DCU’s Students’ Union have been accepted into a training programme which encourages student engagement with educational decision making.
The national student engagement programme (NStEP) was created by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), and Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI).
Created in April 2016, the programme aims to assist third level institutions to deliver a common student representative training programme and further student engagement across all levels of higher education.
Institutions who took part in the 2016 training included NUI Galway, the National College of Ireland (NCI) and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT). Maynooth University and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) are among more who will take part with DCU in 2017.
98.5 per cent of the pilot programme participants said they would recommend the training to other class reps and rated the programme an average of 4.5 out of 5.
To assist in the initial running of the programme the Student Partnerships in Quality Scotland Agency (sparqs) were taken on as project consultants. Sparqs is a publicly funded agency for Scottish third level education, established in 2003 with the purpose of increasing student engagement with decision making about quality and governance of their education.
NStEP are currently seeking student trainers to deliver the programme, further information can be found online.
Michelle Martin
Image Credit: USI