Our 'Talking Student Partnership' interview series continues with another video conversation from Scottland’s tertiary education sector!
The next interview in our series features Holly McAdams, Vice President Academic at Heriot-Watt University Students’ Union. In our interview, Holly reflects on her two years as a Sabbatical Officer, covering topics such as:
- Effective student engagement and partnership in self-evaluative processes.
- Global and transnational representation and partnership.
- Lecture capture and digital learning resources.
- And much, much more!
View the video interview below (filmed with Holly in late March 2026 and published in April 2026).
Here are some of our top takeaways from our conversation with Holly:
- Collaborating across multiple campuses? Bring together student leaders from all campuses (even global!) to talk through actions and priorities to ensure decisions meet the needs of all students.
- Build on your Reps’ Goals. Connect student reps’ goals with student satisfaction data (NSS, SSES, PTES, PRES) and with staff priorities to empower them to create wider change.
- University Courts and College Boards… Go through meeting papers with student members ahead of meetings to hear their views.
- Host a “Have Your Say” Event with students. Also include staff and student reps around key topics and priorities.
- Cascade your self-evaluation processes down to all levels. Quality staff should meet with your Reps; consider completing self-evaluations at a department level and feed these up to the wider SEAP.
We’ll be bringing you more insightful conversations with our interviewees once per quarter. To follow the full series, be sure to follow sparqs on our social media:
- Twitter/X: @sparqs_scotland
- Bluesky: @sparqs-scotland.bsky.social
- LinkedIn: sparqsscotland
- Instagram: sparqs_scotland
If you wish to recommend yourself or a colleague for a future “Talking Student Partnership” interview, please contact Chase Greenfield, Development Consultant at: chase.greenfield@sparqs.ac.uk.