Every participating institution will tackle this part of the survey cycle in different ways. How you go about achieving impact on foot of the results of StundentSurvey.ie will depend on many factors, such as:
WHAT?
What messages emerged from the results?
Did student feedback point to major changes needed?
Did student feedback highlight areas where changes could be made incrementally?
Did conflicting results emerge from the feedback?
WHO?
Results should be used as locally as possible, so how can you work with heads of school/ heads of programmes/ student support staff/ service managers?
There is also capacity to make changes at an institutional level, so how can the leaders within the institution make this change happen?
Staff and student partnerships are strongly encouraged to plan for and achieve meaningful and sustainable impact.
Would a “data use team” be beneficial to exploit the data by identifying a series of “data champions” in various units of the institution?
WHEN?
When is the best time to share the results?
How much time will be needed to enact changes which could enhance the student experience?
When is an appropriate time to undertake enhancements to the student experience or to begin this work?
Are there some enhancements that need to be looked at in the short/ medium/ long term?
Using the results
What is the purpose of the action? In other words, where do you want this impact to be felt?
- Supporting student learning and development.
- Facilitating student retention and engagement.
- Managing resources, programmes, and services.
- Quality assurance and / or enhancement.
- Identifying areas of good practice.
- Guiding staff development activities.
- Improving internal communication.
- Marketing to prospective students.
Institutional strategy
Does the action sought in the student feedback fit into the institutional strategy?
Does the action sought in the student feedback benefit one group of students/ several groups of students/ the institution as a whole?
Do the results help the institution to understand its student experience relative to other institutions, e.g. of a similar profile, size, geographical location?
What resources do you have to available?
Do you need financial resources, and do you have them?
Do you need human resources, and do you have them?
Do you need managerial support, and do you have it?
Action Plans
Create action plans for sharing the results and for achieving impact based on what students have said, what students think are the strengths and weaknesses of their student experience in your institution, and where students want to see change.
- Determine which data are relevant for particular staff/ student representatives/ students. Facilitate faculties/ schools/ departments, and learning support units, student support staff and other interested groups within the institution to engage with small sets of relevant results, rather than trying to digest and action on the whole report.
- Connect results to issues in your institution which people care about and mobilise those most invested and/or interested in those issues.
- Look at your results relative to past performance and/or similar institutions to identify areas for further work.
- Link StudentSurvey.ie results to other institutional sources of data to better understand the totality.
- Set manageable goals for the short, medium, and long-term, which are agreed by all stakeholders.
- Monitor progress on achieving the enhancements to the student experience planned and be prepared to modify actions and strategies as the plan progresses.
- Significant changes to the student experience will take time but the benefits could be transformative for your institution.
