Deborah Ukasoanya

During the first term, there was a need to build a community within the school of education where students could communicate and give feedback on their learning experience, however, it was difficult to get students to come together.

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During the first term, there was a need to build a community within the school of education where students could communicate and give feedback on their learning experience, however, it was difficult to get students to come together.

What we've done:

My colleague, Phuong Ahn Kieu, and I decided to move from planning conventional events to something more student-centered that promoted inclusivity and intercultural exchange. For instance, we celebrated the Lunar New Year event, where students—particularly the Asian community, which constitutes a large percentage of students within the department—participated actively. The turnout was brilliant, and we experienced over a 30% increase in the number of students who participated, gave feedback, and shared praises compared to the event in Term One, where we had about 12 students.

We thought we had witnessed our greatest win until the Bring the Dish event saw an additional 10% increase, with students looking forward to more opportunities to engage with staff, peers, and the department in general. We could attribute our wins to the following:

- Observing and seeking to improve on our performance.

- Deploying a word-of-mouth approach to get students involved in activities, as opposed to relying mainly on virtual tools like WhatsApp, Teams, and emails.

- Organising events that helped students feel included; we achieved this by celebrating the unique cultures of students within the department.

- Collecting feedback from students, sharing it with members of staff, and communicating outcomes back to students.

- Supporting academic reps in assuming some leadership roles, such as helping to plan events and collecting feedback from students individually.

Apart from our wins, we still have the challenge of students’ concerns about having the same submission dates for summative assessments. Students feel pressured and stressed, and we hope that something positive can be done about it in the future. We have actually had discussions with members of staff, and we have been made aware that this decision is central to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, which places a limitation on what members of staff within our department can do to address it.

However, we must acknowledge that staff within the School of Education are quite supportive and proactive in ensuring that students’ concerns are addressed in a timely manner.

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By creating an environment that promotes diversity and inclusivity, students are more willing to engage and interact with their peers and members of staff. For instance, it used to be quite common for Chinese students within the department to isolate themselves from extra-curricular activities and events. This raised a concern among student reps because, although they were part of our WhatsApp community, they were still unwilling to engage or interact, which made it difficult to collect feedback from them. However, we deployed a word-of-mouth approach to invite them to participate, and this yielded a positive effect, as they have gradually begun to interact more with their peers.

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Apart from our wins, we still have the challenge of students’ concerns about having the same submission dates for summative assessments. Students feel pressured and stressed, and we hope that something positive can be done about it in the future. We have actually had discussions with members of staff, and we have been made aware that this decision is central to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, which places a limitation on what members of staff within our department can do to address it. However, we must acknowledge that staff within the School of Education are quite supportive and very proactive in ensuring that students’ concerns are addressed in a timely manner.

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