed and being transparent with students about the limits of our authority, namely what we could or couldn’t change.

    One of the students was even elected to sit on the operations group itself, ensuring a direct student voice at the decision-making table.

    Honesty builds trust. And trust is the foundation of sustained, meaningful student engagement.

    Influence

    Acting on feedback is only half the equation. The other half is showing that we acted.

    We’ve become intentional about creating “You said, we did” moments: making visible the link between student insight and institutional change.

    We’ve made sure those changes are not just confined to our team, but acknowledged at all levels – in committees, in strategic plans, and in senior leadership conversations.

    Influence should be traceable. Students should be able to see evidence of their ideas across the university.

    One powerful example of student-led change is the revision of the Kent Financial Support Package (KFSP), driven directly by student feedback. We co-created the process by modelling different support options and inviting students to choose the approach they felt was most equitable.

    While we initially considered concentrating funds among fewer students, students overwhelmingly voiced the importance of broader support, even though this meant slightly lower individual amounts, to ensure more of their peers could benefit.

    They also pushed for smaller changes which would make a big difference, including support for students repeating a year and extended eligibility for those who become estranged during their studies.

    We listened, we acted, and now they can see their voices reflected in a policy that benefits future students.

    From consultation to co-creation

    This is still a work in progress.

    But adapting Lundy’s model has helped us ask better questions about how we build student voice into the DNA of our widening participation work. It’s helped us move from hearing students views to embedding them into decision-making, and from consultation to co-creation.

    If we’re serious about equitable access and success in higher education, then the voices of those most affected must not be optional extras. They must be at the centre, resourced, respected and able to help shape the institutions they are a part of.

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  • The Student Assistant: Through the Student Lens

    The Student Assistant: Through the Student Lens

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    You first met our game-changing GenAI-powered Student Assistant in August 2024, and we’ve been keeping you up to date on all of the exciting developments ever since. We’ve told you how it helps personalize your students’ learning experience on a whole new level with content that’s specific to your course textbook — but now we want to show you how. 

    Let’s dive in and explore some visual examples of student interactions that demonstrate its full capabilities.

    Points students in the right direction  

    Do your students ever get stuck on how to begin working on a question or topic? Using the Student Assistant, students can ask for a solid jumping-off point to get the ball rolling in the right direction. They can also ask it to clarify points of confusion, so they can successfully progress through an assignment.  

    Student Assistant tells student where to start by making sure they understand the key terms in the question.

    Student Assistant I'm lost prompt

    Promotes critical thinking and academic integrity 

    The Student Assistant guides students to help them identify the correct answer, without giving it away, promoting the development of critical thinking skills and putting emphasis on self-reliance. Students are also discouraged from simply guessing a correct answer and are asked to explain their logic behind a selection.

    Student asks the Student Assistant to just give them the answer, and the Student Assistant tells them they cannot provide answers directly. The Student Assistant Is it the first answer prompt.

    Simplifies complex topics 

    If students are struggling to comprehend what they’re learning, they can ask for topics to be elaborated on, rephrased or broken down. They can also ask for brief definitions of key terms. 

    Student asks the Student Assistant to make the topic simpler. Student Assistant provides simpler explanation. Student asks Student Assistant to explain topic in a different way. Student Assistant responds with a different explanation.

    Student asks Student Assistant to give a short definition. Student Assistant provides a concise definition for each term.

    Makes real-world connections 

    With the Student Assistant, students can ask for explanations of how topics they’re studying connect to real-world scenarios. It can generate discipline- and career-specific use-cases, helping students understand the relevancy of course content within the framework of their future careers.  

    Student asks the Student Assistant to give them a real-world example of topic. Student Assistant provides an example. Student asks the Student Assistant how topic applies to nursing? Student Assistant provides explanation.

    Student asks the Student Assistant when they'll use this topic after college. Student Assistant provides a detailed explanation.

    Keeps students on track 

    Getting distracted during a task is something that can happen to the best of us, and students are no exception. If students ask to be shown external or entertaining web content, the Student Assistant will redirect and keep them focused on the assignment at hand. This tool will never provide or rely on external content.  

    Student asks the Student Assistant for a cat video. The Student Assistant redirects student back to assignment.

    Motivates and encourages

    The Student Assistant lets students know that it’s okay to struggle through an assignment by encouraging them with a positive, motivational tone. With positive reassurance from the Student Assistant, students can complete assignments with confidence.  

    Student tells the Student Assistant, this is so hard. The Student Assistant replies with encouragement and motivation.

    Reframes course content  

    When students aren’t making personal connections with course content, it can be easy for them to lose interest in the topic altogether. Students can ask for their course topics to be turned into an engaging story, helping them key into critical themes and ideas that they may have initially overlooked.  

    Student asks Student Assistant to turn topic into a story. The Student Assistant provides a story.

    Can’t wait to begin using the Student Assistant in your courses? 

    The Student Assistant is currently available in beta with select titles, including “Anatomy & Physiology”, “CompTIA Network+ Guide to Networks” and “Economics.”  To get started, create a course with any of the titles available with the Student Assistant and start using it today. 

    We’re gearing up for more titles to feature the Student Assistant this fall. In the meantime, you can currently explore this tool’s capabilities, its current list of titles where it’s featured and AI at Cengage.   

     

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