20 Years of Enhancement, Bulletin #5

The 20 Years of Enhancement campaign provides staff and students with the opportunity to explore the lessons learned from the past 20 years of Scotland’s enhancement-led approach to quality and look to the future of enhancement in a tertiary education sector. In the fifth and final update of the campaign, we review the most recent virtual panel, reflect on what has been a fantastic celebration of enhancement in Scotland, and look ahead to ‘Shaping the Student Experience Together: 20 Years of Enhancement’, QAA’s 5th International Enhancement Conference.

The final virtual panel, ‘Building connection: The role of enhancement in embracing ‘relationship-rich’ education’, took place on 4 May 2023. Professor Peter Felten, Professor Leo M. Lambert, Robyn Thiel and Amaya Gaines, students from Elon University and Abertay University, discussed the role of relationship building to foster and improve student success. This was the most popular of the campaign’s virtual panels and feedback has been very positive. A full recording of the session along with virtual minutes is available on the campaign page.

Over the last 10 months, QAA Scotland has marked the 20th year of Scotland’s enhancement-led approach to quality with a programme of activity providing the Scottish higher education sector with an opportunity to celebrate and critically reflect on the legacy of Scotland’s enhancement-led approach to quality. We have reviewed and updated some of our most popular resources so that they can continue to be used in a tertiary education environment. We have invited thought leaders to reflect on key areas of development from the last 20 years in a series of blogs hosted by WonkHE. And, finally, we have invited the community to participate in virtual panel sessions that not only recognised the impact of what the sector has achieved, but encouraged us all to look ahead to what we might accomplish together in the future. All of the resources and recordings from the programme of activities are available on the campaign webpage.

We would like to thank every one of our contributors, speakers and attendees from Scotland and across the world who have helped us showcase and celebrate the last 20 years of the enhancement-led approach to quality.

The campaign will formally conclude with QAA Scotland’s 5th International Enhancement Conference, 'Shaping the Student Experience Together: 20 Years of Enhancement', next week, on 14-15 June 2023 at Glasgow Caledonian University in the heart of Glasgow's city centre. The conference is an exciting opportunity to come together to debate a range of current issues that impact the student experience, to engage in challenging conversations about moving forward our collective thinking on these issues, to share innovative practice and learn from each other’s experiences, and to look to the future of enhancement in a tertiary education sector.

We are looking forward to welcoming colleagues to Glasgow, celebrating our shared successes, and looking to the future of the student experience together!