Global Engagement and Internationalisation Strategy - 8/1/24 by Stephen Lamyman

2024-01-17 10:51:39 UTC

Specialist courses to be developed to support research I.e PhD

2024-01-17 10:56:29 UTC

What does the student journey look like?

2024-01-17 11:53:01 UTC

What does quality look like at a partner institution? Hoe is quality monitored/assessed. How are shortfalls identified

2024-01-17 11:55:05 UTC

Does our data identify student needs that we do not address

2024-01-17 11:56:11 UTC

Rigorous recruitment processes to ensure the students are capable of course completion

Student expereince, retention and success - implied by reputation but this needs to be student led

2024-01-22 11:50:37 UTC

For international PGR students, need a smoother and more efficient process from enquiry to registration. Clear lines of communication between various bodies within the university (i.e. PG leads, supervisors, PG Admissions, IPAD, UKVI, Graduate College) and between the students and the university. For example, I have received complaints from applicants about delayed or even lack of response to emails from PG Admissions and UKVI.

2024-01-22 12:01:53 UTC

Within our breakout group, challenges to PGT (and some UGT) student experience were identified including late starts, not living in or near Canterbury so having to commute from a great distance, support for students who struggle with the UK HE academic norms, and English language skills.

2024-01-22 12:15:44 UTC

QA Processes

lornash — 2024-01-22 12:16:51 UTC

I appreciate that things are being taken forward at an institutional level with Vision 2030, so this may be addressed - I think the QA processes can sometimes hinder developing partnerships and the smooth running for setting up TNE

PSRBs

2024-01-22 12:18:55 UTC

Is it the right thing to blanket exclude PSRBs? If students are high-achieving and don't need their 'extra' years (often 5yrs to complete) for reassessment with attendence, should they not be offered the opportunity to take part in a scheme?

Honesty to international students upon recruitment

2024-01-22 12:26:58 UTC

By granting successful applications, we are essentially telling students that they have the skills and ability to complete the course applied for. However, upon starting the course we find majority of international students are grossly under skilled and under prepared for the UK standards of study and assessment. Students therefore develop mental health issues (stress, depression etc.) under pressure to succeed where they do not have the language and/or skills to meet the course requirements. This is unfair on students who have paid an enormous amount of money to study abroad and unfair on the staff who have to put in the additional work to support these students.

Funding for staff

2024-01-22 12:30:47 UTC

If CCCU is serious about building international research partnerships then it needs to be serious about funding staff to travel to international conferences and have real time for networking and relationship building. Funding tends to follow who you know as well as what you know...

What is coming out of our breakout group, is that 'roaming' (staff and student) could derive from current academic relationships that we have with colleagues at overseas universities. This is a good starting point for development.

2024-01-22 12:33:20 UTC

Subject specific grants for PhDs

2024-01-22 12:36:47 UTC

Does CCCU access Research Council funding to grant to PhD students, and is there an equivalent for international students?

Roles and Responsiblities - needs to be clarified

2024-01-22 12:53:13 UTC

Hearing studnet voice - what are our current student's feedback

2024-01-22 13:00:01 UTC

Expand SLOWLY

2024-01-22 13:02:52 UTC

It's important to place emphasis on quality over quantity - I'd rather see 1 or 2 new partners per year but done properly, with plenty of opporuntity to ensure processes run smoothly and students are having a positive experience.

Communication in planning

catherinesherwood4 — 2024-01-22 13:03:50 UTC

If students are being recruited from new areas or in larger numbers then this has implications for many areas of the uni who need to be involved at earlier planning stages, e.g. the library needs to be informed as possible implication costs for e-resource licences.

If the intention is to expand international PGR recruitment, then attention needs to be paid to staff capacity to supervise (expertise and availability); ensuring proposals fit within the foci of units of assessments; and ensuring that applicants are able to complete (i.e. quality of applicants). All this fits within the broader uni and Grad College research/PGR strategies.

2024-01-22 13:07:41 UTC

The best way to build reputaton is to deliver outstanding student expereince - student word of mouth/proud Alumni

2024-01-22 13:09:07 UTC

How can we ensure Agents are providing accurate information and are not damaging our reputation.

2024-01-22 13:10:42 UTC

Ensure a quality student experience

2024-01-22 13:24:48 UTC

If we do the basics properly, we should build a solid reputation. Involve everyone in the planning proceses (timetablng, accommodation, registry, study skills, library, academics, wellbeing... everyone) to make sure everyone is on the same page. Deliver a great academic experience for students and the rest will follow.

Honesty and transparency (and no bonuses)

2024-01-22 13:31:42 UTC

Students should be recruited only in numbers and at a level we have the capacity to teach and support them. If students arrive unprepated (socially, financially, academically) for the courses then we are engaging in an unethical practice that sets many of them up to a) fail, b) suffer crises in mental and physical health.

Students must have high quality English language, and not rely on AI to communicate. An interview system would be sensible.

I have no idea if the recruiters we rely on have bonus systems in place, but we shouldn't work with anyone who links numbers of students recruited to bonus payments.

Rethink recruitment process

2024-01-22 17:07:24 UTC

Although it was indicated that the recruitment of students was run by an external agency, it is essential that, wherever possible, academics form part of the recruitment process. If this is not possible then a level of transparency / communication is needed to ensure that there is a two-way dialogue and that we are clear about what we are expecting from students and not setting them up to fail.

Capacity & institutional expertise

2024-01-22 17:14:28 UTC

As I mentioned within the discussion, it will be key to build in capacity and create more research supervisors. We have some excellent potential supervisors (with PhD and research/teaching experience) within professional service departments and we need to look at how we can harness our existing talent, look at how we can create more flexibility for staff to share knowledge and expertise across departments / contract types.

Map out who does what

2024-01-22 17:18:44 UTC

How does the work of the Research Development, Library and other departments currently support research. Where can we build capacity to grow support for students and staff? As this is a "university strategy", have conversations already taken place (outside of these events) with department leads?

Staff / student experience

2024-01-22 17:28:00 UTC

Listen hard to the staff experience - As made very clear in Today's workshops, staff (both academic and professional services) have real concerns about further growth without a clear investment plan (i.e., investment in the staff needed to properly support international students). There can be no "sustainable growth" without a clear articulation of the 'how' beyond training for staff. How are we going to improve the existing student experience (you don't have to look far for examples)? Do we have the money to invest in the additional staffing needed to support students (e.g., supervisors, academic staff, language support, learning development, finance, etc.). We cannot continue to do more with less and unless there is a budgetary commitment, I cannot see how the vision presented can be delivered even if aspirational. Listen to the student voice - focus groups down the line are great but I believe that the student voice should be present from the start.

A costed plan

2024-01-22 17:35:07 UTC

Like the elephant in the room, we will not be able to deliver this strategy without investment. If we don't prioritize investment in the international student experience, we risk damaging our reputation in the long term. There is already a perception that we're only interested in bums on seats...let's change that!

R or not to R?

2024-01-22 17:39:36 UTC

I know that the student experience pops up as a thread in many of your R-named priorities but please could we have one main priority that is focused on the student experience explicitly, this would mesh with our CCCU values (compassion & inclusive). I don't think it's as important to find another R word as a soundbite, more about communicating a commitment first and foremost to international students. At the moment the R's feel weighted to the business model rather than delivery.

Investment in library collections

2024-01-22 17:43:57 UTC

To grow our international research presence, we should also be thinking about how our library provides access to knowledge and information, ensuring that we have a clear investment plan in place for diversifying / decolonising / internationalising the collections as an ongoing project.