In this post, Melanie Smith and Lizzie Dunn share how they have worked with the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) UG Student Representative, Kat Amott, to increase student engagement in Student Voice activities. Examples include setting up a Breakfast Club, and offering sessions with Therapets and Alpaca Pals. Melanie and Lizzie are the Student Experience Team at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. This posts belongs to the Student Voice in Practice series.
We are a fairly new Student Experience Team within the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) having developed over the last two academic years. Our key aims are to build community, enhance the student experience, and listen to and engage with the Student Voice to inform our approach.
Like many of our colleagues in similar roles, we have found it a challenge at times to hear from our students and encourage them to be actively involved in their LLC community. Despite trialing various types of activities and events, attendance has often been low, which again is a common concern amongst colleagues in student experience across the University.
We recognise that a lack of engagement can be a form of communication from our students ‘talking with their feet’, highlighting to us that either our communications to them are not working (we know email and information overload is an issue) or that our offerings are not what they need most at this time.
We are also aware that many of our students grapple daily with cost-of-living pressures and can often be juggling work, travel and caring responsibilities alongside their university commitments, which can adversely impact on their attendance and overall engagement. In this light, any ‘extra’ activity we offer needs to be a particularly beneficial use of their valuable and limited time.
When our UG Student Representative, Kat Amott, approached us to host an LLC Breakfast Club, providing a space and free hot drink and snack once a week to our students, we were very keen to find a way to make it happen. We encouraged Kat to apply for our LLC Student Experience Grant, and her subsequent application was successful. This provided the funds to pilot a weekly Breakfast Club during Semester 1 for three weeks in November 2024, which proved instantly popular with almost 40 students attending our first event!
Students returned for the following weeks, many chatting amongst themselves and staying in the café afterwards. The atmosphere was lively; students were clearly touched by the offer and told us so. We were ‘hearing’ loudly and clearly that this was the type of intervention they appreciated and actually wanted.
Owing to the success of the pilot, as a School, we committed a budget towards hosting the return of the weekly LLC Breakfast Club for 10 weeks throughout Semester 2, from January to March 2025. We are very happy to report that numbers increased week-on-week, and our final offering in March welcomed almost double the number of attendees than we first started with in November.
This included not only repeat but new students turning up for the first time, even in the final week, as word continued to spread. It’s been wonderful to witness the growing popularity of the Breakfast Club, as more and more students arrived early for a pre-class breakfast and a chat. We’ve greatly enjoyed getting to know our students (and they us) and using the weekly club for organic connection as well as a platform to promote other student experience and community activities happening at LLC and beyond (including our National Student Survey completion event and prize draw, for example).
Kat has shown incredible dedication to ensuring the success of the Breakfast Club throughout its evolution, and we’ve particularly enjoyed collaborating with her on this initiative. We are delighted that she was nominated in the ‘Campaigning for Change’ category at the recent EUSA Student Awards for her significant and positive impact on the community spirit at LLC.
Reflecting on its success, Kat explains that,
“the Breakfast Club scheme started as a way to support students through the winter months as well as to create a community space within LLC. This has been a wonderfully successful initiative. Many students have said that the club has helped them to attend morning classes or even just get themselves out of bed and on to campus to study. In this regard, it’s fantastic that the scheme has been effective in supporting student engagement within LLC.”
Overall, it’s meant a lot, as a team and School, to demonstrate care and community toward our students, truly ‘walking our talk’, and hopefully being a familiar and friendly face every Wednesday morning.
Similarly, offerings such as our Therapets and Alpaca Pals sessions have been incredibly well received amongst our students, with these events quickly becoming fully booked (in a matter of hours!) shortly after being announced. Feedback from these events has been overwhelmingly positive, with students benefiting greatly from taking a study break to unwind and relax with the adorable dogs and gentle alpacas who have come to visit.
It is clear that opportunities to connect in a stress-free space with a specific activity works best. Compared to our lesser-attended movie nights and crafting session attempts, the popularity of Breakfast Club and animal visits also suggests a theory: if students can easily recreate a similar type of activity for themselves outside of the university environment, then there may not be as much appeal in getting involved with the equivalent School offering. Events with a perceived ‘higher value’ however will certainly draw more of a crowd!
Whilst every School’s approach is different and every student’s experience unique, we will take these learnings forward and continue to refine our approach through trial and reflection. We will continue to build upon the events with strong engagement to better listen, converse, and collaborate with the Student Voice.
Read similar posts about:
- A Breakfast Club project in the School of Biological Sciences: A weekly breakfast club fuels a sense of community in the School of Biological Sciences;
- Using Therapets: Let’s Gather: Getting staff and students together
Melanie Smith is the Student Support Development Manager and Lizzie Dunn is the Student Experience Officer. Together, they make up the Student Experience Team at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures.
