Beyond Consultation: Co-Production with Widening Participation Students
In this case study, Abi Cattlin takes an in-depth look at Edge Hill's Student Advisory Panels to demonstrate why co-production is vital for understanding students’ lived experiences and developing initiatives and services that will effectively support them across the student lifecycle.
1. Why Student Advisory Panels?
2. What Are the Student Advisory Panels?
3. What Have the Student Advisory Panels Achieved?
4. How Do We Measure Impact?
5. Where Next for Our Student Advisory Panels?
Why Student Advisory Panels?
Edge Hill first convened a Student Advisory Panel for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students in 2020/21. The aim of the Student Advisory Panel was to inform the design and delivery of a wide range of university initiatives and services.
The panel proved so successful that an additional 4 student panels were convened for 2021/22 including a Care Experienced, Care Leaver and Estranged Student Advisory Panel; a Disabled Student Advisory Panel; A First-Generation Student Advisory Panel; and a Mature Student Advisory Panel.
The panels were initially thought of as a mechanism for utilising student voice to inform the design and delivery of a wide range of university initiatives, but they have become much more than that. As an institution, we acknowledge that attainment and continuation gaps are complex and the result of a real range of intersecting factors that we are striving to better understand. We were also able to use the Student Advisory Panels for our Access work too; for example, we consulted with students on our new Diversity Access Programme.
Working with our students has provided invaluable insights into their life at university, allowing for genuine collaboration and coproduction with our students across various services. The Panels’ fantastic contributions have already and will continue to lead change that positively impacts the University experience of current and prospective students from underrepresented backgrounds amongst their fellow Panel members.
What Are the Student Advisory Panels?
There are currently 72 Student Panel Members across our 5 panels, the Panels meet at least once per term, and we have Microsoft Teams Chats for each Panel for informal communication between meetings. Students are paid £11.00 per hour for their time, and the meeting agenda is always co-created between the Panel members and University staff.
We worked closely with our Students Union and our Student Communications Team to promote the opportunity back in October 2021. We asked students to complete a very simple expression of interest form. The process was not overly competitive, and we did get much more interest than we perhaps first anticipated.
We provided all Student Advisory Panel members with a training session in November 2021 which covered the likes of Widening Access and Participation, the Office for Students and the Access and Participation Plan so that they really understood the context of the work, the importance of the work and why their voices were so valuable.
Agenda items are generated by both staff and students. Sometimes they come from the Panel members themselves and sometimes they come from staff across the university. One of the very first agenda items that our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students brought to the Student Advisory Panel was the reviewing of our Chaplaincy provision and the hidden perceptions around that being interpreted as a Christian only term. The Panel members fed back their feelings and ideas, and that service has since been rebranded as the Faith and Community service. This was further developed by our 2021/22 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Advisory Panel who then went on to help coproduce the webpages that were attached to this service.
More recently, our colleagues in the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine utilised the Student Advisory Panels to tackle the disparity in offer rates for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students to our Professional Health courses. Our colleagues asked students for feedback on proposed interview questions and the interview process. Key themes arose from that panel around things such as the length and complexity of questions and the impact that could have on language barriers, as well as issues around role models or lack of, and experiences of healthcare within different cultures.
Agendas are confirmed one week prior to the Student Advisory Panel meetings and students are paid for both the time that the meeting takes place, as well as a reasonable amount of time to undertake any pre-work that may have been asked of them. We strive for our Student Advisory Panels to meet once per term, with the Panel members able to contribute to agenda items in addition to colleagues from across the university being able to attend for student feedback on a particular service or new initiative. We work around the Panel members availability, and they are paid for their time. We encourage around three to four agenda items per two-hour meeting, ideally consisting of both staff and student led discussions.
What Have the Student Advisory Panels Achieved?
In 2020/21 our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Advisory Panel contributed to the following tangible and impactful changes:
They reviewed our University Chaplaincy service which went on to be rebranded as the Faith and Community service following their feedback,
The students helped us to develop a Race, Ethnicity, and Religion toolkit; reviewing the content and featuring in videos where they had the opportunity to share their experiences,
We worked with the students to co-create our first Diverse Voices Alumni Q&A series, and
The students had the opportunity to feed back to our Marketing teams on how diverse students are represented within our institution.
Following the first year of our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Advisory Panel, our Panel members said:
‘“Since the formation of the student advisory panel, we’ve been working closely with staff at Edge Hill to improve the student experience for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic and other marginalised groups to instill them with a sense of belonging and to ensure they feel seen and heard.”
“I joined the panel to make great changes to the lives of both prospective and current students. My ambition for the panel is to influence decisions and changes that will lead to the satisfaction of all students…”
“The panel is an open opportunity for students to get involved with and we’ve already made good progress in this academic year, despite the struggles that the pandemic has brought.”
In 2021/22, our five Student Advisory Panels then went on to contribute to further impactful changes such as:
The students had the opportunity to review the student disciplinary regulations, our catering offer and have continued the great work on our Faith and Community service by developing the associated webpages.
Our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Advisory Panel were able to provide valuable input into our pre-entry programme for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students.
The students were featured in videos for schools and colleges.
Our Mature Students’ Student Advisory Panel were able to input into the design for our Mature Students pre-entry programme.
All Student Advisory Panel members were consulted on a proposal for an on-course support programme for first year students.
The Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Advisory Panel reviewed Black History Month Celebrations and Panel members then went on to sit on the Black History Month Committee.
Our Care Experienced, Care Leaver and Estranged Student Advisory Panel helped to develop a staff facing Students without Family Support Toolkit, reviewing content, and featuring in videos where they were able to share their experiences.
All Student Advisory Panels also inputted into the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion webpages and the #MyNameIs campaign.
The Student Advisory Panels’ fantastic contributions have already and will continue to lead change that positively impacts the University experience of current and prospective students from underrepresented backgrounds. All of these are imperative for improving outcomes for our WP students’ attainment, continuation and progression into employment or further study.
How Do We Measure Impact?
As we learnt from the successes of the first panel in 2020/21, we embedded pre and post evaluation into the Student Advisory Panel initiative. When we recruited to the Panels, all members were asked to complete a baseline survey which was then repeated at the end of the academic year to assess any changes in their awareness of the APP, knowledge of the University services, sense of belonging, feeling listened to, and feeling part of the University community and the results looked like this:
We asked our Student Advisory Panel members to what extent were they aware of the University’s Access and Participation Plan. Between November 2021 and June 2022, the percentage of students who were extremely or moderately aware of the University’s Access and Participation Plan had grown by 41.7%.
We asked our Student Advisory Panel members to what extent were they aware of the range of support services available at the University. Between November 2021 and June 2022, the percentage of students who were extremely or moderately aware of the range of support services available at the University had risen by 6.4%.
We asked our Student Advisory Panel members, to what extent did they agree with the following statement ‘the university listens to my views and acts upon them’? Between November 2021 and June 2022, the percentage of students who strongly agreed or agreed with this statement had increased by 29.1%.
We asked our Student Advisory Panel members to tell us how inclusive they had found the University to be. Between November 2021 and June 2022, the percentage of students who found Edge Hill University extremely or quite inclusive had grown by 9.9%.
We asked our Student Advisory Panel members to tell us how connected they felt to the university staff at Edge Hill. Between November 2021 and June 2022, the percentage of students who felt extremely or quite connected to the university staff at Edge Hill had risen by 26.9%.
Finally, in November 2021 we asked the students overall, how much they felt part of Edge Hill University. By June 2022, the percentage of students who felt as though they belonged completely, or quite a lot had grown by 35.2%.
As well, our Student Advisory Panel, our Panel members said:
‘’Our feedback has been listened to and acted upon to make Edge Hill an even more inclusive and accessible space.’’
‘’I feel very listened to, I feel comfortable and supported by my peers, I feel like I can be honest and my voice makes a difference."
‘’It was great to hear opinions from many different people about their experiences as they provided different perspectives.’’
‘’I’ve really enjoyed being sat with peers who have experienced many similar challenges, it’s been very cathartic’’.
Where Next for Our Student Advisory Panels?
For the students who partake in the Panels, they are supported by Careers to tease out what they have contributed and learnt for future job applications. All panel members also earn points towards their ‘Extra Edge’ Careers certificate through their work. This is the university’s portable CV which helps students to track the skills that they are developing throughout their time at university to help them make the process of applying for opportunities easier in the future.
For us, we are currently looking to increase the number of students we work with across all the Student Advisory Panels and are doing so imminently. Given the popularity and success of all 5 panels, we are looking to see how we can professionalise the programme and move towards a more selective recruitment method. For example, we have drafted a formal job description and put together selection criteria that is more aligned to our student ambassador recruitment process. We may even consider exploring other student groups for panels in the future too.
The Student Advisory Panels are cited in the Universities UK 'Closing the Gap: Three Years On' report as best practice in consulting with students. With this in mind, we are working towards an increased awareness of the panels across the University, hopefully resulting in increased engagement from staff with the Panels eventually becoming the ‘go to’ place for development of new programmes and initiatives across the institution.
If you’re thinking about incorporating and developing similar strategies that are provided at your institution, you might want to consider the following questions:
How do you gain feedback from your current underrepresented student groups and how do you respond to that feedback?
How do you ensure feedback from your underrepresented student groups is acted upon, what are your mechanisms for accountability?
What opportunities do you have for your underrepresented groups to collaborate on Widening Participation Initiatives?
How do you manage the blurred lines of success work, when much of the ‘doing’ sits outside of the central Widening Participation team?
About the author
Abi Cattlin is Widening Participation Officer (Continuation & Attainment) at Edge Hill University. Abi has worked at Edge Hill for the past four years and was previous a student there too. Abi oversees the implementation of the success strand of the Access and Participation plan. Abi manages several large projects including the Student Advisory Panels, in addition to an on-course support programme; the Thrive programme.
