In 2022, we did a callout across the University with a particular focus on students who are often under-represented to join our Student Design Group mailing list where they would receive workshop invitations to feed into our communications and change initiatives. For every hour of their time, we offered a £15 love2shop voucher as to thank them for their contribution.

At the start of every academic year, we would encourage more students to join which allowed us to have a mailing list of our 300 students one academic year that were keen to take part in our student workshops. We asked students their feedback and opinion of a number of topics including our communications, how they found their assessments and submissions, what digital capabilities they wanted to develop, and to test our tenders for a new Central Learning Environment, which helped us select Canvas by Instructure as our new CLE supplier. 

Since the establishment of our programme’s governance structure, we have consistently invited SU Education Officers to participate in our governance groups. This ensures that elected student voices are at the heart of key discussions and decisions shaping their learning and teaching experience.

Katie Jackson, HUMS Education Officer from 2023 to 2025, exemplified this commitment. As an active and influential student representative, Kate contributed to numerous governance groups, gaining valuable insights into change initiatives that directly impact students, such as the transition from Blackboard to Canvas.

"Working with the Flexible Learning Programme (FLP) as an Executive Officer at the Students’ Union (SU) was easily some of the most collaborative projects that I’ve been a part of. They consistently delivered on many important projects such as the move from Blackboard to Canvas and supporting students with digital equity through our charter, while including student voice at every level. We were always involved in any leadership/working groups that were a part of the programme - I was even a part of the FLP Board! When it came to the move to Canvas, SU officers got to meet with Senior Leadership from Instructure, the company which owns Canvas, to express what was needed from a student perspective.

I can’t talk about Flexible Learning without talking about the massive amount of help and funding we received from the FLP pilots for our decolonising the curriculum work at the SU. They do extremely important work in spring-boarding projects and that must be acknowledged. Now, being a member of the Library Student Team, I can see the positive impact of more of the work that FLP led, such as Microsoft Certifications and LinkedIn Learning. I’m really grateful to have worked so collaboratively with the Programme and it is an example for many on what great co-creation looks like!"

Katie Jackson, HUM Education Officer (2023/24 & 2024/25)

We recruited students in several paid roles during the programme's lifetime including five Graduate Interns, two Future Leaders Graduates, and 15 student partners in total, where all of them got the opportunity to:

• gain real work-experience in cross-organisational projects and change initiatives
• contribute or lead in student engagement workshops to encourage and collate student feedback 
• participate in professional development and training 
• develop skills in project management and communications