Memorandum 25
Submission from the Association for Learning
Development in Higher Education
"STUDENTS AND
UNIVERSITIES"
1.0 Summary
The following response has been prepared by
the Steering Group of ALDinHE. The Association exists to represent
the views of professionals working directly with students and
academics to promote effective learning in Higher Education.
— Admissions and transitions to Higher
Education are points of fundamental importance for students. Support
for entering and engaging with HE and disciplinary cultures is
needed. A "Learning Development" (LD) approach provides
effective support for students and therefore needs to be recognised
and better resourced within HEIs. Pre-entry, induction and first
year experience initiatives with an LD focus will support retention
and progression for the diverse range of new learners. —
Research is a key aspect of learning. LD professionals are well-placed
to support the government's agenda for higher level skills through
working with students in all learning contexts. Research can be
undertaken from the start of HE through making links to work-based
learning, professional placements or other external activities
such as volunteering.— In considering the issues of degree
classification, LD professionals can help the sector by offering
a perspective based on valuing the full range of students' achievements
and experience through processes such as PDP.
— As an approach to student support and engagement,
LD calls for students' experience of their learning to be brought
to the centre. LD shows that skills are best learned when embedded
in subject context. The HE sector as a whole would benefit significantly
by having sufficient LD professionals working alongside other
academics and students to achieve more effective learning outcomes.
2.0 Introduction
ALDinHE is the association for Learning Development
professionals which has grown out of the JISCmail discussion list,
the Learning Development in Higher Education Network (LDHEN—see
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ldhen/
). Participants in both LDHEN and ALDinHE are united by their
interest in and commitment to the development of student learning
and the provision of opportunities for students to develop their
skills for study and their awareness of academic practices. (See
http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/
for more information about the work of the Association)
The membership of ALDinHE is drawn from learning
development and study support units in over forty HE institutions,
while the wider LDHE Network represents almost all of the UK's
universities and higher education intuitions. The group also has
subscribers beyond the UK, in countries such as Ireland, Hong
Kong, Germany, Belgium and Australia. An early achievement of
the network was the successful bid for a Centre for Excellence
in Teaching and Learning, the sixteen institution partnership,
"LearnHigher".
The work we refer to as "Learning Development"
(LD) is an increasingly recognised field of practice in higher
education in the UK. It focuses on the skills for learning that
students require to complete successfully their programmes of
study; specifically how students learn in their subject context,
what they find problematic, and the potential barriers to successful
learning that may arise from current structures, teaching and
support practices. LD therefore concentrates on situated skills
for written and oral communication, information management, analysis,
critical thinking and creativity. We emphasise the importance
of consultative work with subject specialists and other HE staff
to embed skills for learning in the curriculum.
3.0 Admissions
We argue that the transitions associated with
entry to HE programmes often represent a "make or break"
experience for students. It is therefore vital that HEIs in general
take full account of the wide range of entry qualifications and
pre-HE learning experiences which potential students are now likely
to present.
— Students are entering HE with a wide
range of educational experiences and approaches to learning. It
is important to ensure that admissions policies and procedures
take account of this in order to provide wider and more equitable
access to HE for those with the ability to benefit. This will
guard against the perpetuation of disadvantage for those without
traditional qualifications and avoid unduly favouring the A-level
route. More active awareness of this diversity will enable those
responsible for programmes of study to accommodate and build upon
the full range of students' learning experiences.
— Targeted pre-entry LD initiatives run in
conjunction with admissions departments could help prospective
students gain a better understanding of, and preparation for the
unique character of learning at HE level. Such work is also likely
to underpin better rates of retention throughout programmes. Appropriate
learning support around transition can also help to pre-empt any
unforeseen additional pressures on learning support services.
— Examples of appropriate initiatives related
to admissions could include:
— creating more opportunities for school
pupils to shadow university students
— providing taster sessions of university
learning
— visits by student ambassadors to schools
— online collaboration between university
students and local schools
4.0 The balance between teaching and research
— LD aims to help students to understand
that universities are dedicated to the creation of new and applied
knowledge, as well as the transmission of existing knowledge.
Curriculum design that enables undergraduates to participate actively
in research from the start of their degree fosters this awareness
and increases student motivation and achievement. — Rather
than an overly instrumental or surface-level approach to study,
an LD perspective seeks to encourage a deep engagement with learning
by inducting students into their "communities of practice".
LD recognises that both research and work experience can help
to fulfil these functions. This in turn helps students to understand
and more effectively navigate HE.
— CPD and initial teacher training programmes
for teaching and learning support staff in HE contribute to and
draw upon the growing body of research into the student experience.
Ongoing CPD supports effective LD in building both the capacity
for research into learning as well as learning through research.
— LD professionals are in a good position
to support the government's agenda for higher level skills through
integrating subject knowledge with the skills gained through research,
dissemination, innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration
(eg in extended group-work).
5.0 Degree classification
— We would encourage better representation
of the skills gained through the HE experience than is currently
evidenced by the degree classification system. We would endorse
a re-opening of the debate on degree classification in order to
demonstrate how the graduate identity encompasses the skills that
employers and society require. Improved integration of personal
development planning (PDP) into the curriculum provides opportunities
to do this. — Plagiarism often results from instrumental
approaches to learning and a misunderstanding of the aims of higher
education. It can be driven by assessment practices where students'
induction into academic conventions is incomplete. As learning
developers we seek to refocus the debate to concentrate on strategies
which address the potentially alienating effect of an unfamiliar
culture. LD therefore emphasises the importance of improved opportunities
for explicit skills development in areas such as referencing and
information literacy.
6.0 Student support and engagement
Student support is the area to which the LD
community can make the greatest contribution in support of the
Committee's inquiry. The main aim of LD work is the enhancement
of students' higher skills, giving students enhanced employability
and life chances beyond university study. Skills for research,
communication, self-awareness and critical thinking ensure that
students benefit as fully as possible from their experiences of,
and employment beyond, higher education. We subscribe to the UNESCO
statement of 2002:
"Higher education must place students
at the centre of its focus within a lifelong learning perspective
so that they are fully integrated into the global knowledge society
of the twenty-first century. Students must be considered as equal
and fundamental partners and stakeholders in their own education,
we believe that students need to be seen as equal partners in
their own learning". (UNESCO, 2002)
6.1 The effectiveness of initiatives to support
student engagement in the formulation of HE policy, and how the
success or otherwise of these initiatives is being assessed
A number of small-scale studies have been undertaken
into the impact of LD, and the LDHEN JISCmail discussion provides
rich qualitative evidence that LD work is effective. A current
review is examining the impact on retention of different approaches
to supporting students through study advice and personal development
planning. We believe, however that it would be useful to undertake
more systematic research to determine how LD can best serve student
support and engagement in higher level learning.
6.2 How the student experience differs in
public and private universities
We have no information to offer in direct response
to this question.
6.3 Examples of reasons for, and potential
strategies to reduce, the non-completion of higher education programmes
by students
In our collective experience non-completion is a
complex and many-faceted phenomenon, but evidence suggests (eg
Tinto, 2006, Yorke 2000) that explicit support for students in
developing skills for study as part of their programmes can have
a positive impact on retention and completion of university study.
Such initiatives are most likely to be successful when learning
developers work collaboratively with subject specialists to embed
support within programmes. Ample evidence for this is available
from the LDHEN and the LearnHigher CETL, with a rich variety of
examples of support, especially in pre-entry and first year contexts
(eg the "Stepping Stones" programme at Bournemouth and
"SAPRA" in Bradford). Other interventions known to be
effective are those concentrating on formative assessment, and
initiatives which familiarise students with examples of successful
study practices and assignment work by other students—eg
in peer learning or "PALS" schemes. At the University
of Plymouth the "WrAssE" project is building an online
library of examples of successful student assignments for use
in learning about academic writing.
6.4 The adequacy of UK higher education (HE)
funding and student support packages, and implications for current
and future levels of student debt
Significant concern has expressed by LDHEN members
over the last few years about the long-lasting impact of debt
upon students, both in their increasingly instrumental attitudes
to higher education generally, and their ability to devote sufficient
time to study whilst simultaneously working to supplement their
incomes.
6.5 Any further action required by the Government
and/or HEFCE to ensure that UK HEIs offer students a world class
educational experience
To build on the UK's world-class higher educational
experience, we think that considerably more could be done to encourage
HEIs to offer systematic and effective support for learning. A
learning development approach suggests that such work should be
seen as central to university learning rather than peripheral,
"bolt-on" or remedial. Engagement with inquiry into
their own learning processes is valuable for students within any
subject curriculum, and underpins knowledge acquisition and application
for lifelong learning.
As a community of practice with over 350 subscribers
to our JISCmail list, we can draw on the collective experience
of our members in delivering direct and indirect forms of student
support. ALDinHE is therefore in a position to provide the Committee
with further information and examples of successful models of
LD across the HE sector as and when required. Finally, we recommend
that the committee reviews the UNESCO document referred to above
("The role of student affairs and services in higher education")
as a useful resource in relation to the issues of supporting and
engaging students in HE institutions. (UNESCO (2002) [ONLINE]
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001281/128118e.pdf
December 2008
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