sparqs supports the Student Engagement Staff Network (SESN), a professional network for staff in colleges, universities and students’ associations with roles relating to the co-ordination and development of student engagement in quality.
Strong and effective student engagement is crucial to the student view on learning, and good professional staff support to representation and engagement activity is in turn essential to make this happen.
Such roles generally lie within students' associations (though can often be institutional posts) and typically include responsibilities such as coordinating course and lead rep systems, support to senior students' association education officers, liaison with institutional staff on student engagement in quality, and ensuring effective student engagement in committees, governance and review activities. The Professional standards framework for student engagement is an important tool for understanding and articulating these positions. We have accompanied it with a series of resources, including an Induction Guide for Academic Representation Co-ordinators.
As lynchpins to student engagement in quality, student engagement staff require substantial knowledge, skills, experience and support. The SESN meetings, founded on the themes of "learn, share, develop", aims to provide that through discussion around key sectoral developments, consultation on new initiatives within sparqs, and opportunities to share and reflect on personal and professional practice in supporting academic representation. We welcome contributions of case studies and discussion topics from student engagement practitioners across the sector.
Suggestions are always welcome for topics for SESN meetings. If you would like to propose anything, please contact Amy Monks.
SESN mailing list
There is a Jiscmail group for SESN which is a forum for discussion of the events and their content as well as for exchange of related work. To join the Jiscmail group, please visit this link.
New attendance process
Based on feedback from network members, we are trialling a new process for our regular online SESN meetings, beginning with the February 2026 meeting. Attendees were previously required to register for each individual meeting; Instead, to streamline the process, calendar appointments for online meetings will now be sent to all those signed up to our SESN Jiscmail list and members will be asked to accept/decline to confirm whether they plan to attend each meeting.
New members wishing to join SESN should sign up to the SESN Jiscmail mailing list (link above) to be kept in the loop and to receive the calendar appointments for forthcoming meetings.
2025-26 SESN meetings
- Thursday 23rd October 2025 – by VC, 10.00am-12.30pm
- see the event page for further details and the materials from the session. - Thursday 27th November 2025 – by VC, 10.00am-12noon
- see the event page for further details and the materials from the session. - Thursday 12th February 2026 – by VC, 10.00am-12noon
- an appointment has been sent to all those on the SESN mailing list
- please accept/decline the appointment to indicate your attendance. - Tuesday 12th May 2026 - 10.00am-3.00pm at QMU - joint, in-person event along with NEON colleagues and members of STAG (sparqs Tertiary Advisory Group).
Last year's meetings can be accessed below and meetings from previous years can be accessed via the side menu on the Events page.
2024-25 SESN Meetings
- Tuesday 8th October 2024 – via Zoom, 10.00am-1.00pm
- see the event page for further details and the materials from the event. - Thursday 28th November 2024 – via Zoom, 10.00am-1.00pm
- see the event page for further details and the materials from the event. - Tuesday 4th February 2025 – via Zoom, 10.00am-1.00pm
- see the event page for further details and the materials from the event. - Wednesday 7th May 2025 - joint meeting with NEON and JAG, in-person at QMU, 10.00am to 3.00pm.
- see the event page for further details and the materials from the event.
Security arrangements for online meetings
Online meeting links are not available on social media or our website. They are sent by email only to those who have registered for the event. To ensure only those who have registered join the meeting, delegates are asked not to share the link with anyone. Only those who have registered will be admitted.