Students working with their colleges and universities is key to shaping the student learning and providing the very best student experience in Scotland. In this way our students are not just receivers of their education but partners in shaping the outcomes not just for themselves but for generations of students to come. How far have we achieved this goal of putting students at the centre of the learner journey in our work to develop articulation routes? At the ‘Articulation for All’ conference on 5th September 2014, Eve Lewis, Head of sparqs, examined this question in relation to the Student Engagement Framework for Scotland and outlined some ways in which sparqs would like to work with the sector to develop work in this area.
Articulation for All, which was hosted by the Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife and Borders Articulation Hub (ELRAH), is an annual conference which brought together practitioners in articulation from the university and college sectors, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), and a range of other organisations. The main theme of the event focused on the role articulation plays in providing a fair and flexible education system.
The event was opened by Dr John Kemp and Fiona Burns from the SFC who discussed the progress made by the sector on articulation. Following that, there were speeches by the Equality Challenge Unit, NUS Scotland and sparqs. There were also a series of interactive workshops by a number of universities and colleges.
The conference was relevant in terms of sparqs’ wider work on articulation with ELRAH. sparqs’ contribution at the conference introduced delegates to the Student Engagement Framework for Scotland and explored how staff working in articulation could use this in their work. In addition to Eve’s keynote speech, we also ran a workshop to introduce delegates to the sparqs/ELRAH project and to generate discussion about how best to harness the student voice to improve practice on articulation.
See our website for more information on our work with ELRAH and to view the presentation from our workshop at the conference.
Please contact Hannah Clarke, sparqs Development Advisor, if you would like more information or are interested in getting involved in the project – hannah.clarke@sparqs.ac.uk
