Rimsha explains how providing feedback can improve your university experience
Nobody’s perfect, right? We are evolving and changing everyday. And what’s a better way to do that than with constructive feedback from our peers. This is also applicable to university! There are a variety of ways you can feedback to university and make improvements in your student experience. I wanted to talk to students and learn about their positive experiences feeding back to Middlesex.
As a student myself, I understand how stressful and worrying it is to think about employability after graduation. Working in the real world? What a terrifying concept. These were exactly Munaan’s thoughts: “I really wanted to apply for placements and I didn’t know where to start with my CV!” he tells me.
Munaan, instead of wallowing in these thoughts, spoke to his seminar leader about it after realising that a handful of other students were all worrying about the same thing. His seminar leader then took it upon himself to organise a guest speaker from MDXWorks to discuss employability and effective CV writing. “It really helped! And I’m glad they actually took what I thought on board.”
“How do we provide feedback?” You might be thinking. Where do I start? There are various ways the university has provided to make your voice heard. Which is what Hafsah discovered.
“I went to the reception because I had no idea where to go. I wanted to give some feedback on one of my modules and they told me all the ways I could do it. In the end, I spoke to my student voice leader.” I asked her if she saw the changes she wanted to see and replied with a very enthusiastic ‘Yes!’
I’m sure we’ve all heard of student voice leaders, unless you’ve been living under a rock. You usually have to vote for someone in your seminar or lecture. This representative that you have voted for then goes on to take all your feedback and discuss it with the lecturers and seminar leaders in meetings! Like parliament but less… like parliament.
I had the pleasure of meeting one myself and getting the inside scoop. Aisha told me that being a student voice leader is one of the most effective ways to see change after your feedback, in her opinion.
“On my course, we had some queries about an upcoming module and we told them and they considered changing it for us! The course leader came in and spoke to us, gave us more information and options.” She told me that everyone was very happy with the effort and response to their worries. “We have a groupchat and I always ask everyone before the meetings if there’s something they want me to mention.”
So what have we learned? Don’t just think about it, speak up, be the change! This is your learning experience and it’s your responsibility to get the best out of it! The different ways you can provide feedback are listed on the university website. Or, when in doubt, just ask someone! They won’t bite.
Oh, and before I sign out, we have an event running called Engage in Change, celebrating all the ways in which the university community is changing things for the better. From 28th January-1st February, everyday from 11-3pm in the Quad. Highlights include free food, yoga, massages, photobooth, and loads of fascinating information.
Pop in if you’re interested. And remember to be the change.
