Happy new year to friends and colleagues from all in the sparqs team! We hope 2026 has started well for everyone and we look forward to working with you all again during the coming year!
We begin the year with the exciting news that our Deputy Director, Hannah Clarke, will be joining the team on Monday 19th January! Many of you will remember Hannah from her previous roles within sparqs, initially as a Development Consultant and then as a Senior Development Consultant, from 2014 to 2021. We are absolutely delighted that she is coming back to sparqs and can’t wait to work with her again. We know you will all join us in congratulating Hannah and welcoming her back.
In other team news, advised in previous articles, during Summer 2025 two of our Development Consultants left the team (Gloria Laurini and Justin Walker) and at the end of October 2025 our Senior Development Consultant (Megan Brown) moved on to an exciting new role at QAA. We wish them all well in their new roles and will miss them all. We also welcomed two new Development Consultants, Amy Monks and Shona Agnew, both of whom joined us in perfect timing during our Summer training events and have settled into the team well.
We also recently announced that after almost seven years as Chair of the sparqs Trustee Board, Sir Andrew Cubie has decided to step down, as he approaches his 80th birthday. Sir Andrew will be greatly missed by the whole of the staff team and by our many colleagues across the sector who have had the pleasure of working with him. The process for recruiting Sir Andrew’s successor was opened in mid-December 2025 and is still open, until 9.00am on Monday 19th January 2026. Please see the recruitment webpage for the Chair role, which includes a role profile and details on how to apply – candidates are required to submit a short letter of interest and CV. Please share to anyone you think may be interested in this exciting role.
This academic year began with another successful summer training period followed by another office move! This year’s That’s Quality! event saw record attendance with 78 delegates from across 17 colleges, 16 universities and 1 tertiary institution. At our Associate Trainer residential we trained 18 sparqs’ ATs alongside 9 delegates from across 2 colleges and 2 universities. Alongside our networks and advisory group, the tertiary quality arrangements continue to be a key focus for us, and we are pleased to publish a new STEP resource today! (see below). In addition, we have a number of other resources and events coming soon….
Read on for some key updates…
TQEF support and development
In early September we published our updated SEAP Guidance for students’ associations and student officers, designed to support meaningful student engagement throughout the SEAP (Self-Evaluation and Action Plan) process, required as part of the Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF). In mid-September we published our new TQER Practical Guide for students’ associations and student officers, which provides context and background to the review process and makes suggestions of what to do at each stage.
We are also now pleased to publish our new Practical Guide to Scotland’s Tertiary Enhancement Programme (STEP), which provides context and overview to the STEP programme of activity and makes practical suggestions of what SAs and officers need to do at each stage. See our separate article on the new STEP guide, newly-launched on 13th January 2026! It is also encouraged that institutional staff involved in reviews read through all of our guides and consider how they will contribute to student partnership in the process.
In addition to our new TQER guidance, we have also introduced training for TQER Lead Student Reps and the students’ association staff who support them. In the year an institution is going through TQER, sparqs will invite the Lead Student Rep and students’ association staff supporting the review to our training programme. The training will be provided on a rolling basis and is split into two parts (pre-review and review visit). sparqs will assign you to the appropriate session depending on your institution’s TQER timeline. The training offers a valuable opportunity to strengthen student representation and ensure meaningful engagement in the TQER process. Our first two events took place in September and December 2025, attended by 20 delegates from across 10 institutions (6 colleges and 4 universities). The next event is likely to take place in May 2026 and we will be in touch with relevant institutions in due course!
As part of the STEP programme, we are pleased to be leading one of the funded projects. The programme is sector-owned and jointly managed by QAA and CDN. STEP runs on a 4-year cycle and the current topic for 2024–2028 is Supporting Diverse Learner Journeys. The project we are leading is around ‘Strategies to Support Student Engagement and Partnership in a Time-Poor and Cash-Poor Student Population’, exploring how financial and time pressures affect student engagement. It will pilot approaches to make student voice and representation more accessible, creating sector-wide resources for learners before arrival and during induction.
With elections season coming up, we are developing a short resource for students’ associations around the importance of flagging the significant responsibilities that TQEF brings for student officers, in order that they know what to expect during their term of office, particularly if their institution has a review year coming up. Watch this space for the resource coming soon!
For further information on the TQEF, SEAP, STEP and all things tertiary quality, please see our Quality Arrangements webpage, SFC’s TQEF webpage and the STEP website.
Ensuring there is a joined-up approach to the student voice within the TQEF is sparqs' Tertiary Quality Student Expert Group (TQSEG). This group of student experts meets approximately monthly, enabling students to discuss and influence the approach as it is implemented and developed. Volunteers from the student experts are matched to the various sector committees requiring student representation, and the regular TQSEG meetings enable these reps to have the support of sparqs and a peer network when carrying out their role. In addition, TQSEG continues to be regularly approached by sector agencies and national project groups for an opportunity to consult with students on sector projects and areas of policy related to learning, teaching and quality, both related to TQEF and outwith it. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 20th January 2026, 3-5pm by VC and we look forward to seeing members then.
Staff development project resources and events
As detailed in previous articles, Prof Catriona Bell has been working with us on a part-time consultancy basis, carrying out an extensive piece work around embedding student partnership in staff development. Many thanks to everyone across the sector who was involved in the pilot, your feedback was invaluable and very much appreciated! The resources piloted have since been refined, and will be launched in 2026, along with some additional resources suggested during the pilot process. Watch this space for the resources coming soon!
We are also excited to announce that we will be running a linked event for Programme Leaders of taught staff development programmes in Scottish colleges and universities, including Teaching Qualification in Further Education (TQFE), Professional Development Awards (PDA) and Postgraduate Certificates in Academic Practice (PGCAP) or equivalents. We plan to offer an online event on Tuesday 10th March 2026 and an in-person event on Monday 16th March 2026. We'll circulate further information later in January.
Student Learning Experience model lenses
We have recently been developing the three lenses which underpin our Student Learning Experience (SLE) model – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; Mental Health and Wellbeing; and Sustainable Development. These are areas of focus that can be applied across all 9 of the building blocks of the SLE model in order to allow students and staff to consider the full breadth of the learning experience through these three areas of focus. This work is progressing well, including work with sector partners, and will be launched during the coming year.
PGR Experience model
sparqs is undertaking a project to create a model of the Postgraduate Research Experience, akin to the SLE model available for taught students. The model will play a key role in quality enhancement processes across Scotland, and sparqs is keen to ensure the model is representative of the authentic PGR experience. We will be inviting Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) from across Scotland to contribute to the design of the model in the coming months.
Learning and Teaching Briefing Papers
Based on our recent set of institutional visits, sparqs is creating some guidance documents and top tips on a set of key topics in learning and teaching. These briefing papers will help students’ association officers to identify some first steps and areas for further learning related to the paper topic. We’ll be covering artificial intelligence and behaviour in the classroom, with more topics to come in future. Briefing papers will be published later this year.
Our Networks and Advisory Groups
SESN, NEON and STAG continue to be invaluable to sparqs and our sincere thanks go to members of all three groups for their ongoing engagement and contributions.
Based on feedback from network members, we are trialling a new process for our regular online meetings of SESN and NEON. Members were previously required to register for each individual meeting; Instead, calendar appointments will now be sent to all those signed up to our Jiscmail list for each network and members will be asked to accept/decline to confirm whether they plan to attend each meeting. This will hopefully streamline the process for online SESN and NEON meetings (in-person meetings will still require registration for practical purposes, e.g. for the annual, joint meeting in May).
SESN
Our Student Engagement Staff Network (SESN) remains a key opportunity for updating staff on national sector developments and allowing them to contribute appropriately. There have been two meetings so far this academic year and the next meeting is taking place in February…
- Thursday 12th February 2026 – online, 10.00am-12noon
See our separate SESN news article for more details on the February meeting and the new process noted above, which no longer requires registration. If you are not already signed up to the SESN Jiscmail – please sign up to ensure you receive future appointments and other relevant comms.
NEON
Our National Education Officers' Network (NEON) meetings continue to build on our That’s Quality! training by strengthening student officers’ understanding on the Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF) and by preparing them to engage with the process. We have had two meetings so far this academic year and the next meeting is taking place in early March....
- Thursday 5th March 2026 – online, 10.30am-12.15pm
See our separate NEON news article for more details on the March meeting and the new process noted above, which no longer requires registration. If you are not already signed up to the NEON Jiscmail – please sign up to ensure you receive future appointments and other relevant comms.
STAG
As of August 2025, our Advisory Group is now known as the sparqs Tertiary Advisory Group (STAG). In the preceding few years, our College Advisory Group (CAG) and University Advisory Group (UAG) had been meeting jointly as a Joint Advisory Group (JAG) and we have now made this joint advisory group permanent, rebranding with a new tertiary title! STAG is invaluable in helping to ensure that all of sparqs' work is meeting the needs of both colleges and universities and we thank members for their continued contributions and support, particularly as we continue to develop tertiary resources and support as well as our own workplans. The next STAG meeting will take place in February…
- Wednesday 11th February 2026 – online, 10.00am-1.00pm
Annual, joint JAG/SESN/NEON meeting
Once again, we will be inviting members of JAG, SESN and NEON to a joint, in-person meeting towards the end of the academic year. Members of all three groups will be invited to register to attend nearer the time, but in the meantime, please save the date!
- Joint JAG/SESN/NEON meeting – Tuesday 12th May 2026, 10.00am-3.00pm at Queen Margaret University.
2026 Summer training
We will soon be publishing our 2026 Summer training dates, for both That's Quality! and our Associate Trainer residential event. Following feedback from delegates at both events in 2025 we are reviewing the formats and timings of the events… more news to follow soon!
Course Rep Training (CRT)
Across October to December 2025, we have run 32 CRT sessions delivered by our Associate Trainers to institutions across Scotland, as well as 4 National CRT workshops, one of which was signed by a BSL Interpreter. The national sessions give reps the chance to attend a cross-institutional CRT session if they have missed the opportunity within their own institution. Bookings are still open for institutional sessions and we have 4 sessions scheduled across January and February 2026 so far. In addition there are 2 further national sessions planned later in January – registrations are invited via students’ associations (details have been sent to all CRT Organisers):
- Wednesday 21st January 2026 – 2.00-3.30pm – by VC
- Thursday 22nd January 2026 – 10.00-11.30am – by VC
Buddy Scheme
At the beginning of the academic year we again invited applications for our Buddy Scheme, aimed at pairing practitioners in student engagement across institutions and students’ associations. The scheme gives participants the opportunity to discuss and have a sounding board external to their own institution. sparqs matches the buddies into pairs based on their responses and provides guidance with some suggestions on how to structure the meetings. In the Autumn intake we paired up 4 sets of buddies and we are pleased to re-open applications for a new intake of the scheme, for anyone who missed it. The closing date for applications is Friday 13th February 2026 – see our separate Buddy Scheme news article for more information and how to apply.
Office move
As mentioned above, at the end of September 2025, we moved to a more suitable office space which is better for meetings and collaborative working. While we no longer share an office with our NUS Scotland colleagues (who have moved to a home-working model), we continue to work in close partnership with them and they are welcome at our new offices whenever they are in Edinburgh. See our Contact us webpage for our new office details.
Stay in the loop!
Please keep yourself up to date with our work by reading our regular news mailings and keeping an eye on our website headlines! If you're not already signed up to our mailing list, you can sign up here! As our staff capacity has started to get back up to speed this academic year, so has our social media presence, extending our reach to include LinkedIn and Instagram alongside Bluesky and X.
Our latest ‘Talking Student Partnership’ interview with Jo Turbitt from CDN was published in December 2025 – watch the video of Jo’s interview and view 5 top takeaways from it. You can also browse the previous interviews in the series on our website.
To view our schedule of forthcoming events and meetings all in one place, see our calendar webpage. Events and meetings for members of specific groups are communicated via relevant mailing lists. Events which require registration can be found on our Events webpage once bookings are open (usually around 4-6 weeks beforehand).
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any queries about any of our work!
Best wishes for a great 2026 from all of the sparqs team!