This method offers students the opportunity to talk freely, without influence, providing us with an honest and more accurate reflection of their real thoughts.
Our University Strategy recognises that seeing students as equal partners in their education is key to building the leaders of the future.
Just as important is making sure that all students have an opportunity to be heard. It is vital that we gather opinions and information from all student groups, particularly from those who are underrepresented and may lack the confidence to speak up. We value unique experiences and all students.
As well as surveys, and student representation on decision-making bodies on programmes and within schools, we are using and leading research in innovative ways to reach out to students from diverse backgrounds and abilities to ensure more authentic data to help us improve our teaching and identify best practice.
‘Listening rooms’ is a method of collecting data from conversations between pairs of students, often classmates or friends, facilitated by a researcher who introduces topics and prompts but otherwise stays out of the conversation and the room. The ‘Listening rooms’ technique, originally devised by Sheffield Hallam University (Heron, 2019) and inspired by BBC Radio 4’s Listening Project, won a Guardian University Award for Student Experience in November 2020.
Stacey Mottershaw, Faculty Director of Taught Student Social Mobility at Leeds University Business School (LUBS) ran a one-off project using underrepresented students focusing on access, continuation, attainment and progression — the four pillars of the institutional Access and Student Success Strategy. By having a conversation between peers, some of the trickier issues could be discussed freely without the usual power dynamics of a staff/student conversation.
19 pairs of students took part in the project, across both LUBS and the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Culture.
“The reports from this Listening Rooms research have been taken through the governance process to inform proposals and changes,” says Louise Banahene, Director of Educational Engagement at Leeds. “In some cases, it reinforces the needs for change in areas where there is work going on such as inclusive assessment. It’s been invaluable in adding a qualitative dimension to what can often be a very data-driven discussion.”
Listening Rooms have since been used across the University as a key method for collecting and incorporating student voices. A Listening Rooms toolkit has been created to help staff who are considering running their own activity. Via the University’s Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, Rachael is also using reverse mentoring to bring together law students and the legal profession.
Teresa Storey, a Lead Outreach Officer based in Educational Engagement, used Listening Rooms in her LITE Fellowship ‘Student Ambassadors’ Perceptions of University’. “I employed the Listening Room method as part of a study looking at the impact of student ambassadors’ work on their perceptions of university,” she explains.
“I felt that the method offered students the opportunity to talk freely, without influence, providing us with an honest and more accurate reflection of their real thoughts. The two pairs of students we worked with greatly valued the time in the Listening Rooms. They highlighted how beneficial they found the conversations as a reflective tool allowing them to appreciate and understand how much they had achieved and grown as ambassadors.”
Listening Rooms is just one approach we use to gather authentic student voices to help evaluate and improve the student experience and outcomes at Leeds. For more information on our student voice programmes, contact the Student Success Team: studentsuccess@leeds.ac.uk.