A multi-dimensional student experience

The 1994 Group recently published a report entitled A multi-dimensional student experience. It summarises discussions which took place earlier this year within the 1994 Group’s Policy Forum 2012, and outlines issues and ideas that it says “need to be explored by institutions and policy makers alike to ensure truly immersive student experiences that begin well before applications are made and extend well past graduation”.

One of the four sections in this report examines the academic experience, with the other three concentrating upon the applicant, campus, and graduate experiences. In terms of the academic experience, this 1994 Group report considers students in terms of ‘service users’, ‘partners’, and ‘consumers’; while accepting that each of these terms have “considerable limitiations … when considered together it became clear that different aspects of each concept could be combined to provide a more reflective picture of the current academic experience in UK HE”.

It might be worth reading this report in conjunction with what the Higher Education Academy has to say about the student lifecycle – for example, see the “International Student Lifecycle Resources bank” at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-student-lifecycle – as the HEA places considerably more emphasis upon induction, and in particular upon teaching and learning in and around the classroom, when it comes to determining where the focus of the student experience should probably be.