Ripping up the rule book might get the sector closer to transformation

As I type it’s day two of our supersized Scottish officer training at Glasgow Caledonian Student Association – and our teams are currently deep into a simulation exercise reimagining the way things work in SUs.

Over the past 48 hours officers have highlighted the various challenges facing their respective students across Scotland.

Housing sits at the centre of many unions’ crises with the rising cost of living putting more pressure on students’ time. It’s unsurprising that food poverty, growing academic misconduct cases and increasing cuts raining down that are draining student choice also feature.

For readers in England and Wales, these aren’t exclusive problems – although the way they manifest is slightly different – but similar to their devolved counterparts, these problems are becoming increasingly normalised by both students and the sector.

Partnership versus protection

The difference for students in Scotland is the level of protection they enjoy. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) funds Sparqs (student partnerships in quality Scotland) which means the model for change is centred around partnership.

Across the borders the principle of partnership is far less ingrained but the principle of protection is arguably stronger. In England and Wales students can use the OIA when they’re unsatisfied with the outcome of a complaint at their university, students in Scotland use the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) which has a wait time of 12 weeks.

In England through the Office for Students there’s new duties on harassment and sexual misconduct and in Wales there’s similar work happening with Medr on harassment and new frameworks to support student wellbeing.

If your course closes in England, students have a right to a student protection plan (however vague they end up being) and consumer rights are being baked into new OfS conditions of registration.

These are all protections for students enforced through regulation, in Scotland these protections exist only through partnerships which are vague and often voluntary. Jim has more about this on the main site.

It’s often too easy to sit within the frameworks that are given to SUs, but the purpose of day two of our training session is to think differently, creatively and attempt to tear up the rule book on everything from representation, democracy, commercial to civic engagement.

The “new rules” simulation asks officers to complete a strategic planning exercise, creating a vision or strategy that addresses a series of prompts that include challenges, opportunities and new rules.

In the face of the various challenges students and SUs are facing, here’s what our teams came up with to rethink what the student experience could look like and why out-of-the-box thinking might be the key to transformation at a critical time for the sector.

University of Rosslyn

The University of Roslyn is a leading research university and one of the oldest in Scotland with a huge annual income and even a bit of a medieval campus – it might be worth noting at this point that all of these case studies are fake for the purpose of the simulation.

The team identified risks related to belonging, cost of living, housing, an elitist culture that creates a town versus gown narrative and an overreliance on research rather than teaching.

They set out their objectives that Rosslyn SU would be the biggest student employer in town, that they would work closely with alumni and work with local businesses to enhance graduate outcomes. In response to some of the prompts they removed sabbatical officers and replaced them with committees of students who would then elect a chair covering different portfolios.

As universities across the UK continue to struggle with financial sustainability they’re often opting for one of four approaches – close the small courses, shave and hope (cuts to student services), money making wheezes (new campuses abroad) or alternative credit acquisition.

At the University of Rosslyn they’re going for the less trodden latter approach that solves the time poverty issue by giving students credit for the co-curricular activities they want to participate in but often can’t afford to. And by paying them it supports them with cost of living and builds belonging for students.

As part of their civic engagement, they would create a housing cooperative where every student who lives in student accommodation would have a seat on the board.

In their prompts a rich alumni donated them a building which they converted into accommodation for conferences which they’d later reinvest into student housing. Charities are very good at legacy donations but SUs less so. Many past sabbatical officers from the 80s and 90s are people worth lobbying, not only because they may want to donate to the SU and fund student opportunities but also because of the time they can donate.

Early career graduates in Denmark support early career researchers, operating like an elevated peer mentoring scheme. A proper alumni strategy that goes beyond money is a way to capitalise off the proudness alumni still feel towards their university and their ability to give back.

University of East Kilbride

In comparison, the University of East Kilbride has a large innovative campus focused on urban design, business and art and social innovation with lots of new facilities but it is currently in deficit.

Their strategy was “for the students, by the students, with the students.” They identified risks related to cost of living, isolated commuter students, postgraduate students and disabled students.

They set out to have ten per cent of staff at their SU to be students with a representation system comprising two full time paid sabbs and six part time paid presidents, one for each faculty.

Kilbride SU’s focus was on community. They wanted students to gain skills by working in the community during their studies, earning credits, using shared community facilities in empty shopping centre spaces, volunteering in community organisations and setting up student enterprises. All local businesses would be invited to their freshers fair and there would be incentives for local businesses to hire students. They wanted their city to be the best student-led city.

If we were to imagine a world in which students had to get five credits a year where they did something for other students, local businesses or the local community, it would amount to two million hours of work. The impact of that time would be transformative to the local economy, civic engagement and student outcomes.

University of Kilmarnock

Finally the team at the University of Kilmarnock described their institution as a modern comprehensive formed in 1992, heavily reliant on research grants with lots of facilities and high graduate employment rates.

They identified risks related to high staff-student ratios, expenditure, graduate outcomes and an overreliance on third party partners. They also identified students at work, international students, student carers and parents as groups at risk.

Their vision was for every student to find themselves. As such their strategy is built around community, commercial diversity, welfare and belonging, student partnership and overseeing all of it was a focus on communication. They wanted to know what students were feeling but also for students to know what they’re doing.

For their commercial aims they had to move away from alcohol related events and instead created a welcome week that invited the community onto campus in a week long festival. In Helsinki they operate a pub crawl where students have to find checkpoints around the city with sponsors from businesses. It’s a far less intimidating event that brings students into the community rather than separating them.

To build community they wanted students to do semester long internships in the community and develop spin out companies. And students would bid to run projects run by sabbs, getting more students involved and building their experience, improving their graduate outcomes.

As always simulations like these breathe a new sense of life into the sector. There’s a renewed hope that officers and students won’t simply let things be the way they are for much longer whilst students experience tougher and tougher learning conditions.

Even when these ideas feel out-of-reach, we see examples of these across Europe and with a bit of innovation, a bit of creativity and a bit of confidence, the sector might see a shift in the way SUs work.

The sense of ambition in the room is impressive – we can only hope that even an ounce of this creativity is welcomed by the sector in the next few years if it’s to see real change.

Partnership? Students in Scotland need protection