Abstract:

First year induction for Business Management was reformed in 2020 and 2021 as a Summer School and Welcome Week, both on-campus and online, building on the concept of “relentless welcome” (Felten and Lambert, 2020). The recently updated strategy of the business school emphasises curriculum review to enhance both student engagement and inclusion, and to underpin three new principles “we care, we learn, we act”. For the new challenges and opportunities faced in 2022 induction, funding was obtained to recruit undergraduate students as active co-designers of Welcome Week 2022. This paper reports on the co-design process and outcomes.

In relation to induction there have been valuable innovations in the wider university, also nationally and internationally, but there has been insufficient human resource both to research these and then adapt to a specific context. The current study is to enhance induction week for business management. It adapts existing viable solutions as well as proposes new solutions geared to equity, accessibility and exclusivity. One of the main aims of the study is to draw directly on the interest and experiences of students, explicitly as co-design for induction, redesigning structure and activities. Consultations with student representatives and the Student Union are also conducted.

The study was created to enable partnership with students, who lead, research and propose the co-design. It injects student-led activity as the driver for the improvements. To augment the existing faculty-based design, student-led designed activities, with special focuses on a sense of community and belonging, help students develop a better understanding of academic importance in the University, bridge gaps relating to learning skills between high school and university, provide support for a smooth transition to a new, challenging learning environment, and enhance opportunities for students to socialize among peer groups and with academics, and therefore to create a sense of community and engagement at the University.

Bovill et al (2016) propose four roles for students in co-creation; in this project the dominant role is “pedagogical co-designer”, with some elements of “consultant and “co-researcher”. The “representative” role is absent. The paper addresses both opportunities and challenges which arise from this particular type of co-design approach.

Keywords:

Induction, engagement, community, curriculum, co-design, student experience, equity.