NSA’s current President, Kasia Bylinska, was part of the working group which developed the 10 key statements about Edinburgh Napier’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment.
The quality of students’ academic experience has long been seen as a defining issue for the University by Edinburgh Napier students and the Students’ Association, and for this reason NSA was keen to be involved in the development of the LTA Strategy and in its promotion.
The Strategy, and in particular the 10 key statements, were presented to the Student Senate on 2 November 2010 for comment and approval. NSA has since considered in more detail its role in promoting and developing the statements and its own activities in some of these areas. This is detailed the reponses to the key statements.
NSA’s current President, Kasia Bylinska initiated the Learning and Teaching Awards which were launched in December 2009. The LTA Awards included the categories 'I love my PDT' and 'I love my tutor', and all students were invited to submit their nominations, which were then scrutinised and winners selected by an internal NSA panel. The winners received their awards as part of the University Staff Award ceremony.
The student response to our Learning and Teaching Awards, launched in 2009, is indicative that many of Edinburgh Napier students value the teaching they receive and hold it in high regard. It was clear also from the comments we received that students understood the impact good teaching has on the learning experience.
NSA will be launching its Teaching Awards again in January 2011 and more details will be available from our website at http://www.napierstudents.com
In 2011, the Learning and Teaching Award has been expanded to include a category ‘I love my student representative’, and the judging panel will also include two student representative members.
The University has demonstrated its commitment to developing wider generic skills for students and supporting them to succeed through the Student Involvement in Learning, Teaching and Assessment (SILTA) Project.
This project falls under the umbrella of Student Engagement, and NSA is working collaboratively with Academic Development on 6 key strands of activity. One of the initiatives arising out of this project has been the development of Advanced Representative Training for a group of 30 student representatives.
These representatives undertook basic training, and then signed up for advanced training which included two workshops on goal setting, leadership and a committee role play exercise, two sessions with Confident Futures on aspects of Personal Development Planning and a final review with Academic Development leading to a professional qualification with the Institute of Chartered Management, level 3.
Further details can be obtained from Jill Robertson at j.robertson2@napier.ac.uk
NSA is an inclusive organisation which seeks to reflect and represent the diversity of its members: all currently matriculated students of Edinburgh Napier University.
As part of recent governance review, NSA is modifying its structures to offer more opportunities for all students to become involved in NSA and University activities.
The proposal is to create a new position on the NSA Student Executive called the ‘Diversity and Equality Officer’. The DEO will be an ordinary student elected by the student body to represent the interests of under-represented groups within the student body, such as mature & student parents, women, ethnic minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, postgraduates & research students, part-time, distance learning and customised programme students, International and EU students.
The ECO will facilitate forums for each group to meet and feedback into the NSA Student Executive the issues which they feel need to be addressed. The Student Executive will then actively seek to improve, change and influence the University on these issues at Committee level and through lobbying and campaigning.
NSA is also seeking to strengthen its student societies and improve participation because this is an excellent way of ensuring that NSA is representative of all interest groups, while at the same time encouraging innovation and free enquiry.
Further details can be obtained from Kasia Bylinska at k.bylinska@napier.ac.uk
Edinburgh Napier University in conjunction with NSA has a strong track record in supporting student representatives to participate at all levels of our respective institutions as we value and embrace the new ideas, enquiries and innovation benefits this brings.
The Feedback for Learning campaign was launched by NSA’s current President, Kasia Bylinska and the Vice-Principal John Duffield in academic year 2010/11. This is a three-year campaign aimed at improving consistency of feedback across the University. It is hoped that, over time, improvements in feedback provision will be reflected in the National Student Survey results.