1. Student Partnership Agreements: Impact and Change
Hannah Clarke
Development Consultant
sparqs

2. About sparqs Student Partnerships in Quality Scotland.
Scotland’s national agency for student engagement in quality.
Funded by Scottish Funding Council.
Works with all universities and colleges, and their Students’ Associations.
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3. About sparqs Our four strategic areas: Supporting students
Supporting institutions
Supporting the sector
Developing a culture

4. A Student Engagement Framework for Scotland
There are six features of effective student engagement:
A culture of engagement.
Students as partners.
Responding to diversity.
Valuing the student contribution.
Focus on enhancement and change.
Appropriate resources and support.

5. Student Partnership Agreements (SPAs)
Introduced to the sector in 2013 with publication of our Guidance for the development and implementation of a Student Partnership Agreement in universities.
12/19 Higher Education institutions have developed SPAs to date.
Sets out the relationship between the institution (Part A) and its students and a few priority areas for partnership working (Part B).

6. Methodology
Preliminary content analysis of 20 SPAs, across 9 institutions.
Unstructured interviews with students and institution staff at sparqs Annual Support Visits.
Looked for commonalities in approaches taken to structure and thematic content of the agreements.
Wanted to find out ‘what worked’.

7. Findings: what works (1)
Development
Shared ownership.
Working group includes a variety of students and institutional staff.
Projects informed by evidence.
Proper consultation with staff and students.

8. Findings: What works (2)
Content and implementation
Equal weight given to Part A and Part B.
Learning and teaching focused.
No duplication of existing strategic plans.
Outcome-focused.
Action plan in place.
Clearly communicated in to students and staff across the institution.

9. Findings: What works (3)
Monitoring and Review
Regular meetings to assess progress.
Reviewed and updated on an annual basis.
Additional section on the impact of the agreement.
But, evaluation so far underdeveloped.

10. The Future of Student Partnership Agreements
Increased prominence in ELIR cycle 4.
Potential to devolve SPAs to School or Faculty level.
Further research and updating guidance by end of 2017.

11. Contact Hannah Clarke, Development Consultant
Find out more at our stall