What are School Enhancement Plans?
- School Enhancement Plans are a continuous improvement process focusing on School and Department performance relating to Student Outcomes and Student Voice. These are part of priority 3 in the University's Education and Student Experience Delivery Plan (ESE SDP).
- The process is designed to drive and monitor activity towards medium term improvement of practices that shape how our students experience their time at the University of Nottingham. These could range from curriculum change, assessment design, induction design and much more.
- The process is then complemented by other longer-term oriented enhancement apparatus, such as Curriculum Transformation and intertwine with the team’s periodic review process, Educational Enhancement and Assurance Reviews.
Why are they done?
- School Enhancement Plans were introduced in academic year 2020-21 partly in response to regulatory changes that included the introduction of provider-level Access and Participation Plans.
- These built on previous processes; changing in response to the changing wider context and bringing together processes to ensure a coherent process for delivery of educational enhancement.
- These are to ensure we remain on top of Access and Participation Plan targets at School/Department level, continue to improve NSS and TEF performance, and are proactive in monitoring our Degree Outcomes, to help reach the best quality Education and Student Experience for our students.
What are included in School Enhancement Plans?
School Enhancement Plans comprise of two key sections - Student Outcomes and Student Voice. More details on these can be found below;
Student Outcomes
In line with our Access and Participation Targets and our express commitment to meeting them in our Education and Student Experience Delivery Plan, Student Outcome action-planning tends to focus on;
- The Black:White awarding Gap
- Mature student continuation
- The Disabled:Non Declared Disability awarding gap
- Other areas that are relevant to the School/Department's outcomes data, e.g the Asian:White awarding gap.
The planning process is informed by data insights provided by our team. These insight reports help inform School action-planning, and are then supplemented with further data insights that are available for staff, for example from the Careers and Employability Service, Widening Participation, Sport, or Libraries departments.
These actions are contextually set, and therefore in some areas where Schools or programmes excel in these areas, they may focus on sharing of good practice. They also could include actions on unique challenges that arise in particular cohorts of students, as we know that our students face a wide array of challenges that often need specific responses that would not be needed in other contexts.
The process considers Degree Outcomes and Awarding Gaps holistically rather than in independent processes – not just ensuring we maintain the integrity of our degree standards, but to ensure that it is done as equitably as possible.
Student Voice
In line with the express commitment in our Education and Student Experience Delivery Plan to improving NSS (and its role in TEF outcomes), Student Voice action-planning tends to focus on the following surveys;
- National Student Survey (NSS)
- Nottingham Student Experience Survey (NSES) - not used from academic year 2023/24 onwards.
- Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)
Challenges raised and outputs produced are shared with appropriate governance routes for Student Outcomes and Student Voice.