RGU launches Student Experience Sub-Strategy

The University has officially launched its brand-new Student Experience Sub-Strategy centred around three pillars: academic, personal, and social development. The strategy reflects the best of the RGU student experience and will help us continue to work towards making enhancements so that students can recognise how they have been supported on their journey.

What is the Student Experience Sub-Strategy?

Although the University Strategy outlines the aim of Teaching, Learning and the Student Experience, RGU never had a standalone Student Experience Sub-Strategy. The only structure that came close to it was the Learning and Teaching Framework, which aimed to produce adaptable and skilled future graduates.

Now with the Student Experience Sub-Strategy, there is a clear outline of what an RGU student will receive at RGU, with a strong focus on the value of the experience that is offered to them.

How was it developed?

A working group was created in February 2023 consisting of students, colleagues from DELTA (now AQLE), Student Life, and academic schools, as well as external stakeholders. This group looked at the Learning and Teaching Framework, teaching and learning strategies of other higher education institutions, and considered what RGU is and is not in terms of its student experience.

Following that workshop, the working group mapped the student journey and asked key colleagues from across the University to create “Value Proposition Statements” about the different stages of said journey. These Value Proposition Statements were synthesised into three main areas: transitioning into university, learning at university, and transitioning out as a graduate of RGU.

The working group met again afterwards and reconsidered the pillars of the strategy, instead settling on academic, personal, and social. The University’s motto ‘omni nunc arte magistra’, which loosely translates to “make the most of your abilities”, was chosen to be at the heart of the strategy. 

As the strategy needed to be built with the community, the process of development was collaborative. At various points throughout its development, the working group took the draft sub-strategy to staff and students for consultation and made enhancements accordingly. 

After consulting with students from Gray’s School of Art, our print and design team were tasked with creating the logo, which takes its shape from RGU’s mace - where our motto is displayed - viewed end-on. This detail links the strategy back to RGU’s historical heritage and visually embodies the various opportunities available at RGU through a design reminiscent of a flower opening.  

What are the main aims of the strategy?

The Student Experience Sub-Strategy in itself enhances the student experience, but what it also does is articulate what RGU staff and students offer to the student experience to make it sector leading. It outlines how RGU considers the whole person when looking at a student and their journey, and how the partnership between staff and students is central to this.

It is hoped that students will look at the pillars and the associated elements and recognise their experience within them and consider the benefits of what they have been offered at RGU.

On the staff side, we encourage everyone to refer back to the strategy as often as needed and highlight to students how elements of their experience at the University add to their academic, personal, and social development.