From Advance HE to AMBA, from London to Lisbon: Championing Student Voice

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Synopsis: Explorance’s GM Europe & Africa John Atherton discusses Explorance’s upcoming event attendances. Following the release of ‘Feedback Matters: Business and Management Education Focus Report’, Explorance will be attending various events across Europe to further champion the influences of the student voice on institutional enhancement.

Feedback Matters: Business and Management Education Focus Report, which we launched in February, has opened up a whole new point of conversation on how business schools and university-based business and management faculties can capture and act on the student voice. Insight pieces published with the Chartered Association of Business Schools, The PIE News and Inside Government Higher Education, amongst others, have provoked a real discussion on how student feedback – including feedback derived through course evaluation surveys – influences institutional enhancement.

Next month we are attending the AMBA and BGA Global Conference 2022 in Lisbon and on the Tuesday, 17^th May, will host a breakout session with Business School leaders from around the world on the findings, implications and opportunities emerging in our report. Separately, Sherif Kamel, Professor of Management and Dean of the School of Business at The American University in Cairo – a contributor to the report, Explorance customer and AMBA board member – will be speaking on ‘The innovation cycle through uncertainty, disruption, remoteness, and a pandemic. How did we do it and what can we learn from this unique period in time?’ We are looking forward to this immensely.

With in-person events opening up around the world, not least where I am based in the UK, we are busy preparing for Bluenotes EUROPE 2022, hosted by the University of Strathclyde, at the end of this month. With speakers confirmed from Strathclyde, as well as Birkbeck University of London, Copenhagen Business School, Durham University, Northumbria University, Stockholm School of Economics, The Ohio State University, University of Florida, University of St Gallen and University of Worcester, we will bring the international Explorance community together to discuss student voice, and how strategically and practically this both supports and informs HE learning and teaching.

On 28^th April, we are sponsoring and attending Advance HE’s Surveys and Insights Symposium 2022 in Manchester. As part of this, our Customer Success Manager Matt Claridge will be a panelist on a ‘Where next for gathering and measuring metrics?’ discussion. Then on 12^th May we are back with Advance HE for their virtual Student Engagement Conference 2022, running a panel session under the ‘How are we capturing and measuring student engagement in different areas? What are our strategies, models and metrics?’ strand of the conference. Joining us for a discussion on ‘Rethinking student strategy: combining the best of ‘old’ and ‘new’ normals to achieve maximum impact’ are Shaun Stephenson-McGall, Student Engagement Manager at the University of Bath, Bethan Foweraker, Student Voice and Engagement Lead at Cardiff Metropolitan University, and Maria Moxey, Teaching Fellow in Student Engagement at the University of Winchester.

Our mission championing good practice around the student voice, and its role in governance and decision-making processes in HE, does not end there. We are exhibiting and speaking at Learning Technologies in London on 4^th-5^th May, having recently attended the UCISA Leadership Conference 2022 in Manchester, presented with Technological University Dublin at the HEAnet Conference 2022 in Ireland, and speaking virtually at a European University Information Systems (EUINS) webinar on using survey data from student and employee engagement surveys to support decision making.

John Atherton, General Manager (Europe and Africa), Explorance

Read ‘Feedback Matters: Business and Management Education Focus Report’