From Transaction to Transition – Rethinking the Student Journey (joint with Lucy Evans)

Students no longer view university as giving them the certainty of outcome – of career, of the value gained from higher education and of the sense of liberty and freedom that comes from their time in University.  This presents itself in a myriad of ways – from the growing demand for health and well-being services, but also to the growing sense of unfairness that these concerns are new to them, removing something about University life that previous generations enjoyed.  The ambiguity which is created challenges them and so challenges us.  Their expectation of us as educators are being raised to meet the challenge – and offset – this ambiguity and provide the right support structures to absorb the risk that modern student life brings in making the right choices, dealing with the financial strains, well-being, the student life experience and, critically, the next stages post university.  These changing expectations feed through into how we act and shape our services – an evolving relationship between student and university in a new model of lifelong engagement that goes far beyond the conventional ‘alumni’ perspective.

We focus in this paper on how universities can move from a model of transaction ‘management’ to a model which is promoting the transition through University and the relationship between the student now and their future self.   Building on an extensive body of work at the University of Edinburgh and beyond, we draw together a modern perspective on student support across the journey from applicant to alumni, focused particularly on the interaction between a continuous (and relentless) focus on students experience alongside shaping the culture of student support in the model of academic performance, aligned to major strategic initiatives in student services provision and curriculum with an emphasis on agency and delivery.  Our work suggests that effective student support and positive experience faces ever-present conundrums of balancing interests that can only be managed holistically – with the students as partners in a dialogue that is built on transparency and clear communication to ensure we know their demands, how we can meet them, and, where we cannot, that we articulate the constraints we work to.  We also encourage creativity and experimentation in activity, managing issues of core business alongside trying new things, and learning from failure and growing initiatives where successful.