Academic excellence for business and the professions
Student and Academic Services Annual Report 2017 www.city.ac.uk
1
Student and Academic Services Student and Academic Services provides professional leadership for front-facing and behind-thescenes strategic and operational activities that enable the student journey - from supporting young people to engage with their futures to engaging with them to support their future success. Our work is underpinned by three drivers: • Day-to-day commitment to providing high-quality interactions with students, the Students’ Union, academic and professional staff and external partners • How we will change to support City’s Vision and Strategy 2026 • Compliance management that we undertake on behalf of the Executive. We work collaboratively with each other in all that we do, within City’s diverse student/staff community and with partners to make things happen. We are ambitious and self-confident in making our individual, team and Directorate service a success.
Contents 1
Introduction
2
Modernising Administration for Students: Changing the way we work
3
Modernising Administration for Students: Insight into the Migration to e:Vision project
4
Student experience: Supporting City’s goal for student satisfaction
6
Student progression: Supporting City’s goal for student success
8
Student employability: Supporting City students’ futures
10 Professional Mentoring Scheme 11 Collaborating with local partners 12 Working together on our strategic future 14 Moving in and around Student and Academic Services 16 Working with each other 17 Impact of the Student and Academic Services cross-team committees 18 Staff achievements 20 Current Staff 2017/18
Introduction Who we collaborate with
Students
(from left to right: Alison Edridge, James Birkett, Louise Woodward, Susannah Marsden, Gemma Kenyon, Maggie Cunningham and Melanie Sanderson)
Welcome to the Student and Academic Services Annual Report 2016/17. The theme of this year’s report is collaborating to create impact and illustrates the way in which we work with each other, with colleagues, with students and with external partners to be the best we can be. Within the report, we provide examples of the way in which this collaborative style has achieved tangible outputs as well as built positive and trusted relationships. This approach has enabled us to make significant contributions to the life of the University and also support our colleagues through significant times of change. We are very proud of the exceptional levels of commitment and expertise our colleagues have offered during the year and we hope you enjoy reading this report.
Academic staff
Each other
External partners
Student and Academic Services
City’s Executive
Professional staff
Students’ Union
Additional thanks go to Samuel Adams, Becky Price and Louise Woodward for managing the interviews featured in the report and to Rowan Lord, Marketing and Communications, for his support in the document production. Student and Academic Services Leadership team 1
Modernising Administration for Students: Changing the way we work Modernising Administration for Students (MAfS) is a three-year institution-wide change initiative to establish easy to use processes and systems that enable staff to deliver better student administration. Supported by £4.79m ring-fenced strategic investment, its output is designed both to create a more effective working environment and support City in key performance indicators in student satisfaction and student progression. The ethos of MAfS is based on collaboration where we work in partnership with colleagues across City to prioritise, develop and implement change that meets our common strategic goals. More information on the MAfS projects can be found at www.city.ac.uk/staff-hub/modernising-administration-for-students. Samuel Adams spoke to three MAfS Board members: Professor Marianne Lewis, Dean, Cass Business School, Matt Such, Chief Operating Officer, School of Health Sciences and Yusuf Ahmad, Students’ Union President 2016/17 about their roles and thoughts on the work.
can digitalise and take away paperwork, the more staff can focus on what they do best. My contribution is in not only making sure Cass can make the most of what comes out of MAfS and be involved in that process, but that at the University level I serve as a voice on ExCo and with Deans so that I am sharing our goals and our progress effectively.
What is your contribution to MAfS? Marianne: I support MAfS in two ways. At School level, by making sure the projects are serving their purpose, which I believe is to substantially better support our student experience. The more we
The MAfS Board, set up in November 2016, has academic and professional staff from across City and from the Students’ Union.
2
Matt: I’ve been involved with MAfS in one form or another since its inception and it’s been really interesting to see how the original idea has now matured into a large-scale programme of change. I have also worked with Melanie and our Dean to help determine which projects are priorities for our School to support our Strategic Plan. Yusuf: As the student representative on both the MAfS Board and other project boards, I actively contributed to discussions and the decisions made by the group. I also co-led the student focussed project prioritisation exercise
that we ran in one meeting which informed the student-facing projects that the MAfS team is working on today.
How did you find working with the MAfS team in terms of giving your input and views? Marianne: I am very pleased with the MAfS team as it is quite an inclusive process. They need input and engagement from across the University and Melanie and all those involved work hard to achieve this. Matt: I’ve been really impressed by the effort that has gone into consultation and into ensuring there is representation from all stakeholders on the various groups. From a School perspective, we have also had regular reports, a coffee morning overview and regular visits from members of the team to update us on the work of specific projects.
The core MAfS team (from left to right: Samuel Adams, Mark Smith, Eleanor Cornfield, Melanie Sanderson, Louise Wessen, Chris Clements, Mandeep Plaha, Ben Draper)
Yusuf: I found it to be a warm and welcoming environment where my views as a student representative were highly sought after and listened to.
it will also mean that City is taking a leap into the future of engaging students.
What do you think the impact of MAfS will mean for academic and professional staff across City?
Marianne: How we really jump ahead is how we add value to the student experience and enhance the work our staff, both professionally and academically, are doing educationally.
Marianne: Cass has grown rapidly over the last five years and that scale presents a challenge, so the more we can systematise certain elements that don’t add direct value to the students the more we can actually focus on the student experience. Critical to this is digitalising the support structure. Matt: I believe MAfS has the potential to make many important processes and tasks easier for staff in the School and could free up resource to provide a higher quality, more effective and improved service. There are many competing priorities in student and academic administration and there is an opportunity cost if we don’t implement the MAfS objectives. Yusuf: I think the impact of MAfS on students will be greatly appreciated. It will make students’ lives much easier as it’ll mean more accessible systems and
Where do you see your School adding the most value to MAfS?
Matt: We have many staff in the School (academic and administrative) contributing their time and efforts to the various MAfS projects and it is this continued engagement that will add the most value. Yusuf: I think that the Students’ Union can continue to add value by remaining as engaged with it as they have been from the start and through providing insight from students’ views on what they need. The greatest value added would be through demonstrating the strong partnership between the Students’ Union and City by promoting these great initiatives.
How were you supported by the project team both before it went live and in the first few weeks of use?
Modernising Administration for Students: Insight into the Migration to e:Vision project The Migration to e:Vision project is a multi-phased MAfS project that is migrating several administrative processes into e:Vision, the web interface of SITS, our student records system. This will mean the re-design of paper-based processes and improvements to data quality, enhancements to student self-service functionality and providing staff with a more intuitive platform on which to perform everyday tasks. task and transitioning the project into business as usual.
Several representatives of the Migration to e:Vision Board (from left to right: Gowri Jeevaratnam, Samuel Adams, Shereen Sally, Kieran Brookes, Aurelia Murphy, Jonah Topping, Ben Draper, Emma Boylan, Melanie Sanderson, Keren Harris)
Emma Boylan, Assistant Director (Academic Operations) in Student and Academic Services, Aurelia Murphy, Head of Academic Services for The City Law School and Kieran Brookes, Head of Academic Services for the School of Arts and Social Sciences tell Samuel Adams about their contribution to the Migration to e:Vision project.
What has been your contribution to the Migration to e:Vision project? Emma: My team drafted the original proposal and has been involved throughout, working with the Project Board and team. This included identifying areas to develop, consulting with Schools, agreeing the training and communications process for each new
Kieran: I provided contextual input for the functionality, assisted with the technical specifications and identified School specific idiosyncrasies that need to be incorporated. Aurelia: Our School also suggested where we can improve user experience and help encourage transition.
Emma, how have other people across City have been involved in this project? Emma: Given how wide-reaching some of the e:Vision tasks are , we collaborated very closely with colleagues and the Students’ Union to create a process which works well for staff and students.
What do you feel has been the most challenging part of this change activity? Aurelia: Many staff are so used to using SITS, so addressing concerns that e-Vision can still do the same things but in a more user friendly way.
Several representatives of the Migration to e:Vision Project team (from left to right: Melanie Sanderson, Mark Smith, Nerida Booth, Adam Davis, Ben Draper, Gregory Wellington)
Emma: Trying to make changes to processes across City inevitably shows how there can be differences between Schools. We have to determine whether each difference is essential or whether our suggested changes are workable. All of this takes time and it is important to keep the momentum up but not to rush things through – never an easy balance.
Appeals Review Group A significant output of the MAfS Migration to e:Vision project this year provided our students with easier to use online processes for Extenuating Circumstances and Student Appeals, resulting in 3,210 EC cases and 219 appeal cases moving from manual to online processes.
Several representatives of the Appeals Review Group (from left to right: Adam Davis, Nerida Booth, Kate Kelsey, Ben Draper, Shereen Sally)
Nerida Booth, Senior Student Experience Officer in Student and Academic Services, Adrian Spence, Senior Academic Caseworker in the Students’ Union, Lorraine Price, Quality Officer in The City Law School, Annette Steffensen, Quality Officer in the School of Health Sciences and Kate Kelsey, Quality Manager in the School of Arts and Social Sciences spoke to Samuel Adams about their collaborative involvement in the project.
How did you find working in collaboration between Schools, the Students’ Union and the project team? Did you learn anything new? Nerida: It was good to see my colleagues engaging in a consultation process, I learnt that getting consensus is challenging, even when it would appear to be a straight-forward matter.
Adrian: The user testing and review meetings provided an understanding of what to expect along with the student-facing guidance that I could share with students. Annette: I was very happy with the communication. Ben Draper from MAfS was always extremely helpful. With this level of support I felt very reassured about the success of the work. Lorraine: Support from the project team has been excellent. I don’t think I could fault it.
How has the new Appeals process changed the way you work? Nerida: It has mostly changed the way in which we record the consideration of the appeal. Some records are now instantly accessible, which was not the case previously. Annette: I find the system very intuitive. The feature where you can see how many days an appeal is sitting in Initial Scrutiny Review is fabulous as it supports my time management when I am working on many appeals at the same time.
Kate: The project team listened to our feedback and I learnt how the different Schools work and tried to find solutions which worked for all of us.
Kate: It has reduced printing costs, reduced time logging appeals, streamlined the process between the two reviewers and the model emails saves time too.
Adrian: It was a good way for the Students’ Union to understand Appeal issues and demands from the perspective of the Schools.
Lorraine: I no longer have to keep a spreadsheet and it is helpful to have access to everything in one place. 3
Student experience: Supporting City’s goal for student satisfaction Student and Academic Services plays many roles in contributing to the student experience. This includes the day-to-day advice and support we offer through our awardwinning Student Centre, specialised services such as CitySport, Volunteering, Student Health and the Chaplaincy that support students’ community and sense of well-being and much work behind the scenes that supports the smooth running of the student journey. All our work takes place in partnership with others and in this section we profile just a few examples of the behind-the-scenes collaborations this year.
Student Centre Manager, the Welcome and Induction Planning Group is a partnership between Student and Academic Services, Schools, other Professional Services, the Students’ Union and Sodexo, co-ordinating activities for the start of the new academic year. This year the 40-strong group developed a more studentcentred approach to make the experience better. Alison Jacobs, Shereen Sally, Josie Barnes, Senior Course Officer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences and Nikki Page, Senior Admissions and Recruitment Officer in Cass Business School spoke to Becky Price about this year’s work.
Tell us about what this group is all about in relation to students’ experience?
Creating an impact in Welcome Week: Welcome and Induction Planning Group Chaired by Shereen Sally, Deputy Head of Student Experience and Engagement and working in collaboration with Alison Jacobs, 4
Alison: It is about giving all new students the best first impression of City. That means a welcome so great that it will be forever impressed upon their memory. It’s THE biggest annual event held on campus. Josie: It is also about giving students as much information as we can but not overloading them. We want them to feel informed of what events are taking place, what procedures they need to follow and also what services are available to them. We really want to help them feel part of a community.
What is the biggest outcome the group has achieved together that will most benefit students’ experience of Welcome Week this year? Josie: Pulling it all together. We realised that when we work together, communications flow a lot better and we are able to pass more information onto our students and colleagues from our School and from other Schools and services. Alison: Making more places available to international students to attend the International Students’ Welcome Reception at the Mansion House is one of the biggest outcomes. There are also new events taking place such as talks for international students about adjusting to UK culture. The Students’ Union and the Accommodation team have also put together meet and greet events for students living in the halls of residences, which is great. Nikki: We also focused on reducing clashes where possible and improving signage around City to give the students a more coherent feel around campus. I personally feel that the planning has developed a lot. Shereen: It has really been about getting a student perspective rather than each organisational unit doing their own thing.
Behind the scenes
19,665 in-person enquiries at the Student Centre.
Nearly 15,000 students surveyed on their student experience
3,380 hours of sport played in the Saddlers Sports Hall during last 2 terms which equates to 141 full 24 hour days
Creating a new City Faith Centre City Faith Centre finally opened in June 2017 following a three year development phase. Reflecting City’s diverse student body, its creation was informed by collaboration and consultation with various people including Student Faith Societies. Students and staff of faith now have a space that can be used to practise and celebrate their faith as an integral part of who they are. The development also presents a great opportunity for our Student Faith Societies to have presence on campus. The space is also much more: the entire City community (regardless of faith or belief) can find quiet space here, simply to ‘be’ outside the pressures of the working and studying environment. This, alongside the offer of a listening ear, provides a reassuring offer of peace and tranquillity in the middle of a busy campus environment.
City Faith Centre Launch (from left to right: Sheikh Musa Admani, Revd David Allen, Lydia Pell, Father Gregory Wellington, Maggie Cunningham, Revd Ian Worsfold, Revd Andrew Baughen, Shereen Sally, Rabbi Gavin Broder, Adrian Spence, Jason Haines)
City beats Kingston in first ever Varsity Sports teams from City and Kingston University took part in a series of matches in March 2017 as part of the first ever City vs Kingston Varsity. The City Wolfpack were victorious, winning seven of the thirteen matches against the Kingston Cougars, taking home the 2017 Thames Trophy. Women’s basketball co-captain Nina Sorensen said, “Varsity was such a fantastic event. It really brought all the teams together and was great to fight it out as a sporting community. I hope Varsity will continue in the future and it was great to meet the teams from Kingston.” The Thames Trophy event is a direct result of collaboration between City Students’ Union and Sport and Leisure Services, based on direct feedback from sports clubs and teams about building a community feel to City.
Working with the Students’ Union on complex matters While much of our work focuses on the positive aspects of student life, we also work hard to make the more challenging times as clear and supported as possible. Samuel Adams speaks to Nerida Booth, Sophie Cutforth and Jason Haines, all members of the Student Voice team, who work in close partnership with the Students’ Union on student cases, represented here by Zain Ismail, Students’ Union Vice-President Education 2016/17.
Tell us about how the Students’ Union and Student Voice team work collaboratively together in terms of student cases? Nerida: This works in two ways - we work with sabbaticals who sit on disciplinary panels and they also attend the Student Case Management Forum (SCMF) which means we can consult on new or changing policy regulations. Zain: This approach is always welcomed due to its collaborative nature and ensures students’ interests are put at the heart of decision making. The team provides us with an overview of the Student Disciplinary and Appeal procedures and how panels are formed. We nominate a student panel member for every case, usually an elected officer. Sophie: We also collaborate with the Students’ Union to provide training for Advice Officers, who are student volunteers from across the Schools.
The Students’ Union and Student Voice team also work closely with Schools. Tell us about the Student Case Management Forum (SCMF)? Nerida: SCMF is open to all staff and is focused on supporting the work of student case management, particularly those students experiencing difficulties. The benefits are the promotion of good practice, supporting staff in their professional development and helping the harmonisation of processes and policies across City. It’s also a chance to gather feedback that can be used to enhance the student experience. Zain: The Students’ Union Vice President Education and a member of the Union Advice team will attend and feed into discussions around student cases. The Union Advice team also provide the SCMF with an update on how many students have accessed the service, the number of queries and cases opened and the nature of these. This type of update adds to the forum discussions and the Students’ Union can also raise any issues it wants to. Jason: SCMF is also an important platform for sharing broader updates. For example, this year MAfS provided updates on the Migration to e:Vision Appeals project that was changing the appeals process to online and I provided updates on the new Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Student Parent Guidance. It’s a real collaborative way of working.
Zain Ismail
Sophie Cutforth
How do you think the collaboration between the team, the Students’ Union and Schools most benefits our students? Sophie: By working together and continually communicating we are able to support efficient exchanges of ideas to produce the best results for our students. Part of this is having joined up lessons learned discussions that can go on to produce a more consistent approach. Zain: The collaboration certainly ensures the Students’ Union, Schools and the Student Voice team are working towards this in a positive way. The Students’ Union is always looking to develop and enhance its relationship across the institution and working collaboratively is the best way to do this. 5
Student progression: Supporting City’s goal for student success This year Student and Academic Services began to reshape its work in response to the focus on student progression in City’s Vision and Strategy 2026. This included providing more professional support to the Executive on strategic development work, developing projects through Modernising Administration for Students to provide tools to support academic and professional staff in their work and an on-going focus on CityBuddies.
Students collaborating to support each other CityBuddies matches first year students with a current student on their course to help them settle in during the first months of university. It also provides an opportunity for second and third year students to develop their skills in supporting others and leadership. Internal data for 2015/16 showed that over 10% more students who had a peer mentor on the CityBuddy scheme progressed from year one to year two than their peers who did not. Students report that they are more prepared for higher education, feel a greater sense of community at City and have increased social and academic confidence as a result of their participation. Will Power, Buddy Scheme Officer and Muno Abdirizak Salad, a CityBuddy spoke to Samuel Adams about the organisation and impact of the CityBuddy scheme.
6
answer the questions you want to ask but don’t feel comfortable asking. Providing the insider tips is what we aim for as it is these that give students a massive head start. A lot of students think they are the only person involved in something challenging and when they meet students who have been through similar experiences it empowers them to continue.
Muno, what impact did having a buddy have on you starting at City? Muno: Before my first day I received an email informing me who my Buddy was. She reassured me, especially as I was anxious coming to City as a mature student. I was wary about making friends and going back into full time education while working part time. She also gave me advice on how to study and about the activities that were going on across City. Once I found out which hospital placement I was going to, she connected me to classmates who had been there and they were able to provide me with tips.
role models to new Buddies and are able to provide other Buddies support. They can also become Buddy Leaders with an extra level of responsibility by being a representative of their School and promoting the scheme across City. It provides them with the confidence to be a leader within their community. Muno: I’ve benefited so much from the scheme and that is why I wanted to give something back and be a CityBuddy Leader myself.
What advice would you like to offer to new first year City students? Muno: To definitely get themselves a CityBuddy because you wouldn’t realise how much they can help you. To have someone who went through the same thing as you and succeeded can help you overcome problems or have those problems not even occur. People that are shy and may struggle to make friends find they have a friend from the moment they start. My second piece of advice is don’t be scared of your lecturers they are there to help you.
My Buddy was also able to give the information you don’t tend to get and reassure me about all the concerns everyone has when they start out. Also trying to combine study with work is not easy so I am quite happy I’ve been able to do it and the support from City has made that possible.
Will, how does the scheme complement and work with other support available to students?
Tell us more about how students become Buddies to new students?
Will: For students arriving on their first day, going up to a course officer or lecturer can be daunting and nerve racking so a CityBuddy can be a crucial point of contact. The scheme helps
Will: In the first instance students complete training and are matched up with suitable students. They can then apply to do the scheme again and become senior CityBuddies. They are
414 CityBuddy mentors trained
Care leaver support, impact and next steps
Formation of the Progression and Strategy Support team Headed by Michael Bennett, the Progression and Strategy Support team is a new team in Student and Academic Services set up to work with colleagues across City on strategic approaches to support the progression of students across the whole lifecycle, help understand the issues students and staff face, propose solutions and evaluate what works.
£25M £25M committed over the next five years, in City’s Access Agreement submitted to the Office for Fair Access, to support the recruitment and progression of students from disadvantaged backgrounds or groups under-represented in higher education
Beth Taswell, Care Leaver Support Officer, tells us more about this work and her specific role:
Progression and Strategy Support team (from left to right: Damien Frettsome, Miriam Styrnol, Michael Bennett, Megan Butler, Beth Taswell)
Michael tells us more:
“We have started the development of a Progression Improvement Programme to work with Schools to identify and take forward work to really focus on giving our students the best opportunity to succeed. We don’t want students to withdraw from their studies and more do than should. Students who we accept onto our programmes should be given every chance and support to succeed and progress to the best possible outcomes. We lead on data and evaluation that underpins all this work. We are rolling out a guide for staff and a framework for evaluation, with tools and advice to help demonstrate impact. We want to help our students and staff and make City work as well as it can for everyone. That means working across City, with all the teams in Student and Academic Services, other Professional Services, programme teams in every School and external charities, local authorities, regulators and experts. “We are also responsible for the development and delivery of the new City Cares programme. City Cares takes the support we currently provide to students with experience in the care system and expands and extends it to also support students who are estranged from their families and young adult carers.”
“Care leavers face significant disadvantage in accessing higher education. Each year, around 10,000 young people leave the care system and only 6% of these will be at university by the time they are 19. At City, our provision for this group includes a £2,500 per year bursary (which has been in place since 2015), priority access for City-wide support services and one-to-one support from me, as the Designated Member of Staff (DMS). “This year we had 40 students who had disclosed an experience of local authority care and 22 of these students engaged with face-to-face support from the DMS. “The wide range and complexity of students that I work with has meant that I have had to focus on building relationships this year with both internal and external support services. I work closely with the Student Counselling and Mental Health Service, having fortnightly supervisions with Lydia Pell in order to help me manage my student case work, develop my skills and streamline referrals to their service. Part of my external engagement is through my role as London Regional Chair for the National Network for the Education of Care Leavers (NNECL). This allows me to contribute to collaborative HEI events aimed at children in local authority care and care leavers. “Going forward, we look to expand our provision of support that is already available to care leavers to include other disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. As of September 2017, we will be supporting Young Adult Carers and then aim to be working with estranged students. In terms of numbers, we have ten young adult carers on the student record (the actual number is likely to be significantly higher) and around 40 students who identify as being estranged from their families. “Although each individual student experience is different, by working with these groups together we aim to build a community in which students can become empowered through their unusual, but shared, experiences.”
7
Student employability: Supporting City students’ futures This year City Careers Service continued to work in collaboration with others to improve the future employability of our students. Partnerships obviously focus on direct support for students but increasingly also work as co-delivery partners with academic staff to embed employability in the curriculum. Enhanced data collection and reporting has been a key development during the year to better respond to students’ needs and joining The Careers Group, University of London has provided our staff with a wider professional community of specialist expertise and research. Employability in the curriculum: Co-development with Schools Mona Vadher, Employer Engagement Manager, Marlon Gray, Senior Careers Consultant, Dr Ian Daniell, Special Lecturer, Cass Business School and Dr David Seymour, Lecturer, The City Law School spoke to Becky Price about the impact of employability modules.
How do the employability modules support students in developing their employability? Marlon: For students to succeed at gaining graduate level employment, they need to develop realistic plans to step towards their desired outcomes. In addition to which, students need to further enrich their experience with skills that attract employers. Our employability module gives students a framework to help them become the best versions of themselves. 8
Ian: The skills-based modules I run in Cass, with experienced business people as tutors, give students an introduction to the skills they require in the workplace and show the relevance of them. The additional support and intervention of the Careers staff reinforce these aspects and gives guidance to students on the importance of preparing themselves for the world of work. David: In the LLB the module ensures that students reflect on the importance of employability at an early stage of their studies. They are often unaware of what is necessary to obtain a career in law (or other fields) and assume it is merely a question of obtaining a good degree. It also leads the students to recognise the importance of activities that can lead to an impressive CV as well as, at the pragmatic level, of producing applications that are attractive to future employers.
How has Careers worked with academic staff in the design, approval and delivery of the modules? Mona: For the LLB we quickly recognised the need to improve students’ confidence and self-awareness as well as address their lack of exposure to careers outside the legal domain. We designed the formative assessment to help develop key employability skills, incorporating personal development planning and writing CVs and application forms. We also worked to enthuse students with the concept of career exploration through micro-placements. Ian: In Cass, we worked together in the development of the Module Guide and Moodle pages to ensure that it is a genuinely integrated module. I feel the Careers Service has definitely reinforced the importance of employability.
What are the benefits of careers and faculty staff collaborating in these ways? Ian: A better service to the students, leading to better internships, placements and ultimately jobs. By working together, we have made sure that what we teach in our skills tutorials at Cass tie in with the Careers workshops. For example, the tutors will teach their students about how to give a presentation to a room full of people, whereas the Careers team will help with an interview. However,
the preparation and skills required are similar. All the skills that the students are learning both from their Business tutors and the Careers team will overlap and help them gain confidence and valuable skills.
What outcomes do we expect for the students undertaking these modules?
David: As noted above, one outcome is the importance of learning the skills necessary to enter the job market and to present themselves in best light possible. This outcome relates not only to questions of written documents, CV’s etc. but also what is expected of them both in terms of curricula and extracurricular activities.
Marlon: The key outcomes for me are that all students have a clear plan in terms of the steps they need to take to secure a favourable employability outcome and that they have developed the ability to research and articulate why they are suitable for the opportunity of their choice. Ian: In Cass we will not know the outcomes for at least 2 years, but what we would like to make sure is that the transformation from graduation to taking their first job in the business sector will be faster than others who have not had the advantage of employability covered within their course.
658 students took part in our Law and Business Skills employability modules
Careers Registration Careers Registration is a new initiative that was implemented in 2016/17 which helps to track students’ career readiness throughout their university experience. This is significant as it is the first time we’ve been able to collect data about the employability needs of students while they are studying with us to support strategic interventions. At the start of every year, students answer three career questions as part of their online registration for the year. The questions ask their level of career readiness, the career fields they are interested in pursuing and the professional experience they have acquired.
6,679 students surveyed in our first year of Careers Registration and 96.2% of undergraduate students answered our questions
The Careers Service uses this information to: • Measure learning gain and employability development as the students progress • Adjust our service offering to meet the needs of our students • Target communications to students that are most relevant to their needs • Ensure that our employer events programme meets the career interests of students. In addition to being used within the Careers Service this data has been well received by Schools, who are now better informed about the career needs and interests of their students and other Professional Services such as School Placement teams and Enterprise.
Unitemps Unitemps is City’s on-site recruitment agency offering a number of roles at all levels helping students, graduates and external candidates find temporary, permanent and internship job opportunities both internally and externally.
This year the branch processed over £2.2M through payroll, of which £1.68M was earned by nearly 1,300 City students and graduates in over 4000 jobs. The service really does provide professional work experience in various office and university settings and adds great value to a candidate’s CV, interview technique and overall employability.
“During my time as a student at City, Unitemps has played a crucial role in my career development as it helped me discover and benefit from interesting and exciting work opportunities. As a result, I expanded my network of contacts, gained valuable skills and supported myself financially as a student. After I spent almost three years working for City via Unitemps in various roles working for a number of departments, I managed to secure a permanent position in Marketing and Communications. The opportunity I had via Unitemps helped me tremendously in the full-time position I am in right now.” Zhuliyana Boyanova BA Journalism 2016
1,293 City students worked for Unitemps, in 4,103 jobs, making £1,679.082.85
Impact of joining The Careers Group This year the Careers Service became a member of The Careers Group, University of London. This collaboration has resulted in many positive benefits for students and staff which will support the way in which we support our students’ employability. An example is the addition of international themed events run in conjunction with other University of London member institutions. This Global Event Series was shortlisted for an award at the 2017 Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services awards. Staff within the City Careers service have also benefited by taking advantage of the training courses available through The Careers Group which greatly support their continual professional development. The Careers Group has also benefited from our membership as City colleagues contribute to cross member institution project teams and through delivering training.
1:1 3,462 appointments with 1,858 individual students seen
6,885 current students engaged with the Careers Service’s online portal 9
Professional Mentoring Scheme The Professional Mentoring Scheme focuses on improving students’ employability. Through 400 annual pairings, students benefit from one-to-one support from a mentor who often works in a profession or industry they aspire to join. This year the Professional Mentoring Scheme won a prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award in the category of Outstanding Engagement with Alumni (alumni form a particularly large proportion of our professional mentors). 84% of students participating in the scheme say that it has supported their personal or professional development. Thalia Anagnostopoulou, Professional Mentoring Leader and Ben Butler, Student Development Manager spoke to Louise Woodward about the development of the Professional Mentoring Scheme at City.
The concept of professional mentoring fits with City being focused on business and the professions but tell us about the origins of the scheme? Thalia: Its origins go back to 2002 and in its first five years was solely focused on Widening Participation students from a BME background, capped at 20 mentor/mentee pairs. Since that time we have massively expanded the scheme to all students but retained the focus on those from a Widening Participation background. 10
I imagine the scheme has changed across time. How do you decide on what changes to make? Thalia: There are two strands of changes - infrastructure change in terms of processes and systems and relationship management changes to best support the scheme. Ksenija Kotova and I reflect on the year, we assess feedback from all participants and we also have a broader Steering Group.
You work very closely with the mentors as well as the students and the stories arising from the scheme seem really positive. How do you go about the pairing up? Thalia: Information about mentors is collected through an application form, but during the training session we keep an eye out to see which student would be best to pair them with based on their personality and interests. We’ve now made it compulsory for all the mentors to meet with us to get that personal interaction and feeling. Ksenija and I run the mentee training and it’s about thinking which mentee would this mentor bring the best out of and who can empower this person the most.
One of our mentor/mentee pairs, Helen Fitch, Assistant Registrar (Quality) at City who was paired with Zakyia Sultana, 3rd year BSc Crimology student, spoke to Louise Woodward about their experiences of the scheme.
Ben: It is important that Thalia gets to meet everybody to get a sense of who people are. Compared to other schemes where 90% of relationships last the distance, on the whole we have no more than 5-10 relationships out of 400 which dissolve – that’s 98% success.
If I asked you to promote the impact of the scheme to a prospective mentor in one sentence, what would you say? Thalia: Life-changing. You are making a difference to the career and personal trajectory of a person’s life and you are empowering that journey. Ben: Rewarding. You can contribute to changing somebody’s life and, at the very least, you are giving something back to someone who wants to grasp this opportunity.
And to a student? Thalia: This is a journey of self-discovery and being more employable by connecting to a person in industry who is committed to your success. Ben: When else are you going to have the opportunity to have a professional who is personally interested in your future and your success for six months? It’s an opportunity not to be missed.
What has impressed you the most about your mentor? Zakyia: The things that impressed me most about Helen was that she was very friendly and welcoming. From the first meeting she made me feel very comfortable as I was quite nervous and didn’t really know what to expect. Helen was always prepared for the meetings and gave me tips that increased my confidence and made me think I could aspire to higher things.
What have you learned about yourself through the process? Zakyia: I have learnt that I am a more confident person than I thought. I was also able to explore what options I have and by speaking to someone else who is in a job they enjoy, I was able to see the possibilities of what I could have as a graduate.
What drives you to be a professional mentor? Helen: I was very impressed by the scheme and wanted to be part of the initiative. I felt that I could offer support to students who would benefit from having a chance to develop their confidence and professional skills.
Has being mentored developed you as expected or in a different way?
What is the most rewarding element of being a mentor?
Zakyia: Being mentored has exceeded my expectations. The aspect I enjoyed the most was that Helen was able to boost my confidence. I am glad I applied for the mentoring scheme and met Helen as it has really helped me.
Helen: It is very rewarding to see your mentee grow in confidence and selfassurance during the mentoring process. By sharing tips and advice gained from my professional experience, they have told me that they have felt better equipped for their future working lives.
How have you felt about this experience? Zakyia: I have loved this experience and would recommend it to everyone, especially if someone is not very confident. Also for someone like me it was good as there was someone to motivate me to search for jobs and most importantly focus on my interests and what I enjoy doing.
What impact are you looking to make by mentoring? Helen: To help our graduates make the transition from their academic to professional lives. Hearing about your mentees ambitions, helping them set goals for themselves and reviewing their progress with them is a great way to make a positive impact on their progress.
Collaborating with local partners
Patrice: At Islington Council my work is focused on helping young people develop their skills, access good career guidance and raise awareness of local apprenticeship opportunities. We are trying to improve opportunities for our residents and have a commitment to creating a ‘Fairer Islington’. Fairer Islington has a wide set of objectives and Careers Cluster is one of the many ways we are trying to address unemployment, working in partnership with other organisations.
Widening Participation Outreach team The Widening Participation Outreach team delivers a range of initiatives to our Widening Participation learners across London. Despite our small team size we have impacted on nearly 5,000 young people, mature students and parents throughout the year. In order to achieve this reach and to maintain the high quality of our programmes, collaboration and partnership are central to our work. In late 2016/17, City was cited in the recent Outstanding Ofsted report for Hugh Myddelton Primary School for our innovative and integrated approach to delivering Widening Participation programmes to young learners. This year, by working closely with primary school teachers and our academic departments, young children from local schools have had the opportunity to spend time at City, learning about what higher education means. They have taken part in a range of challenging and engaging interactive workshops delivered by our academics both on campus and in their schools and have been tutored by City students to improve their literacy and numeracy. City has also been part of the Hackney Extension Programme, an award winning initiative coordinated through Bsix College, that enables Sixth form students from across Hackney to spend four weeks coming
to City after college to take part in workshops covering all the Nursing disciplines, Speech and Language Therapy and Psychology as well as a series of mock interviews to prepare them for HEI selection days. These opportunities provide Widening Participation learners with exactly the kind of insight, knowledge and experience they need to make confident decisions about their future. This year the team has worked with a Panel of academics and professional service colleagues from across City, as well as with people external to the sector, to review our provision and make it even better in the coming years.
Can you tell us about your organisation and what it aims to achieve?
Tom Trower, Widening Participation Projects Officer and Patrice Buddington, Careers Cluster Project Manager at Islington Council spoke to Becky Price about how the Widening Participation Outreach team works with local schools.
How does this align with Widening Participation Outreach at City, University of London? Tom: Our Widening Participation framework focuses on increasing awareness to higher education, raising aspirations and raising attainment to meet the standards of what is needed to attend a university. We also aim to raise social capital within our students, creating and expanding social networks. These aims align closely to what Patrice mentions about ‘Fairer Islington’.
What have you achieved by working together?
Tom: I am currently organising an engineering focused day with the help of Patrice’s colleague Prince. The Careers Cluster is able to identify students for us and we are able to put on an event using the expertise that City has for engineering. We will have those students with us for the day on campus doing engineering specific activities. We will also be able to introduce them to how to finance university, what being a student entails and give them a general feel of what life at university is actually like.
What do you see for the future of the relationship between Islington Council and City? Patrice: We hope that it remains a strong partnership and that our joint initiatives will help our young people see the Council and universities as accessible. We want to empower our younger residents with information and the confidence to pursue a fulfilling pathway into employment, training or education. Tom: Continuing to work in partnership means being able to support communities and school students beyond this year. The way that Widening Participation works is longitudinal; the longer we are doing something the more beneficial it is.
Patrice: I think it has been really good to work with City. We have realised that the Widening Participation team might be able to help with activities that the Council is currently planning - as you have expertise and we have expertise, by pulling these together we can hopefully make more of an impact.
11
Working together on our strategic future
staff, professional service staff and the Students’ Union.
Ensuring that we are able to respond to changes in the internal and external environment forms a key part of the work of Student and Academic Services. This includes working in partnership with the Executive team and Council on the development of the Education and Student Strategy and institutional quality and standards reporting, as well as adapting our organisational set-up within the Directorate to meet new demands.
Emily: The Education and Student Strategy is the way in which City has decided to manage its response to the TEF. The Strategy is the way to ensure we meet our KPIs in the Vision and Strategy 2026. In the Education and Student Strategy we have performance indicators which will help us to achieve those academic KPIs and in doing so, assuming we meet the KPIs, the TEF will take care of itself. There are some really important aspects, new to our Education and Student Strategy, around our academic colleagues and ensuring they are able to deliver really excellent quality teaching, a dimension that hasn’t necessarily had the focus it now has in the Strategy.
Education & Student Strategy and the Teaching Excellence Framework
Maggie: The simple answer is adding progression into that mix. We want every student to be supported to succeed which is why progression is so important.
The revised Education and Student Strategy was approved by Council in July 2017. Alongside this, City also participated in the first national Teaching Excellence Framework.
David: We also want to move to a position where we are sure our student voice activity is amongst the best. We will do more with colleagues to ensure our students’ experience is improved and making the offer distinctive to our students - both the attractiveness of the offer but also what the offer means in terms of student support, particularly to support progression.
Professor David Bolton, Deputy President and Provost, Megan Butler, Education and Student Strategy Coordinator, Maggie Cunningham, Head of Student Experience and Engagement and Emily Thornton, Policy Analyst (TEF/Quality) spoke to Louise Woodward about these developments.
City is well known for its student employability and increasingly for student satisfaction. What does the Education and Student Strategy aim to do next in relation to the student experience of the future? 12
Tell us about the roles you took in developing the Strategy document? Maggie: David set the vision, direction and approach. The job of my team was to then draft the strategy, interpreting the contribution of colleagues from across City and bring it all together for approval. David: Yes, the goal I set was one of building upon the strategic themes we had already developed and associating those with the three KPIs of
How does the Education and Student Strategy link with the Teaching Excellence Framework?
student experience, employability and progression, whilst also trying to keep things simple.
David, tell us a bit more about how the working relationship operates with colleagues in Student and Academic Services who work on strategic matters? David: There are two aspects to this. One is as Maggie described, supporting the strategic thinking plus how best to describe it and draw up the implementation plans. The other aspect is that I expect Maggie and colleagues to talk to other academics, in particular Deans and Associate Deans to figure out what is going on from their perspective, so we remain closely tied together.
What do you plan to do next to engage and support staff across City in the implementation of the Strategy? Megan: We are redesigning the Education and Student Strategy website. This will have information about the projects in the implementation plan, who is responsible and the next steps. This will be visual to help people put faces to names so there will be photos of committees, project leads and key stakeholders. We also plan to do tailored road shows with academic
David: Couldn’t have put it better myself.
What do you think the greatest challenges will be for City to embed the Education and Student Strategy and the TEF and how will you approach these? David: The greatest challenge is having enough people across the institution understand that these are the goals and the strategy is the means to achieve them and that the goals directly relate to the TEF. Emily: Another big challenge is the uncertainty in the external regulatory framework. We don’t really know what will happen in terms of Government policy. I think that is why it is so important we have a strong, clear Vision and
Strategy and now Education and Student Strategy to help us move forward in uncertain times. David: That’s right. Although there are uncertainties, it would be hard to imagine a university, let alone a framework developed nationally, not concentrating on these three KPIs in some form or another.
What do you hope to have achieved by the start of the 2018/19 academic year? David: A few milestones we feel are really important are (1) having a defined approach and plan to implement student attendance and participation, (2) continuing the work of the various employability projects and (3) commence some intensive work on assessment feedback strategies in each School. Emily: Also, something that will help future TEF submissions and what we should increasingly do is making sure we evaluate and measure the impact of everything we are doing, including sharing best practice. There is an awful lot of good stuff happening across Schools that we don’t always know is happening or are evaluating in the best way.
123,784 module evaluation forms administered
Responding to the new arrangements for quality assessment The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) introduced revised arrangements for 2016/17 for monitoring the processes that universities have in place to assure and enhance the quality of their programmes are effective. Under the revised method, Council, as our governing body, must take a new responsibility in providing an annual assurance statement to HEFCE. The Quality and Academic Development (QUAD) department took the lead on this new requirement, working closely with the College Secretary, Dr William Jordan, who is Secretary to both Senate and Council and his team. In undertaking this work, we met with Council in May and following refinement of the template to address the feedback received, Council signed off on the approach in July 2017. The Chair of Council, Rob Woodward said, “The past year has offered Council a great opportunity to learn more about some of the fundamental processes of City. We are now all very much looking forward to seeing
the first annual report from QUAD at our meeting in November.” William Jordan said, “I have really enjoyed working closely with Alison and her team over the last 12 months. It is very rewarding to see our work together on the effectiveness of Senate bearing fruit.”
Student Administration and Registry Services
Confirmation and Clearing
Working strategically with Programme Directors In support of the Education & Student Strategy and sharing good practice, colleagues work with Associate Deans for Education to ensure Programme Directors are supported. The Programme Directors Forum is jointly facilitated by the Deputy President and Provost, Student and Academic Services and Learning Enhancement and Development. The forum meets three times a year and within the last year has discussed the Teaching Excellence Framework, student feedback, Higher Education Academic Fellowships and the RISES (Recognising Individual Staff Education Status) Programme. In response to feedback, we also introduced Annual Programme Evaluation workshops to support new Programme Directors in this activity and provide an opportunity for group discussions about common issues and best practice.
have led several initiatives that support our institutional position and profile:
The Department of Student Administration & Registry Services was newly created within Student and Academic Services in June 2017. A new Associate Director, James Birkett was appointed to lead this area, joining City from the University of Surrey where he was Head of Student Administration. This department has been created to provide a much clearer hub of activity that consolidates student administration functions, thereby better supporting future student experience and provide improved oversight of systems and processes. There are five teams with in the department: Undergraduate Admissions, Tier 4 Visa Compliance, Student Centre, Student Health Service and Academic Operations which include student records, student systems, exams and graduation. Staff work closely with colleagues both inside and outside the directorate, including the 200+ professional services staff managing day to day operations in Schools. This year teams within Student Administration & Registry Services
Around 1,400 offers were made in the days immediately after A-level results day. The operation, project managed by Chris Clements, involved meticulous planning and close collaboration including with Schools, IT, Marketing and Communications, Property and Facilities and various teams in Student and Academic Services to ensure a successful operation. Over 200 staff and student ambassadors managed the phone lines from 7.30am in an intense period of activity, with almost 7,000 calls being received on A-level results day alone. The volume of calls received but not answered fell from 16% in 2016 to 6% in 2017.
UKVI Tier 4 compliance The Visa Compliance team, led by Jelena Culum, develop and manage City’s compliance framework. The Tier 4 Champions Group comprises representation from across City and has implemented several changes over the year, including the improved attendance policy for Tier 4 students. We received our Basic
Compliance Assessment from UKVI and our sponsorship licence has been renewed. Through the group and particularly through the commitment of Polly Penter’s International Student Advice team in the Student Centre, City’s visa refusal rate (a key indicator of City’s compliance) has fallen from 3.17% to 1.69%. The sector average is 2.9%. This has been a significant collaborative effort.
Unistats Unistats is the official website for comparing UK higher education undergraduate course data. Applicants can compare multiple institutions so they can make informed decisions about which institutions to select based on a number of items of data. The Student Systems & Data Quality team, led by Gregory Wellington, work with colleagues across City; with Schools to ensure that the correct courses and all of the broad range of data attributes and accreditation are submitted; with Marketing and Communications to provide information to be displayed on City courses webpages; and with other Student and Academic Services teams, notably Admissions, to ensure that the Unistats data is up to date and reflects programmes being offered through UCAS and Quality & Academic Development to ensure accuracy of published programme information.
13
Moving in and around Student and Academic Services To support our strategic development, this year our collective skill-set continued to evolve as we gained a range of expertise from colleagues new to higher education and from other parts of the higher education sector. We are also very pleased to support new opportunities for existing City staff who have moved into new roles within Student and Academic Services or colleagues moving into our Directorate from other parts of City. Colleagues new to higher education roles Nasima Ali Student Health Service Receptionist/Administrator Previously worked at a Health Centre in Earls Court as an Administrator Richard Amankwah Recreation Assistant Previously worked at Lee Valley Leisure as a Recreation Assistant Ben Copsey Widening Participation Project Officer Previously worked at Peace Pledge Union as a Project Manager Sakinah Drief Careers Information Assistant Previously worked for a housing association
14
Charlie Fitzpatrick
Enrica Palladino Student Adviser Previously studied at City, University of London and was a Unitemp Falguni Patel Directorate Operations Assistant Previously worked at William Hill as a Duty Manager
James Birkett
“Thanks to City I have completely changed my approach to work. I now receive a lot of support from colleagues and my professional and personal development are a core part of my day-to-day activities. City is an intellectually stimulating and rewarding environment that values key skills development whilst encouraging a good work/life balance.� Enrica Palladino
Associate Director (Student Administration & Registry Services) Previously worked at University of Surrey as Head of Student Administration Jelena Culum Visa Compliance Manager Previously worked at the University of Law as Head of International Visa Office Sophie Cutforth
Colleagues new to City from other higher education institutions
Student Experience Administrator (Cases) Previously worked at Roehampton University as a Student Welfare Officer
Yewande Akindele
Lucy Dawkins Academic Development and Quality Officer Previously worked at Loughborough University as an Administrative Officer (British University in Egypt)
Employer Engagement Events and Administration Assistant Previously worked at Family Mosaic as a Health and Wellbeing Worker
Kay Shah
Aimilia Kolia-Vasilli
Trudy Ann Shirley
City Support Advisor Previously worked at Harvey Nicholls as a Visual Branding Specialist
Recreation Assistant Previously worked at Colombo Leisure Centre as a Recreation Assistant/Duty Manager
Compliance Manager (Prevent and CMA) Previously worked at Brunel University as a Student Equality & Diversity Manager and Prevent Lead
Liza Kyprian
Jodie Standish
Bodrul Amin
Russell Goodinson
City Support Advisor Previously worked at John Lewis as a Sales Assistant
City Fitness Instructor Previously worked at The Lion King Musical as a Backstage Crew Member
Graduate Survey Administrator Previously worked at Eastman Dental Institute, UCL as Academic Support and Quality Officer
Recruitment Co-ordinator Previously worked at Unitemps Warwick as a Recruitment Administrator
Rosie Wainwright
Caroline Ashava
Jason Haines
Projects Assistant Previously worked at City as a Widening Participation Ambassador when she studied Law
Quality and Standards Officer Previously worked at University of East London as a School Registrar
Student Experience Officer Previously worked at Kaplan International College London as a Student Services Manager
Louise Wessen
Employer Engagement Adviser Previously worked at Leiden University (Netherlands) as a Careers Counsellor
Hannah Nambooze Careers Information Assistant Previously worked for a professional training provider Samuel Oyedepo City PT Fitness Instructor Previously worked at Muscle Works as a Fitness Instructor
Recruitment Manager Previously worked at Advinia Healthcare as a Recruitment Manager
Project Manager (Modernising Administration for Students) Previously worked at MACK Ltd as a Project Management Office Lead
Satya Autar
Vicky Li International Student Adviser Previously worked at the University of Hertfordshire as an International Student Advisor Mandeep Plaha Business Process and Change Analyst Previously worked at University of Arts London as a Business Analyst Alex Rhys Development Coordinator (TEF/ Quality) Studying for a doctoral degree at Queen Mary University of London and previously worked at University of Bath Students’ Union as an Education Officer Paul Scoines Recreation Assistant Previously worked at London Met University as a Sports Science Technician Bindu Shah Senior Visa Compliance Officer Previously worked at the Queen Mary, University of London Beth Taswell Care Leaver Support Officer Previously worked at Kingston University as a Student Ambassador Emily Thornton Policy Analyst (TEF/Quality) Previously worked at Kingston University as Faculty Assistant Registrar (Quality Assurance and Enhancement)
Tom Trower Widening Participation Project Officer Previously worked at University of New South Wales, Sydney as Project Officer Widening Participation Conchi Vera-Valderrama Student Records Administrator Previously worked at the Institute of Education as a Programme Administrator
“Coming from a university abroad, City and Student and Academic Services in particular, have given me a warm welcome. A complete induction training combined with the assistance and information given by friendly and passionate colleagues have secured a smooth transition. I describe the working culture of Student and Academic Services as open, transparent and efficient.” Satya Autar
Colleagues moving to Student and Academic Services from other parts of City Samuel Adams Project Support and Communications Officer Previously worked in the School of Health Sciences as a Course Officer for Research
Malgo Chrzan Quality and Standards Officer Previously worked in the School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering as a Course Officer Laoise Hill Micro-Placements Programme Assistant (Unitemp) BSc. Business Studies graduate (2017) from City, University of London (Cass Business School) Katherine Lapinid Employer Engagement Adviser Previously worked in the International Office as a Study Abroad Officer Carrie O’Halloran Data Reporting Officer in Academic Operations Previously worked the School of Health Sciences as Senior Analyst Alison Peach Validation and Partnerships Manager Previously worked in the School of Arts and Social Sciences as a Course Officer Miriam Styrnol Data and Policy Analyst Previously worked in the School of Arts and Social Sciences as a Course Officer
Ksenija Kotova
“I’ve moved from SASS to the “other” S&AS in February 2017. Even though it’s only been a move within City I soon realised that there is much more to Professional Services than the occasional regulatory update that I used to receive in a School. While my work within the Student Experience and Engagement Department (SEED) is no longer student-facing, it still has students at the very core of its work.” Miriam Styrnol
Professional Mentoring Officer Previously worked as Information Assistant in Careers Becky Price Directorate Operations Administrator Previously worked as Receptionist/ Administrator in Student Health Service Lucyna Tomaka Senior Student Adviser Previously worked as Student Adviser Team Leader Louise Woodward
Colleagues moving to different roles in Student and Academic Services
Directorate Operations and Projects Manager Previously worked as Executive Assistant
Megan Butler Education and Student Strategy Coordinator Previously worked as Student Experience Officer (Policy and Strategy) Sam Harris-Jones Employer Engagement Adviser Previously worked as Student Records Administrator Kamrul Hussain Senior Accommodation Coordinator Previously worked as Student Records Administrator Alison Jacobs Student Centre Manager Previously worked as Senior Student Adviser and Deputy Head of Student Centre
“After working in the Student Health Service within Student and Academic Services for little under three years I was really happy to see another opportunity come up still within Student and Academic Services. I really wanted to develop my career within administration. I love working here and I feel like since I started in June 2014 the Directorate has become a much closer knit department. If you are looking for a team to welcome you into the office every day and support you through everything you do then Student and Academic Services is the one for you.” Becky Price
15
Working with each other
Within the last year we have introduced a new starter induction checklist and a Student and Academic Services tour. How has this benefited your induction to your team and Student and Academic Services? Alex: The checklist worked really well. The three-hour face-to-face training sessions on Equality and Diversity and Harassment, which you think could be long and tedious, were also actually really good. Carrie: I liked the meeting with Susannah and that this was very soon after I started. When she came into the kitchen while we were both making drinks, she already knew who I was and it was easy to chat to her, something which may have been more difficult had we not had the meeting.
This year we have developed a new approach to induction to support colleagues joining the Directorate. Damien Frettsome, Carrie O’Halloran, Samuel Adams, Jason Haines, Alex Rhys, and Rosie Wainwright caught up with Louise Woodward about joining Student and Academic Services and City overall.
Alex: The blog helps with exposure to the whole Directorate and being able to learn about other colleagues’ achievements. Another good thing is the weekly emails received from Susannah on the Senior Leadership team meetings.
What have you enjoyed most about working in Student and Academic Services and at City since you joined?
Rosie: My manager and people in my team encourage me to develop myself.
Jason: The way it is structured, from the induction to the social events and everything else. There is very much an emphasis on getting to know each other and working together as a team.
Damien: Same in my team. All the training has helped me settle in and be comfortable with the systems at City.
16
Jason: Susannah’s open door policy helps as well. Even though she may be your boss’ boss’ boss, I don’t think she wants to have that removed feeling and that makes the difference.
We have four cross-team committees in Student and Academic Services – the Social Committee, Working Environment Committee, Professional Development Committee and Sustainability Leaders. Have any of you been involved in the work of any of these committees? Carrie: I was really pleased there was a Professional Development Committee because it is something I am really interested in. It really helped me meet people from teams I wouldn’t normally get to work with.
Alex: I am a Blog Champion and I’ve also become involved with the Sustainability Leaders.
What other cross-team or crossdepartment collaborative work have you been involved in so far and what’s been the impact of working with other colleagues outside your immediate team? Jason: My work on the Transgender, Intersex and Gender Non-Conforming People Policy has included people from the Schools and our Directorate, Counselling & Mental Health and Learning Enhancement & Development. It has been great for networking and relationship building but primarily it has been good to get different perspectives on things. Alex: I work with Emily Thornton who is in a different team and our current project involves almost every department, pulling together the new quality report for Council.
Within the Directorate and across City there are shared activities giving staff the opportunity to volunteer. Have you participated in any of these and how did it help to develop you and build a sense of community? Jason: Alex and I have been described as the dream team of Graduation. I also helped out at Clearing, supervising a SHS team of call handlers. This was good seeing the other side of the student journey to graduation and seeing the student temps, who were fantastic and an asset to City.
Alex: It’s nice to work with other teams, such as Students Records for Graduation. I also co-led a session at the Directorate DataFest meeting which was good fun and informative to staff. Samuel: I feel like Louise and I have formed a super team when it comes to Directorate activity whether it relates to supporting you with Operations Board, The City Graduate School or assisting you with anything else you’ve popped up with that you need help with.
How do you find working at City in comparison to where you worked before? Jason: The focus on personal welfare and wellbeing is really strong. They go above and beyond and it makes a big difference. Rosie: My background is corporate in an asset management company in New York so it is completely different. Being allowed to chat during the day to your colleagues or putting a smiley face on an email just wasn’t allowed in my old job. It’s really nice here. Samuel: Before City I worked in the NHS dealing with private patients. It is a completely different world. There wasn’t a great sense of support for staff. I had a great manager which made a difference, but it was a world away from here which is so much better.
Impact of the Student and Academic Services cross-team committees Professional Development Committee The Professional Development Committee’s purpose is to gain a better understanding of the professional development needs of colleagues from across Student and Academic Services and, in collaboration with the Organisational Development team of HR, to generate actions that will support these needs.
Sustainability Leaders
Social Committee
The Sustainability Leaders act as the green champions, provide inductions , run extra-mile projects and promote the monthly Sustainable City Challenges.
The Social Committee is co-chaired by two members of the Directorate and has membership from every team. It creates events that support the social cohesion of the overall Directorate, taking into account the diversity of our staff community.
“The formation of the Environmental Avengers this year increased our visibility and really encouraged the whole of the Directorate to get behind our green initiatives with great success.” Nana Amoako
“The committee has had a busy first year. We have compared and contrasted the training needs of teams, looked at collaboration with the wider University of London and reviewed the membership of various professional networks. Perhaps, most significantly, the committee introduced a job shadowing scheme within the Directorate which has been used to great effect.”
Implemented sustainability inductions to new starters.
Outputs
Improved air quality from more plants growing in our offices.
Mark Smith
Outputs
Used up old City logo merchandise first. Switched to non-bleached paper in our offices.
Provision of career management skills webinars for staff.
Reduced our carbon footprint by ordering stationery once per week.
Implemented the Student and Academic Services job shadowing scheme.
Started Friends of Northampton Square gardening with Marketing and Communications. Created the Environmental Avengers identity to increase engagement. Increased recycling and reusing awareness and implemented this into Directorate social events.
Over the last year we have run four very different social events including a bake-off, a treasure hunt and a sports day. We’ve had other departments contacting us about them to replicate for their department social events as they have been a huge success within Student and Academic Services. Being a large directorate, these events are a great opportunity to mix with other teams and get to know each other better. “Team work makes the dream work.” Kaisa Proos
Working Environmen Committee The Working Environment Committee is co-chaired by two members of the Directorate and has membership from every team. Its purpose is to work collaboratively in generating initiatives and actions that support a positive working environment. “The Committee has worked hard over the past year on discussing and where appropriate addressing issues around staff welfare, the physical environment in which we work, the staff survey and Student and Academic Services inductions. We have sought to ensure that Student and Academic Services has a positive working environment of which we can be proud and of which other parts of City would be envious.” Gregory Wellington
Outputs Outputs
Caketails social in November 2016. Christmas Buffet Party Extravaganza social in December 2016. MonopAARly Treasure Hunt social in March 2017. Sports Day social in June 2017
New and improved staff induction in Student and Academic Services. Closer links with Organisational Development – involved in City’s new staff induction. Analysing and discussing staff survey results and plans. Regular liaison with the Director of Student and Academic Services on pressing issues.
Formation of the Directorate Operations team and its impact on staff engagement In January 2017, following re-organisation, the newly structured and named Directorate Operations team was created comprising Louise Woodward (right), Becky Price (left) and Falguni Patel. The team supports activities across our six-site Directorate ranging from day-to-day administration, specific support for The City Graduate School and Chaplaincy and Faith Advisory team activities, support for numerous committees and working groups and supporting Directorate or institutionwide projects. The team also plays a lead role in supporting all our staff engagement initiatives as well as coordinating the City-wide WOW! Awards. A particular achievement over the last year has been the development of the Student and Academic Services Blog with the help of Olivia Fox from Learning Enhancement and Development. The launch of the staff profiles helps put names to faces and lists what we each do – a key component to the job shadowing scheme. Every part of the Directorate engages with the blog with 84% of those who view the summary digest email clicking on articles to read further. Over the last year, colleagues have posted 261 articles and viewed pages on the blog 24,517 times. Lucy Tomaka, Senior Student Adviser says, “The Student and Academic Services blog is a great source of information about the Directorate. I’m always keen to read the articles my colleagues post as they allow me to get to know them better and I always learn something new.”
Distributed unused stationery to other offices that needed it 17
Staff achievements Supporting the broader City community in difficult times Recent months have been extremely challenging for the broader London community. We have witnessed several hateful attacks in public spaces, the grievous fire that consumed Grenfell Tower and subsequent evacuations of similar high-rise buildings due to longstanding safety issues which had for a range of reasons not been addressed. One positive development has been that City has taken a more active role in the community through a rapid modernisation of our staff volunteering allowance to empower colleagues, not only in times of crisis but throughout the year. Student and Academic Services spearheaded this process in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, encouraging colleagues across the Directorate to make use of their volunteering leave to assist in Kensington and particularly in Camden at Chalcots Estate, where ultimately around thirty colleagues assisted with re-housing vulnerable residents. At the period of greatest urgency and coordinated by Ben Robinson, Community Volunteering Officer, we had rotating teams of up to eight City colleagues working round the clock 18
and through the weekend assisting local organisers and providing support to the displaced residents. Student and Academic Services was represented strongly in efforts, with the Community Volunteering Service coordinating our response with local organisers, council representatives and colleagues from across the institution.
City award ceremonies hosted by our teams • Widening Participation Outreach awards were held on 25th May for young people, local schools, staff and students • Unitemps held its inaugural awards on 7th June to recognise high performing temps and recruiting managers • Sports and Leisure Services held the Sports Awards at the Emirates Stadium on 2nd June.
Sustainable City Challenge 2016/17 awards
On Thursday 1st June, the following colleagues won Carrot Awards awarded by the Students’ Union for outstanding work in supporting the student experience: • Julie Haggar, Sport and Leisure Services and Ksenija Kotova, Student Experience & Engagement each won bronze awards • Thalia Anagnostopoulou, Student Experience & Engagement won a silver award • Shereen Sally, Student Experience & Engagement won a gold award.
Louise Woodward, Becky Price, Falguni Patel, Ben Robinson, Nana Amoako, Esha Rupani, Emma Price, Rebecca Kelly, Kay Shah and formerly Mariah Loukou and Jo Short (who have now moved to Research and Enterprise) created the Student and Academic Services Environmental Avengers team to lead sustainability initiatives across Student and Academic Services. Their efforts were recognised at the Sustainable City Challenge 2016/17 Awards, winning: • Platinum Award (second overall at City) • Most Improved Team • Extra Mile Project of the Year (On Your Bike project organised by Jo Short) • Extra Mile Project Highly Commended (Friends of Northampton Square organised by Ben Robinson, Student Experience and Engagement, Student and Academic Services and Nicola Ranson, Marketing and Communications).
President’s Awards Collaborative winners: Academic Operations (led by Emma Boylan with specific work by Gregory Wellington and Carrie O’Halloran) were part of the winning collaborative team that supported work to raise £60M through private placement. Employer Engagement team (led by Mona Vadher) co-won the award in the Outstanding Engagement with Business and the Professions category for their collaborative work on City’s inaugural Social Enterprise Festival, organised in conjunction with the Enterprise Education team.
Shortlisted: • Best Collaborative Project between a School and a Professional Service – Dr Ian Daniell (Cass) and Amy Townsend and Rashida Ahmad (Careers Service) • Outstanding Personal Achievement, Chris Barnes (Student Health Service) • Professional Services Project of the Year – The Clearing team (Admissions) • Team of the Year – Careers Service • Outstanding Support for Students – Helen Fitch (QUAD). The ceremony also celebrated staff that have been working at City for 25 years with a Long Service Award. One of those recipients was Dale Robertson from Sport and Leisure Services.
National awards • Times Higher Leadership & Management Awards – Winners of the Alumni Engagement category: City’s Professional Mentoring scheme • Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Service – Winners of the Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Award: Social Enterprise Festival (in collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London and City’s Enterprise Education team) • Unitemps (City branch) – Winner of newcomer of the Year: Kay Shah (Branch Manager at City) and recognised for reaching £10M turnover since opening in 2012.
Sector conference presentations • Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) in September 2016: Employer Engagement team delivered two workshops – Data and partnerships between HEIs and Employers to secure a return on investment which was co-delivered with an employer, FDM and Bridging the academic engagement gap, co-delivered with Dr David Seymour from The City Law School • Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) conference in September 2016 and the Society for Research into High Education (SRHE) conference in November 2016: The Employer Engagement team’s MicroPlacement Programme pilot was successfully disseminated across two conference platforms. The topic of discussion will be looking at pedagogies around Employability, Enterprise and Work-based Learning • Insight for Employability Conference in May 2017: Brenda Welch presented on careers registration as a measure of learning gain
• Churchill College, Cambridge February 2017: Chris Barnes ran a safeguarding workshop for 20 nurses from various Cambridge Colleges. On a separate occasion she also ran a National Stop smoking day event • Inside Government “Increasing the Employment Prospects of UK Graduates.” In May 2017: Mona Vadher presented on the panel alongside a variety of guest speakers including Doug Cole, Head of Academic Practice, HEA, Nicola Turner MBE, Head of Skills, HEFCE and Dan Cook, Head of Data Policy and Development, HESA • Miskolc 2017 EUSA in July 2017: Bill Thompson presented as Chair of the European Universities Basketball Championships.
Higher Education Business Analyst forum (HE BA forum) The national HE Business Analyst forum was established in February 2017 by Melanie Sanderson, MAfS Programme Manager. This sectorleading initiative provides Business Analysts with the opportunity to share skills, experiences, tools and techniques. There are currently 34 potential members on the group (including the MAfS team) with more interest being generated as time passes. Members come from 15 institutions including UCL, Kent, Bristol, UAL and Leicester. To date the forum has achieved the following outputs: • BA community of best practice specifically looking at working in an ever-changing HE landscape • Lessons learned from similar projects • Stakeholder management techniques • Requirements gathering exercises • Networking • Mentoring network for new and existing business analysts • SXJM (student experience journey mapping) with Oracle.
19
Current staff 2017/18 Director Susannah Marsden Careers Service (Gemma Kenyon, Head of Careers Service) Bodrul Amin
Directorate Operations (Louise Woodward, Directorate Operations and Projects Manager) Falguni Patel Becky Price
David Gilchrist
Quality and Academic Development (Alison Edridge, Assistant Director (Quality and Academic Development)) Yewande Akindele
Russell Goodinson
Richard Alderman
Marlon Gray
Caroline Ashava
Sam Harris-Jones
Malgo Chrzan
Agnieszka Jakubas
Lucy Dawkins
Katherine Lapinid
Helen Fitch
Wiktor Lewandowski
Alison Peach
Constance Marcell
Alexander Rhys
Satya Autar Estanis Bouza Antonia Clark Sakinah Drief Charlotte Fitzpatrick
Hannah Nambooze Devlin Kaur Nangpal Neela Nawathe Taimaz Ranjbaran Stefan Rankov Kay Shah Amy Townsend Mona Vadher Brenda Welch
Modernising Administration for Students (Melanie Sanderson, Programme Manager) Samuel Adams Christopher Clements Eleanor Cornfield Benjamin Draper Mandeep Plaha Mark Smith Louise Wessen
20
Student Administration and Registry Services (James Birkett, Associate Director (Student Administration and Registry Services)) Rahilah Ahmed
Polly Penter
Damien Frettsome
Aimilia Kolia-Vasili
Ozer Direncay
Max Plotnek
Jason Haines
Liza Kyprian
Yasmine Dong
Christine Rajah
Sharmin Kamaly
Michael Law
Sarah Gardner
Esha Rupani
Ksenija Kotova
Nickolas Lee-Moore
Megan Gerrie
Bindu Shah
William Power
Yetunde Ogunnaike
Laoise Hill
Marwa Sharif
Ben Robinson
Samuel Oyedepo
Zain Ismail
Nasima Ali
Sheridan Stephens
Shereen Sally
Lynsey Parkins
Roma Khatun
Waqas Ali
Inez Sterling
Andy Smith
Emma Price
Oksana Kostiuk
Nana Amoako
Christopher Stone
Miriam Styrnol
Kaisa Proos
Mariah Loukou
Chris Barnes
Claire Taverner
Beth Taswell
Ateeq Rashid
Anita Machnicka
Emma Bey-Asenguah
Lucy Tomaka
Emily Thornton
Dale Robertson
Lortoria McDonald
Emma Boylan
Conchi Vera Valderrama
Tom Trower
Paul Scoines
Mary Mullarkey
Richard Broom
Gregory Wellington
Rosie Wainwright
Trudy-Ann Shirley
Damian Mullins
Sarah Wood
Jodie Standish
Sharon Page
Ian Worsfold
Reza Tareen
Michelle Preston
Phillipa Weaver-Smith
Abdullah Rahman
Natalie White
Lauren Redfern
Georgia Whittle
Jai Shah
Sara Wilkie
Georgia Skupinski
Beverley Bryan
Pritha Dhir
Student Experience and Engagement (Maggie Cunningham, Head of Student Experience and Engagement) Musa Admani
Clarissa Fennell
David Allen
Saidhath Gafoor
Thalia Anagnostopoulou
Alan Gelfer
Andrew Baughan
Sport and Leisure Services, Student Experience and Engagement (Bill Thompson, Head of Sport and Leisure Services) Ewart Allie Thompson
Geoffrey Harrison
Michael Bennett
Richard Amankwah
Kamrul Hussain
Nerida Booth
Stevland Angus
Alison Jacobs
Gavin Broder
Tyrell Austin
Goran Kovanovic
Ben Butler
Virginia Brown
Vicky Li
Megan Butler
Courtney Bygraves
Carrie O’Halloran
Ben Copsey
Monalisa Dhar
Enrica Palladino
Catherine Cruz
Julie Haggar
Ernestina Palm
Sophie Cutforth
Jennifer Hughes
Keith Pearson
Melis Duruturk
Rebecca Kelly
Hayley Casanovas Maria Coelho Jo Coward Daniel Cox Jelena Culum
Alistair Stewart With thanks to colleagues who left the Directorate Malikeh Ahmad Asra Ahmed Rashida Ahmad Sarah Aramide Anthony ClimpsonStewart Sarah Cook Issy Cooke David Coronado Jonny Dawson
Georgia Tobin Michael Tran Fiona Whitehead
Student and Academic Services facts and figures
3,210 EC forms submitted via e:Vision between go live and 31st July 2017 saving 12,840 sheets of A4 as well as significant staff time.
73,399 candidatures across 1,600 exams
1,190 UG, 1,442 PG and 189 returning student accommodation applications to be allocated rooms in Halls of Residence
25,098 student records reported on by the HESA return resulting in HEFCE giving City ÂŁ8.8M
657 applications to volunteer with charities and community groups across London
20 training sessions on Tier 4 compliance delivered to staff
2,984 module evaluation packs requested and produced
31 assessment boards sampled on behalf of Senate 25 points earned through completion of 5 sustainability extra mile projects.
732 nurse consultations 1,154 students had a professional mentor 219 Appeal forms submitted via e:Vision between go-live and 31st July 2017 saving 1,971 sheets of A4 as well as significant staff time.
25,530 applications received by City in the 2017 cycle
200+ staff attended Tier 4 compliance training sessions
75 members of S&AS participated in the sustainability travel survey
2,000+ hours of tutoring in local schools and colleges by City students
4,246 students graduated across 12 graduation ceremonies
92 S&AS staff attended Develop@City day 2017 109 admin staff trained to sign off CASs
258 visa applications checked and sent off to the Home Office
772 students recruited through Clearing
25,098 student records reported on in The HESA return.
225 programme amendments processed
335 Hardship Fund applications
1,378 offers made on the Clearing web form
6,885 current students engaged with the Careers Service’s online portal
72% of S&AS staff participated at least once in Sustainable City Challenge events (compared to 15% last year)
?
26 job shadowing applications received
51 51 points received from the Sustainable City Challenge (compared to 0 last year)
70 distinct courses returned to HESA for the Unistats Return
3,019 Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) issued Visa Refusal rate reduced from 3.17% in 2016 to 1.64% in 2017
50+ staff across City benefited from careers webinars for staff
21
Student and Academic Services City, University of London Northampton Square London EC1V 0HB United Kingdom
Email enquiries sas.operations@city.ac.uk
Telephone enquiries +44 (0) 20 7040 3607
City, University of London is an independent member institution of the University of London. Established by Royal Charter in 1836, the University of London consists of 18 independent member institutions with outstanding global reputations and several prestigious central academic bodies and activities.
www.city.ac.uk 22
Find out more, visit www.city.ac.uk/students www.city.ac.uk/sas