Over the past months, sparqs has worked with partners across Europe, in a variety of forums. sparqs delivered a workshop at the European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF) conference in Tallinn, Estonia, worked with the University of Maribor in Slovenia to train their students on being effective course reps and we have continued our work with the European Student Union (ESU) and with their QUEST project, the final conference of which took place in Malta on 30th November & 1st December 2012.
At the EQAF conference, sparqs delivered a workshop for a diverse audience of staff and students, some participants coming as far as South Africa. This workshop highlighted the unique features of the Quality Enhancement Framework in Scotland – particularly the recognition that student engagement is crucial to meaningful enhancement in universities and colleges and exploring the building blocks need to be in place for effective student representation to be achieved. The workshop provoked an interesting discussion about the merits of student engagement and the difficulties of engaging them in a productive manner. The workshop was well received, although challenging for some participants with different approaches in their own countries. We were also able to participant in some of the discussion around the changes to the European Standards and Guidelines and how quality enhancement can be achieved alongside quality assurance.
At the University of Maribor we trained 40 student reps and helped the University draft a proposal for funding from their government to take forward their work on student engagement, with support from sparqs.
sparqs also attended the Quest for Quality for Students final conference in Malta which aimed to communicate the project’s aim of engaging students across Europe in the quality of their education. Delegates from over 40 countries were welcomed by the President of Malta, George Abela and attended some thought provoking sessions on the EU Commission’s U-Mulitrank system and the QUEST Research findings.
For further information on the QUEST project please see the sparqs website http://www.sparqs.ac.uk/sharingpractice/section.php?cat=80
