These are challenging times for universities, colleges and students. Pressure continues to build from many directions to increase student support, from more students presenting with complex mental health challenges through to a regulatory environment focused on continuation and completion metrics. Universities are generally good at responding but are faced with a plethora of guidance and exhortation from a wide range of agencies encouraging them to do more and to do it better. Certainly, some of the existing and emerging interventions are delivering tangible benefits to the student experience. However, this potentially piecemeal approach comes with a cost, both literally and metaphorically.
The incremental, but sometimes substantial, additions higher education providers (HEPs) make to the student support landscape has resulted in a complicated system that may make it difficult for staff and students to navigate. I believe this is the time for us to step back and ask: what are the fundamental support needs of our students and are we meeting these in the most effective and efficient way?
Over the past year, I have been working with UUK’s Student Policy Network to define these needs and to uncover the issues universities face in designing and delivering comprehensive, coherent and evidence-based systems of support. The Student Needs Framework has been developed to act as a template for what a redesign could look like and to assist HEPs in making decisions about where to start.
