After more than a year of research and engagement with students, we’re excited to share with you our PGT Student Voice Report!
After more than a year of research and engagement with students, we’re excited to share our PGT Student Voice Report with you!
In Term One of the 2022-23 academic year the Students’ Union launched a Policy Inquiry to examine the postgraduate taught student experience at Royal Holloway. We tracked the PGT lifecycle for one academic year through three online surveys and in-person focus groups to hear more about their different experiences and ways it could be improved. This Student Voice Report is a culmination of all this work.
The process
The Students’ Union launched the Policy Inquiry and shared a Briefing Document in November 2022. The Briefing Document consolidated the research work into the postgraduate taught student experience in the UK higher education sector and addressed which issues might be impacting Royal Holloway students pulled from previous surveys and University data.
Postgraduate taught students were asked to complete online surveys in Term One, Term Three and in the summer months while they worked on their dissertation or major project. We additionally ran an in-person focus group during Term Two, which meant we touched base with students for each term of study during the 2022-23 academic year. Our surveys looked at various areas of the postgraduate taught experience like inductions, course expectations, organisation, teaching, assessments and feedback, the postgraduate taught community, careers and employability and, finally, ways the Students’ Union can better support this group of students. We shared our findings with students after each survey and shared the results in blog posts and on our social media accounts. You can view the survey results for Term One, Term Three and the summer survey on our website.
We analysed all the data over the summer and used the information provided by students to come up with a list of recommendations to share with the University with an aim to create positive change for current and prospective Royal Holloway students. We shared these recommendations in September 2023 with former postgraduate taught students who participated in the Policy Inquiry and the new intake for the 2023-2 academic year. We asked students to comment on these recommendations before we created the final list for our Student Voice Report and to share it with the Senior Management Team at the University.
What we learned
We learned that postgraduate taught students at Royal Holloway feel overlooked by the University, their departments and the Students’ Union, and there is a real lack of community on campus for this group of students while studying. We also discovered that there are some systemic issues with course structure and organisation that could be adjusted to improve the quality of their degree. There is much more the University and Students’ Union can do together to change this situation like streamlined enrolment, more careers events, department socials, improved communication about the degree during inductions as well as ensuring changes to courses for marginalised communities like commuters, carers and part-time students are done in a timely manner. Our Student Voice Report dips into all areas of the postgraduate taught experience and examines the ways students feel their degree went well and what was challenge. Our recommendations are shaped around the ways we hope to reduce the latter and make postgraduate taught student life better at Royal Holloway.
Read the report
We understand that, in the past, our Student Voice Reports and Student Insight Reports have not been perceived as student-friendly due to their length, and we wanted to change that this year. We have created a short, three-page summary which discusses the key findings of the Student Voice Report which helped shape our recommendations to improve specific areas of the postgraduate taught student experience like inductions, course structure and organisation, assessments and feedback, careers and employability, the dissertation or final project and the postgraduate taught community.
Read the summary
Next steps
The full list of recommendations was shared with senior members of the University at Academic Board in Term Two. The Student Voice Report will be circulated to the Senior Management Team, and our Sabbatical Officers will continue work as the recommendations are implemented.
We would like to thank all postgraduate taught students who spent their time sharing feedback and their experiences because, without their participation, this report and the recommendations would not exist.
We hope you find the report and student summary insightful, and we look forward to seeing a positive impact in this area of the student experience for current and prospective postgraduate taught students at Royal Holloway.