sparqs Consultancy
About sparqs Consultancy
In 2007-08, sparqs piloted a targeted and personalised approach to enhancing student engagement with twenty institutions across the North of Scotland through a Consultancy service.
Following internal and external evaluations of the work, and thanks to further funding from the Scottish Funding Council, the consultancy approach was expanded to the whole of Scotland in 2009-10.
The consultancy is a demand-led service, and through listening to institutions and students' associations we have identified four areas as potential priorities for the sector. These are highlighted in our Consultancy 2010-11 report which was widely distributed in September 2010.
Tailored workplans
By developing individual workplans for each institution, sparqs is able to provide research, training or development advice that responds to institutions' own specific challenges, ambitions and agendas. Our work can be both:
On-site - meetings and workshops to explore ideas, gain views, agree outcomes, and of course undertake substantive work. These may be large or small gatherings of teaching, administrative or management staff, student representatives, or students; or indeed discussions with key individuals.
Desk-based - underpinning the consultancy's value to institutions is preparation work, gathering of information, development of customised mechanisms of involvement, or research into areas as directed by the institution and students' association.
Some institutions are new to the consultancy and do not have particular priorities already identified, but are nevertheless still interested in finding out more. In these cases, we propose an initial meeting with around half a dozen key staff and student officers, at which we run a specially-designed interactive card-sort exercise that encourages institutions to reflect upon their institution's individual definitions, outcomes and tools of student engagement. This can lead to the identification of areas of work which institutions would like to explore or develop further.
The Team
The Consultancy team consists of Development Advisors Simon Varwell, working from our Inverness office and Stephanie Millar who joined sparqs in our Edinburgh office as part of the consultancy's expansion to the rest of the country.
This section of the website - including the links on the left - explains more about the past and current work of the consultancy, but do get in touch if you have any further questions or would wish to set up an initial meeting to discuss how we might assist you.
More Information
- On our National Conference page, you can find a presentation that gives more of the background and nature of the consultancy, which was delivered by sparqs staff at the event in March 2009.
- The Consultancy Report 2009 is available to download, which summarises work carried out during the first two years and our approach for the future.
- Consultancy 2010-11 demonstrates how we provide the service, gives some examples of what it has delivered, and explains how your institution and student's association can benefit from our consultancy this year.
- Finally, details of institutions' successful work through the consultancy approach will be added to our Peer Practice Library in due course, and highlighted briefly on our past work page.