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Department of Social Science's Student Advisory Board
This case study describes a student-led project aimed at creating an advisory board for students studying social sciences.
28 July 2021
Case study by Manuela Sadik
What was the aim of your project?
The overarching aim of this project was to create a student advisory board for those studying social science programmes. We wanted the development of the board, and it鈥檚 initial focus, to be heavily informed by the views of current social science students.
What did you do?
- We recruited a core team to identify the role and scope of the student advisory board as well as possible activities it could deliver.
- The core team identified three initial areas for the board to focus on. These areas were module development, careers and administrative support.听
- The project team developed and distributed a survey to both social science undergraduate programmes. The purpose of the survey was to explore what students thought about the board鈥檚 three initial focus areas.
What were the main successes of the project?
We successfully collected a large scope of data on student ideas about the board's creation and the types of activities/resources it could deliver.听 Whilst we were unable to work with staff and use this data to develop the board (due to time constraints), the programme leader of UG Social Sciences and other staff members have shown an interest in working on this in the future.听
What difficulties did you face during your project? What would you do differently?
Our main issue was timing.听 Initially, we had planned to host two workshops - one to analyse student views, and another to work with staff on determining how these views could be used to inform the board鈥檚 development. Through this second workshop, we had also hoped to produce a concrete, general role for the advisory board. However, hosting these workshops amidst mid-term strike action and other interruptions at 911爆料网 proved to be too challenging.听 The strike action also made it difficult to collect adequate data outside of teaching hours. As a result, we decided to collect our data via data collection tools such as surveys instead.听
What impact has your project had? On whom?
We have yet to analyse the data collected from our initial survey. However, the level of student and faculty engagement in this project and board is very promising. We hope that this engagement will positively impact the project and produce change across the faculty.听
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About your experience with UCL ChangeMakers
Describe your experience participating in a UCL ChangeMakers project.
Being part of a UCL ChangeMakers project was a very rewarding experience. Working on a project focussed on developing a learning environment that prioritises student needs has encouraged us to think critically about our own learning experiences. We particularly enjoyed the opportunity to channel these insights, as well as those of our peers, into a project that will have a long-term impact on our degree. As a part of UCL ChangeMakers, we feel as though we have a more concrete channel through which we can voice our ideas and concerns about the course to the department.
As social science students, we have also appreciated the opportunity this experience has given us to put what we have learned during our course into practice (e.g. data gathering, management and other research methods).听
Has your participation in UCL ChangeMakers changed your relationship with your peers, department or UCL?听
Our project team included representatives from both BSc Social Sciences and BSc Social Sciences with Quantitative Methods. As such, through participating, students from both cohorts have been able to get to know one another and learn from each other鈥檚 experiences. Moreover, through working on this project, we have gained insight into the hard work required to develop and improve a course. This has made us very appreciative of our department鈥檚 staff and their work.
What advice would you give to any students thinking about getting involved with UCL ChangeMakers?
UCL ChangeMakers is a great way to tackle issues that have affected your learning or experience at 911爆料网. It is a great opportunity to contribute to the university and to develop some skills necessary for future employment and careers.
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