Brian Lister with (left to right) Sandra Colburn (Welfare & Equalities President), John Martin (Learning & teaching President) and Robert Beveridge (Sports President).
What do you see are the main challenges facing students over the next few years?
The current economic climate is clearly an issue for students. As we go into economic recovery, there is competition for employment as well as for college and university places. The financial aspect is also a challenge with students having to manage the funding they receive ever more carefully, with fewer part-time jobs available right now. This means that getting a qualification with employability skills, such as we provide at Stevenson, is so important.
How has Stevenson positioned itself to mitigate these challenges?
This year we have reviewed our course offering for 2011/12 to reflect the market and student needs. We see progression opportunities and employability skills as key.
We have also introduced new courses, such as HNC Retail and HNC Electrical Engineering. Our role as a college is about widening access and we provide courses from entry level through to HN and degree level study for school leavers, adult returners, and those in employment wishing to retrain or upskill.
In response to the economic climate, we are also offering more courses than we are receiving funding for, to ensure there are more places for students. In addition, we have to carefully manage the funds we have available for our students. We always have the learner at the heart of what we do and we endeavour to maximise the funding to benefit more students.
Student life at Stevenson is not just about studying. What has the College done to improve the student experience and students’ social life?
We have just built a new sports centre on campus which not only benefits the students studying sport but all our students and staff. Students learn by offering personal training sessions in the gym and there are clubs, like basketball and badminton that students and staff can all join.
We are also improving and extending student social and learning space around the College in time for the start of the 2011/12 term.
We fully endorse the new Student Association and support its members who sit on college committees through mentoring. We also encourage and support students to run charity events, which not only builds on the students’ learning experience but also helps improve our links to both our local and national communities.
How much of a focus do you put on students’ future employability?
Employability skills are key to our curriculum. In addition to encouraging student volunteering, we have been providing work placements in many more of our courses to assist students’ employability skills. Some vocational courses, such as care, have mandatory work placements but the college has strived to build on this important opportunity in other courses too. We also encourage visits and excursions in the UK as well as student exchanges to Europe which helps broaden their horizons.
We have work placements on entry level courses such as Prep 4 Work; our sport and exercise students develop their coaching skills by working with local primary schools every week; our science students have been acting as science ambassadors to local schools; and former students return to the College as industry guest speakers who students can both learn from and aspire to.
At the Student Association we are constantly reminded by other colleges and universities how well respected Stevenson is. Why do you think that is?
I think that is because the staff at Stevenson care very much about our learners. We aim to give students a good experience and provide a great deal of student support, from help with English language for speakers of other languages, to study skills and assistance for students with additional support needs.
Stevenson has a diverse range of students, including over 1,000 EU and international students studying at the College, so students have a wonderful opportunity to mix with and learn from each others’ cultures.
We have many articulation agreements with universities and are working to build on these, as well as developing degree programmes on our campus with universities. We work closely with both universities and other colleges to ensure our students have a smooth transition to these other organisations and we put a lot of time and effort into this.
Find out more about the Student Association
Click on the SSA link to find out more about the College's Student Association and what the Presidents can do for you while you are a student at Stevenson.