STUDENT REPRESENTATION REPORT The Student Representation and Development Officer was involved in the following initiatives in 2017:
TOPIC REPRESENTATIVE PILOT
• Managing Student Council elections and vacancy appointments • Organising Student Council Induction for all incoming Student Council members. • Developing and delivering training for student representatives across the University • Piloting topic level student representation in Biological Sciences • Providing advice and developing support materials regarding strengthening student representation structures in Colleges in 2018 • Reviewing FUSA affiliated and student run Academic Associations (formally School Associations) and developing recommendations for 2018 • Participating in national conversations lead by Office of Learning and teaching (OLT) Fellow, Sally Varnham around the creation of a National Framework for Student Partnership in University Decision-Making and Governance • Creating a database of frameworks, manuals, academic papers and other resources relating to student engagement with a particular focus on student partnership in governance and teaching and learning • Collaborating with University staff to plan and organise a workshop during Teaching & Learning Week around Students as Partners
During Semester 2 2017, a pilot program placing 32 student representatives within 14 Biological Science topics was run at Flinders University. This pilot was a collaboration between FUSA and the College of Science and Engineering and was modelled on the Class Representative system at Victoria University, Wellington.
Page 43 | FUSA Annual Report 2017
The aim of this pilot was to demonstrate that, as current students, Topic Reps and their fellow classmates are ideally placed to provide insight into their experience of teaching and learning and where they feel improvement can be made. By working in collaboration with academic staff, topic reps are not only able to represent the voice of students but also to mutually seek solutions to problems as they arise (or hopefully even before they arise). Topic Reps were asked to: • Act as a point of contact for students in their topic • Provide constructive feedback to academic staff about teaching quality and assessment, course content and university facilities according to the thoughts and opinions of the class • Continuously improve the student learning experience in partnership with academic staff by helping create solutions to problems • Represent fellow classmates’ views and opinions on all
matters relating to learning and teaching • Provide constructive and honest feedback to staff • Act as a communication channel between staff and students All 30 Topic Reps who elected to be involved in the program attended a 1.5 hour training session in weeks 3 and 4 of Semester 2. Once Topic Reps attended training, they were able to receive formal recognition for their role through the Horizon Award (Flinders University’s professional skills development program) and all received a certificate of acknowledgement at the completion of the Semester. The evaluation of this pilot was positive overall, particularly from the Topic Reps themselves. Whilst there is room to improve in communicating roles and responsibilities and how a Topic Rep system can be best supported at the College level, the results showed the Topic Rep structure increases peer to peer engagement and provides a practical avenue for the development of communication skills. The feedback indicates being involved as a Topic Rep gives students the opportunity to gain professional development skills as well as challenge themselves personally. Topic Reps are also able to gain a unique insight into how topics are administered. Within the evaluation there was support amongst Topic Coordinators to continue to develop a topic representative structure within the College.