Yesterday, I was in Newport at the new University of South Wales (Caerleon Campus) at a conference with one of our Subject Reps (Nick Short) The conference had delegates from every single University in Wales looking at current and future strands for the ‘Future Directions’ project.

 
The current three themes for ‘Future Directions’ are:
- Learning FOR Employment
- Learning IN Employment
- Students As Partners

I took particular interest in the latter of the three – Students As Partners. The reason behind this is that we've done some great work in the University following the release of NUS' Manifesto For Partnership. My view on this was whilst there is excellent partnership work going on in the centre between students and the University we now need to look at how we embed this throughout the University.

At the conference, I asked what kinds of activities institutions should look to engage in order to foster culture change throughout the University towards students as partners.

As a Students' Union I have committed us to develop the Swansea University Student Engagement Hub. A new resource for University staff where students highlight good student engagement practices. We’ll be looking at each College and each Professional Service department as well as the academies to look for examples where people have successfully engaged students.

At the conference, Nick Potter, from the Higher Education Wales Pro Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching Advisory Group gave a presentation on the opportunities and the challenges to Universities in Wales.

Nick suggested that it was now a reality that all students should have a job to get through University and critiqued Swansea Metropolitan University Students’ Union who provided students finding it difficult to make ends meet a food bank suggesting such measures were unnecessary.

I challenged that and asked if Universities in Wales now have an obligation to stamp out costs associated with studying and lower the costs of University-managed accommodation (whose prices have risen well above inflation) – his response was that ‘that sort of discussions should come within fee plan negotiations’ - all I can say is that I look forward to the fee plan negotiations next year.

As the conference came to a close, we reflected on what new work Future Directions should engage whilst also conceding that current strands need to be highlighted in some capacity to encourage institutions to develop these areas.