The Future of Quality Conversation event - 21st January 2015 19 Dec 2014
sparqs and NUS Scotland held a half-day event on Wednesday 21st January 2015 to explore the future of quality in Scotland’s universities. It aimed to equip participants with the critical thinking skills and creativity to be able to draft a consultation response for the… Read More
sparqs Annual Report 2013-14 16 Dec 2014
We are pleased to publish our Annual Report for the academic year 2013-14. The report highlights the work of the team throughout the last academic year, from our core business to exciting new projects and partnerships and future work in the planning. There… Read More
Interview with Phil Ker, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand 08 Dec 2014
In this interview we talk to Phil Ker, Chief Executive of Otago Polytechnic, whose main base is in Dunedin, in New Zealand’s South Island. He was involved in the student engagement project that sparqs contributed to earlier in 2014, and… Read More
Developing Post Graduate Taught Student Engagement Event - 17th December 2014 19 Nov 2014
Can you help us develop resources to support PGT student engagement? sparqs is holding a consultation event on Wednesday 17th December 2014 to explore what PGT engagement could look like and what resources are needed to support it. This full day event is… Read More
Interview with Mark Huxham, Edinburgh Napier University 18 Nov 2014
In this interview we speak to Mark Huxham, Director of Academic Strategy and Professor of Teaching and Research in Environmental Biology at Edinburgh Napier University. 1. You’ve been at Edinburgh Napier University for eighteen years, originally teaching biology but most recently… Read More
Interview with Morven Stewart, sparqs Associate Trainer and GSA student 28 Oct 2014
In this interview, we meet one of our own staff – Associate Trainer Morven Stewart. Like all our Associate Trainers, Morven is a student employed by us on a part-time basis to deliver Course Rep Training across Scotland. She is… Read More
College Students' Association Staff Network 13 Oct 2014
Please sign up if you'd like to be involved! The network is aimed at college students’ association staff, and staff whose role involves supporting the students’ association. The meetings aim to facilitate discussion on the issues and opportunities students’ association staff are currently… Read More
Co-creating the Curricula Workshop - 22nd October 2014 23 Sep 2014
A key aspect of embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum is the engagement of students in their own curriculum creation. How though, can we do this in practice? What are the barriers to/benefits of doing so? What are the key… Read More
Interview with the University of Lincoln Student Engagement Team 22 Sep 2014
In the third in our “Talking Student Engagement” series, we look south of the border to the University of Lincoln. The university has a number of interesting features to its approach to student engagement, and this is co-ordinated by a… Read More
Scotland's Colleges - Fit for the Future 25 Aug 2014
At the FE Strategic Forum on 20th August 2014, Michael Russell MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, announced that NUS Scotland and sparqs will receive £300,000 over the next two years from the Scottish Funding Council to support… Read More
Interview with Ondrej Hajda 25 Aug 2014
The second interview in our new series of interviews with student engagement practitioners, is with Ondrej Hajda, Director of Representation at the University of St Andrews Students’ Association for academic year 2014-15. 1: You’ve just taken up office as Director of Representation at the University… Read More
Interview with Stewart Hay MBE 31 Jul 2014
We are delighted to launch a new series of interviews with student engagement practitioners, starting with Stewart Hay MBE. Stewart was deputy head at Anderson High School in Lerwick, and is the founder of The Global Classroom, an international partnership that allows staff and students… Read More
Student engagement at the heart of self-evaluation 27 Jul 2014
A recent QAA report has highlighted that student engagement has a key role to play in self-evaluation in Scotland’s universities, and that its importance is increasing. The report, which came from the 2012-13 Institutional Approaches to Self-Evaluation (IASE) project, looked at… Read More
Bookings are now open for sparqs Course Rep Training! 03 Jul 2014
We are now taking bookings for 2014/15 Course Rep Training…. for sessions delivered from Autumn 2014 onwards. In addition we are still seeking feedback to help us improve this service, so if we delivered your training last year please give us… Read More
Developing Course Rep Training at Perth College UHI 27 Jun 2014
The sparqs Resource Library now contains four new submissions from Perth College UHI relating to the course rep experience, and we’re delighted to highlight them here. Over a number of years, Perth College UHI has reflected on its course rep system… Read More
HR Guidance for Colleges - watch this space! 18 Jun 2014
With the increase in paid officers and association staff in colleges over the past year, a number of regions have raised the need for effective guidance on HR and employment. We are have therefore run three scoping events during early June 2014 in Glasgow, Edinburgh… Read More
College Student Leadership training Materials 17 Jun 2014
Run in conjunction with NUS, training for College officers took place on 8th and 9th July 2014 under the new name of 'College Student Leadership', previously known as 'Supporting College Student Governors'. The training was held at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. This training was… Read More
Welcome to our new team members! 14 May 2014
We are delighted to announce three new appointments to the sparqs staff team.... David Scott, Hannah Clarke and Kate Samuels. David, previously Head of Learner Services at Dundee and Angus College, will take on our new role of Institutional Support and Development… Read More
sparqs in New Zealand 20 Apr 2014
The international reputation of sparqs continues to grow throughout 2014. Following on from our involvement in recent European project conferences in Armenia and Kosovo, two of our staff visited New Zealand in late April/early May 2014 for a busy programme of conference contributions,… Read More
The Four Hats of student board members 05 Apr 2014
As recently announced, sparqs (through Partnerships for Change) is contributing a series of articles about student engagement to the College Development Network’s “Governing in a Regional Structure” newsletter. Read More
sparqs launches ELIR Cycle 3 Guidance 25 Feb 2014
We are pleased to launch our ELIR Cycle 3 Guidance! This guidance has been written in collaboration with QAA Scotland, for students’ association staff and officers, as well as members of university staff that support student engagement in the universities’ quality… Read More
