In this podcast, I talk with Aaron Porter, who is Vice-President (Higher Education) for the National Union of Students (NUS) in the UK. The student experience is generally acknowledged to be the most powerful driver within higher education in the UK right now. Aaron and I discuss various dimensions of the student experience in relation to two sectoral reports. The first is the recently published Higher Ambitions report from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. The second is a forthcoming NUS report, sponsored by HSBC, which presents findings of a survey examining student experiences around coursework, exam feedback and the use of ICT in higher education.

In the podcast, Aaron is forthright in his views that Higher Ambitions leans too heavily on a consumerist position and fails to display the imagination needed at this pivotal moment for policy-making in higher education. We discuss the information that students need to make the right decisions about their studies, the diversity of experiences among the student body, the position of the UK in the global HE marketplace, and how both students and businesses should be acting as active partners and co-producers in the sector.

The NUS report is part of a 3 year study of the experiences of full-time undergraduates in UK higher education institutions, and is funded by HSBC. This latest chapter explores the areas of coursework, exam feedback and the use of ICT. We focus on the shortcomings of student feedback and also the virtual learning environment. Aaron has recently been appointed onto the Task Force on online learning which aims to increase the UK’s market share of the global online learning market, and we discuss exciting developments around Open Education and what is needed to increase awareness and availability of open resources. Aaron draws us back repeatedly to what he perceives to be a central problem – the failure to develop a robust academic community in which students and academics are constantly challenging each other, identifying the atmosphere of consumerism as the main obstacle to reviving that sense of community in universities.

This podcast very much lives up to its promise as a robust and lively discussion of the main issues around the experience of students in universities today.