In an increasingly relentless, challenging and competitive higher education environment dealing with the many after-effects of Covid 19, ‘support’ continues to be the balm that is applied when resilience is depleted.
Whilst often a key ingredient in ensuring student and colleague retention, performance and improved wellbeing, responses to the Advance HE Leadership Survey suggested it as an area lacking in institutional focus. Notably, academic and professional services colleagues working in academic departments to deliver learning and teaching, provide support to students which is often hidden. This contribution is unaccounted for in terms of time, personal cost and more structurally in relation to workload, reward and recognition.
As part of our ‘Growing the Workforce of the Future’ Member Benefit Series, ‘Decoding Support’, seeks to define the characteristics and activities of ‘support’; understand the impact of providing ‘support’ on ‘support givers’; understand the importance of ‘support’ work on organisational effectiveness; explore possible implications of the findings on organisation and identify opportunities for organisational re-design. We will share our findings in May 2024.
Key findings from an initial literature review, summarised below, identify tangible and real benefits for students and colleagues in receipt of support and there is alignment to relational pedadogy. Impactful support is contextualised, authentic, relational and boundaried. Some aspects of support are codified in organisations and most frequently the role of the personal tutor is utilised. Generally, there is a lack of recognition of support given and received in informal spaces, both to students and colleagues; support described between colleagues is not widely referenced, nor is support provided by professional services colleagues.
