Inspiring Our New Students with Unismart

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Inspiring Our New Students with UniSmart™

Project

Contents

1.Introduction

1.1Strategic Context

Make appropriate reference here to the University’s Strategic Plan and give details of specific targets to enhance the student experience. Also give specific mention to any plans to aid retention, initiatives to improve student engagement andpromote learning and teaching, any activity to support vulnerable students, meet pastoral care obligations, promote student welfare, health and wellbeing, diversity and enhance employability.

For Example only:

“In its Strategic Plan 2015-18, the University offers students an inspiring and challenging experience that will prepare them for the future. As part of this experience, there is a strong emphasis on skills acquisition and graduate employability and, to this end, students are to have access to a range of extra-curricular activities, including the opportunity to participate in employability activities. A further aspect of the Strategic Plan is to encourage students to develop their independence and draw maximum benefit from being part of the University community. UniSmart addresses such issues of graduate employability in its presentation.

In addition, the aims of the University’s Student Services include collaborative working with others and the provision of opportunities for students to fulfil their potential. There is an imperative to work across boundaries and to foster and maintain partnerships, including with the Students’ Union. UniSmart offers an ideal opportunity for University faculties and departments to work closely with the Students’ Union in delivering an excellent new student welcome.

Add other initiatives from Strategic Plans, and include how UniSmart’s topics fit with the university’s strategic goals.

This project offers an appropriate vehicle for such an enhancement of the Student Experience at <name of University> andsupports the achievement of our strategic goals.”

1.2Historical Context

Outline previous initiatives that the (Student Services etc) department has undertaken to welcome new students, enhance the student experience, support vulnerable students etc. Indicate how the UniSmart experience to welcome new students gets your students engaged with university life from the very start of their time with you.

Highlight how UniSmart will enable you to bring everything together in one awesome presentation for your new students, that willMOVE them with Music (there’s lots of it), being Outrageous (UniSmart presenters can do and say things we can’t), using great Visuals (such as animation, film and images), and tapping into Emotions (by skilfully takingyour students on an emotional roller-coaster, and mirroring their feelings at this crucial time of transition).

1.3Business Benefits

1.3.1The Anticipated Benefits

Identify the many benefits of delivering this project with UniSmart. You can draw upon the topics covered in a UniSmart presentation, as identified at Some of the key benefits include engaging your new students with the university from the very start, empowering them to get involved in university life, to ‘Say Something’ to get appropriate support, and get their time at your university off to a flying start. Importantly, by doing this, UniSmart will aid your retention.

You might also want to mention that by working with UniSmart, your new students will be more aware of what the university has to offer them, and where to go to access key support and guidance services. They will also know to engage with your employability initiatives from the outset and appreciate how to better manage their online life to enhance their employability prospects. They will know what challenges await them and be better prepared to meet them head on – this includes adapting to learning and teaching in the HE sector, as well as managing personal and social relationships to maximise their experience of university life.

You may wish to distinguish what are the initial benefits (engagement, preparedness for HE learning and teaching, early retention, greater awareness of services etc) and those to be expected in the longer term (access to support and guidance services, enhanced health and well-being, engagement in employability initiatives, on-going retention, a stronger and more diversely harmonious university community), and ultimately contributing to the University’s position in national league tables by enhancing the overall student experience.

You should also include the financial benefits of not losing ‘just one student’ on account of a UniSmart presentation. For example, a resident student will bring in £9000+ in fee income per annum – so £27,000 if they are lost to you for the full 3 years of an UG programme, £4000+ in residency fees in year 1, and probably £1000+ in on-campus spending on food and other consumables, at least! That’s a massive net gain over the cost of the project if ‘just one student’ doesn’t leave!

1.3.2When will the benefits be achieved?

You should point out that there will be some early ‘quick wins’ that should be obvious immediately – this will include the initial buzz following the UniSmart presentation, as students show early engagement and excitement about being at your university. This will be captured and gauged by the UniSmart questionnaire that students fill in at the end of the presentation.

You should also expect to see greater awareness of the university’s support and guidance services, and early engagement with these services by students experiencing difficulties and problems.

Some of the benefits will be more apparent in the longer term – such as improved retention, greater engagement, improved employability prospects, overall satisfaction with the university experience.

1.3.3What would the consequences be of not doing the project?

Here you can point out that whilst the university does already make efforts to welcome your students in new and engaging ways, there is not currently the opportunity to really excite and MOVE students from almost the moment they arrive, in one all-encompassing experience. By not UniSmarting your students you will miss an opportunity to give them what students at other universities have constantly reported over many years as ‘the best thing about induction week’ and ‘an awesome welcome and start to their university life’.

By not doing the project the university will miss the chance to strengthen and enhance its welcome activities in a way that will make them unforgettable.

2.ProjectGoals and Objectives

In this section set out all the objectives you wish to achieve through to your UniSmart presentation and beyond (to a follow-up review and your next year’s early-bird booking!). A few examples are filled in, but you will need to amend these and complete all the stages according to your own plans, and add dates that make sense for your particular timeframe. You can establish as many objectives as necessary to see the project through to its conclusion, but don’t forget to include all the essentials – like booking the venue(s) for sufficient time to allow the presenter to set up, as well as to present the session(s).

3.Scope

In this section you need to establish the parameters of the project. What things are you going to consider, and what is beyond the project – ie out of scope. What you include will depend very much on the extent of this particular project – is it to UniSmart the students at your university, or is it part of a bigger project to enhance your new student welcome? Some brief details have been included below, but these will need to be fleshed out as necessary, according to the scope of your project.

3.1The Presentation

For example, the UniSmart presenter will arrive at <your university town>, be met and accommodated according to the agreed contract. S/he will attend <your university> and present to the designated group(s) of students over the specified period. There will be sufficient time allowed between presentations etc. After the presentation(s), they will be transferred to the train station etc to enable them to get to their next venue, again as per the agreed contract.

3.2The Venue

For example, the venue will be set up as discussed and previously agreed with UniSmart for the best possible presentation. The UniSmart presenter will have time before the sessions to check out the venue and trial theequipment.

3.3Participants

You will need to decide who is to be included in the presentation(s) – is it all new UG students? Only those from particular Faculties or Schools? Or restricted to those in university accommodation? This will depend on the ‘scope’ of your particular project.

3.4Out of Scope

Lots of things may be ‘out of scope’. For example, it may be that you are targeting your undergraduate new students – in which case, post-grads will be out of scope. You may be restricting this particular project to the introduction of UniSmart into your existing welcome arrangements – in which case, any other welcome arrangements will be out of scope.

4.Risks, Constraints and Assumptions

4.1Risk Management Approach

Say who will manage the day-to-day risks associated with the project. This might be yourself or someone in your team who is specifically tasked with overseeing the project. It is a good idea for them to develop and keep a ‘risk log’ of any issues that might/or do arise and how they could impact on the smooth running of the project.

This information could eventually form part of a ‘lessons-learned’ document to inform any future running of the UniSmart Project, and contribute to the Evaluation Report at the culmination of the project.

If there is a team overseeing the project, or a wider team responsible for Welcome Arrangements, they could be updated on the work done to minimise and remove any potential risks to the success of the project.

4.2Risks

In this section you should detail the perceived risk factors that could impact negatively on the project and pose a risk to its success. Here are some possible examples, that you should consider and you should add more according to your own particular circumstances.

“Key decision-makers and players are not brought on board to ensure the highest profile for the event, resulting in it not having the status that it should have during the initial welcome and induction period.”

“Insufficient forethought is given to securing the venue booking, resulting in the desired location not being available for the dates and times needed for the UniSmart initial preparation, and presentation(s).”

“The scheduling of the UniSmart presentation has not been planned sufficiently to dovetail with all other central and Faculty/School-based welcome and initial induction activities, resulting in potential clashes with other events.”

“Sufficient publicity is not put inplace to ensure that all the students who should attend know about the event and can attend.”

“Appropriate signage is not available on the day, to enable students to find the right venue easily and in sufficient time for the presentation.”

4.3Constraints

Items that could constrain the project need to be identified. For example, there could be budgetary constraints, that mean that you are not able to UniSmart all the students you wish to – in which case, how will decisions be made about who will attend the event(s)? There could also be rooming/timetabling constraints. You may have 2000 students who you need to accommodate, but have only a 300-seater lecture theatre in which to do it – how will you plan the sessions to enable all students to attend with sufficient ‘down-time’ between sessions to allow the schedule to work? Will you need 2 UniSmart presenters enabling you to run sessions back to back? If so, will they be available for the dates and times you require?. The more you consider potential constraints and look at how these will be addressed, the smoother the project will run.

4.4Assumptions

<What assumptions are you making about the project? You will need to identify these here and consider the level of risk that each poses. Some of these risks will change over time and will need to be reviewed and be re-graded. For example, an early risk may be that there will not be a UniSmart presenter available on the dates and at the times you require. Until you make a booking request, this risk may be high. Once the booking request has been processed and UniSmart HQ are able to confirm your presenter, then that risk can be removed from the list. This simple ‘risk register’ should be reviewed regularly – for example, when the Welcome Team meet and receive updates on progress, decisions can be made regarding any residual risks and their status as low/moderate/high.

Examples, but not an exhaustive list, are given below.

• The person heading up the project will have sufficient time to dedicate to delivering it successfully

• Low/Moderate/High Risk

• Key decision-makers and budget holders buy into the project and support it going forward

• Low/Moderate/High Risk

• The required rooms are available and can be secured once the room-booking process is open.

• Low/Moderate/High Risk

• The Students’ Union Freshers’ Crew will be available and fully briefed to ensure that they encourage all new students to attend their UniSmart presentation as scheduled.

• Low/Moderate/High Risk

• Appropriate signage is prepared and located at all key points on the campus to direct students to the venue on the day.

• Low/Moderate/High Risk

The above table should be completed as comprehensively as possible by those delivering the project, to ensure that nothing is missed and all risks have been assessed and action taken to minimise them.

A traffic-light system can be used to help identify those items which are low/moderate/high risk at a glance.

Ideally, by the time the new students are due to arrive, all necessary risk-reduction measures have been put into place, and any residual risks will be low.

5.Planning

The project planning in this case is relatively straightforward, as it is to deliver a single event (or series of identical events) rather than anything more diverse. Nonetheless it may have particular phases, each with its own milestones, examples of which are given below.

• The initial scoping and outline planning phase
• UniSmart enquiry and booking
• Resources and logistical planning

5.1.Milestones

This section sets out the particular targets you set in each phase of the planning. So the initial scoping and outlining of the project might include meetings with key decision-makers and players to establish what the project is about and its aim – to deliver UniSmart to you students. It will also include the drafting of the PID and getting all the stakeholders to buy into it. There should be a timeframe on doing this – a window during which this will happen – eg “Initial Scoping and Outline Planning (February-March 2017)”