8 Apr 2019

#sparqs19 Conference and Awards round-up!

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A big thank you to everyone who attended and presented at the sparqs’ 2019 conference and together contributed to making it such a resounding success! We were delighted to welcome around 200 delegates from Scotland, the rest of the UK, Europe and beyond to the event at Surgeons’ Hall on Thursday 28th March.

Our delegate evaluations show that attendees particularly liked the hugely diverse range of presentations and speakers on offer and – appropriately, given the conference theme of ‘Student Engagement for All’ – welcomed the positive and inclusive atmosphere. Delegates also liked having the chance to share ideas, experience and best practice and appreciated having opportunities to network and make new contacts.

Many delegates told us about the tangible, positive impact the event would have on their practice and the things they planned to do differently as a result of attending. These included specific work around a range of topics, including Student Partnership Agreements, mental health and wellbeing, course rep recruitment and Student Led Teaching Awards – as well as one attendee who simply said they had "A long, long list of action points and ideas to explore back at base!".
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See our conference webpages for all the news and photos...
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The main conference - a full outline of the conference, including the following....

  • The Twitter story from #sparqs19 - a great overview of how the conference and Awards went!
  • The presentations from the day's sessions and keynote speakers.  Videos of the plenary sessions will be uploaded in due course. 
  • Our new Strategic Plan 2019-22, launched at the Conference by our new Chair, Sir Andrew Cubie.
  • Our video accompanying the new Strategic Plan will be uploaded in due course, outlining our vision, mission, strategic priorities and programme of work.

The Student Engagement Awards 2019 - congratulations to all the winners and runners-up!  The individual pages for each category contain photos and some more detailed information on the submissions/nominations.

The International Delegates' Day - read about the day, held in Dundee on 27th March, and view the Twitter story for a flavour of how the day went. 

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Thank you!

Once again, many thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of the conference, including all our speakers, panel members and all those delivering workshops and presentations, and displaying posters. Thanks you also to the fantastic team of BSL/English Interpreters, who signed the conference throughout the day. 

Thank you to everyone who attended from far and wide!  We were delighted to host so many delegates from Scotland and the rest of the UK, as well as 32 international delegates from across 8 countries - Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland - 8 of whom were involved in running sessions, and 5 of whom displayed posters.

Thanks also to everyone who hosted our international delegates during the week of conference, at both the international day at University of Dundee, and the range of site visits at Heriot-Watt University, the University of the West of Scotland, QAA Scotland, The University of Edinburgh and Perth College UHI.

The whole week of the conference was an excellent showcase for the breadth and quality of student engagement work that is taking place across colleges, universities and sector agencies in Scotland, the rest of the UK and internationally.  We all have a great deal to be proud of!

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