What SRUC students told us in Speak Week 2020
Every year, SRUCSA asks SRUC students and learners two questions – ‘What do you love about SRUC?’ and ‘What would you change if you were in charge?’ The answers to these two questions can create so much change. Speak Week provides our students the opportunity to use SRUCSA to amplify their voice and make the changes important to them.
At SRUCSA, it gives us so much pride to be able to empower students and help to facilitate change. Last year, Speak Week told us that we needed a ‘Help not Hinder’ policy for this year. As a result, SRUC made changes to its Mitigating Circumstances policy, and we are working to make further measures can be created for the rest of this year. You also told us that having too many lecturing platforms was unhelpful and confusing. SRUC are now moving towards the use of one platform, Kaltura.
At SRUCSA we talk a lot about how important it is to “close the feedback loop” and encourage SRUC teaching staff to do so. At the end of this report, you can find an update on the actions SRUC took from our recommendations in our Covid-19 Speak Week.
What did we find out?
This year learning and teaching was the most popular area for comment, gathering over 40% of all comments. Students love the rich content that has been provided for them online and there are fantastic examples of great teaching practice, with many staff delivering engaging lessons. Unfortunately, this has not been universal, with ‘I would change course delivery’ netting 6.9% of total comments.
Speak Week also gives students the opportunity to give praise for staff, and this year is no exception. You can read a selection of heart-warming testimonials in this report. It has been a difficult year for everyone, so it is good to hear some feedback from our learners about staff who have gone above-and-beyond. Students will have the opportunity to nominate individual staff for SRUCSA Awards in March.
Student Mental Health
We received comments from students who are struggling with balancing study with poor mental health. Although efforts have been made to support mental wellbeing at SRUC, the comments received suggest some students are living with mental illness without proper support. We ask SRUC to commit with us to reviewing the experiences and support of students living with mental illness and mental health conditions.
Thank you to those who continue to take part in Speak Week and to those who are taking part for the first time – Speak Week simply would not happen without you. And thanks to SRUC for making changes from our previous Speak Week and for acting on the suggested recommendations – we are grateful to be part of an institution which values the voices of our students.
