Our priority is the success of all those who wish to study with us. Building on the progress made in our previous Strategic Plan in improving outcomes and satisfaction levels for our students, our focus for the next decade is to ensure greater inclusivity and ensure equity of outcome. This commitment will ensure that we focus on who is participating and how they achieve. We are committed to removing barriers to ensure that all can participate and achieve their potential. We will develop our approach guided by social models of outcome, adapting the way we work to suit individual needs, adding value to their experience and ensuring they become successful ambassadors for the University of Wolverhampton.

We will offer safe, inclusive and accessible learning environments, both on campus and online that enable students to manage their learning to suit their circumstances and preferences.   We are the University of Opportunity, and we will create flexible and personalised learning and progression routes into, through and beyond university in a manner that transforms the places we serve.

The engagement of students and empowering them to be co-creators of their educational experiences will be critical to our success and the culture we will build. We are committed to working in partnership with our Students’ Union to ensure that our students have a fulfilling experience during their time with us, have a strong sense of belonging, and are empowered to overcome any barriers they might face.

To transform the leadership and workforce of our Place through inclusive student success and world-class research, we will offer to all those who can benefit a higher education experience that equips them to make a significant contribution to their communities both as students and as graduates.   We will set the bar high for our expectations of our students; supporting them in all aspects of their university experience but challenging them to do their best for themselves and their communities.  Through our alumni networks and our partnerships with regional schools, colleges, businesses and community organisations our students will both benefit from and contribute to the part that the University will play in the post-pandemic recovery of our region.

For every student we will provide a programme-based, student-centred route-map to becoming a professional or expert in their chosen area.  Our programmes will provide a practice-based education that develops knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits specific to that discipline.  What will unify our offering will be the fore-grounding of inclusivity and well-being across our portfolio and the embedding of digital skills and sustainability principles.

The consultation on the sub-strategy took place during April and May 2021, including:

• Meeting with School Representatives
• Q&A with students
• Q&A with staff
• Meetings with Faculty DAGs/Leadership teams
• Meeting with extended Professional Services Leadership Group
• Meeting with the Professoriate
• Meeting with COLT
• Email inbox managed by SPPO

There was consensus on the overall direction of the sub-strategy including the foundations, the strategic initiatives and the commitments.  Themes that came out from the discussions and which have been addressed in the final iteration were:

Inclusivity

Inclusivity underpins Vision 2030.  We attract a highly diverse student population who bring with them their identities and interests from their own communities (local, regional, national and international).  Many are first in family to higher education and have to fit study into busy and complex lives, coming to university as mature students.  The number of international students has increased significantly in the last two years and our ambition is to grow these numbers further.  Our students’ sense of belonging may be fragile and easily damaged.  We have a responsibility to adopt respectful behaviours, to demonstrate that we care and to build an inclusive culture in order that all of our students can succeed in meeting their full potential.   The design and delivery of our courses must be informed by students’ lived experiences and interests, thereby nurturing their sense of belonging. 

Wellbeing

Well-being may be understood as a form of social capital that is embodied and is accumulated through an individual’s life journey.  Thus, inclusivity and wellbeing are mutually reinforcing.   Disabled students have to overcome barriers that do not challenge others and the testimonies of our students have exposed how many feel that they are othered by our structures and culture.   An inclusive curriculum will nurture our students’ wellbeing by minimizing barriers and by helping to secure their sense of belonging as a member of the University community.   We need to go further, however, and design in wellbeing so as to enable all of our students to achieve to their full potential.

Student-Centred

The diversity of our student population and the complexity of their lives require us to take a student-centred approach.  Learning and assessment needs to be delivered at a pace, in formats and through media that meet the needs of individual students.  Both academic and pastoral student support need to be built around the specific needs of each student, recognising the differences in life histories and journeys into higher education.  

Partnership

The Inclusive Curriculum Framework positions students and staff as co-creators of the educational journeys of our students.  The student voice (the thoughts, views and opinions of our students) needs to be heard and listened to in order to shape the student experience at the University of Wolverhampton.   We are committed to working in partnership with the Students’ Union to ensure that all students have a fulfilling experience during their time with us, have a strong sense of belonging, and are empowered to overcome any barriers they might face.   Critically, all students and all staff must have agency and self-efficacy, be enterprising and autonomous and pro-actively engaged if we are to effect broad and deep cultural change.    

Practice-Based

Practice Based Learning (PBL) has always been a key aspect of the University’s pedagogical approach.  Through applying their learning in real-life or simulations students secure, reinforce and extend their understanding and develop their skills, attributes and confidence.   Methods and applications will differ across disciplines but it is important to understand that PBL is not limited to those courses which prepare students for a specified profession.   Moreover, since society’s grand challenges require inter-disciplinary solutions, practice based education will be richer where it draws together students from different subject areas. 

Programme Led

Whole programme thinking, whereby the programme rather than the module is the primary unit of design, should ensure scaffolded learning and facilitate assessment that is joined up, varied and sufficient without being overly onerous to either students or staff.    Looking at the student experience through the lens of the programme rather than the module facilitates a student centred approach, designing in progression to independent learning and transitions into and out of higher education.  Linking to practice based learning and partnership, we need to build communities of practice around the domain of the discipline in which students, staff and alumni actively and collectively participate.

Community

The second pillar of our Vision 2030 is our commitment to place.  We believe that universities are about transforming society by ensuring the needs of their Place and people are at the heart of what they do.  We aim to support the economic, social, and cultural and inclusive growth of our region through the provision of skills based and employer led higher education.   We encourage our students to give back to their communities, supporting their volunteering and developing an ethos of citizenship both through curricula and co-curricula activities.

Work in partnership based on excellence in teaching and support from staff and on responsibility for engagement in their learning from students

The University will be acknowledged by Students Unions nationally for its standing as an anti-racist organisation.  We will be known nationally for nurturing our students’ sense of agency by recognising them as active participants in their own learning, enabling them to take purposeful initiative which gives them choice and voice in what and how they learn.  We will have a reputation nationally for partnering with our SU to keep our students at the centre of our organisation and making sure their views and opinions truly guide us, through our effective representation systems.  We will be known nationally for keeping our students fully and proactively engaged in all aspects of their studies.

We will have eradicated all award gaps through inclusive learning, teaching and assessment practices and all our students will believe that they are co-creators with us and they belong.  We will be a leading provider of structured social opportunities that facilitate broader student friendship and networks.

Offer students choice about how and when they learn;

Learning from experience during the pandemic, we will move to a blended learning model that is built around student choice.   Each School will clearly set out how it will deliver student choice in the context of their discipline, meeting institutional standards for inclusivity and quality.   Students will be able to organise their learning around their busy and complex lives, creating an individualised mix of online and on campus activities to suit them.  They will set their own pace for the completion of their course, rather than working within a binary of full-time or part-time.   Many of our courses will be delivered in blocks rather than the current dominant model of concurrent modules, enabling students to jump on and off as suits them.   We will also offer a fully online portfolio that enables busy working professionals and those with significant family or other responsibilities to enhance their career prospects and to achieve their full potential.  We will offer a distinctive range of micro-credentials that students can achieve through or alongside their modules or as standalone Continuing Professional Development.   

Offer students choice about how and when they are assessed

The University will have an assessment policy that is coherent, relevant, detailed but easily understood by students and staff.   Students will be offered a wide-range of assessment components (including in some instances the opportunity to formulate their own assessment plans) – effectively allowing them to build their own assessment pattern according to their strengths whilst ensuring they demonstrate all relevant learning outcomes.   With the move to more block delivery, assessment will be more staggered through the semester.   Other than where prohibited by the PSRB, we will move away from capped resits to a system where students are given a set number of opportunities for attempts for which their best mark at the end of the attempts stands.    We will continue with a trust basis for mitigation and develop data based approaches to automatically offer extensions or additional attempts rather than students having to request them.   

Provide an individual programme of personal and professional development for each student

Each student will have personalised personal and professional development pathway that they will map out with support from their personal tutor.  This will signpost students to personal and professional development activities which maximise their learning potential, health and wellbeing and employability.    Academic and professional skills will be embedded into the curricula with additional resources signposted to students on basis of individual need.  Student engagement data will be readily available for personal tutors as part of a personal tutor dashboard facility. This will enable personal tutors to effectively support their personal students and recognise when to intervene to offer additional support.

Provide student-centred support that integrates the academic and non-academic to meet the needs of the individual

Students will be confident that the University is providing the support that they need to succeed at university and that they will be treated respectfully at all times.  We will operate a single point of contact for all students providing appropriate, instant and accessible student support at the point of need.   All staff in student-facing roles will have the cultural awareness and commitment to inclusivity needed to ensure that support is truly accessible to all of our diverse student population.  They will have clear spans of accountability and agency to act within these, ensuring prompt resolution of issues.   Whilst our support to students will embed a customer service culture, our ethos will be one of partnership.  We will empower our students to make effective use of the support available to them in navigating their own journey through their studies.  We will work in partnership with our students to constantly improve our provision and to enable them to develop peer support systems that complement this.   

Embed a scaffolded approach to employability in all undergraduate programmes and ensure that we have a distinct masters level employability offering for postgraduate students

We will develop a set of graduate attributes aligned to the Higher Education Academy framework for embedding employability and our strategic priorities of inclusivity, well-being, sustainability and digital capabilities.    This will translate to a programme-based, student-centred route-map to becoming a professional or expert for every student through the development of knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits specific to that discipline.  There will be embedded discipline-led employability structures within each Faculty to drive improvement in employment outcomes, ensure engagement and an inclusive approach.  Additionally we will target resources and support specific groups of students in order to reduce the gaps in progression to highly skilled employment.     We will create communities of practice that bring together students and alumni through mentoring, internships and placement support.  We will work with internal and external stakeholders to procure employability opportunities within and outside the University.   We will develop a distinct Postgraduate employability offer combining programme based elements with a core Masters level set of attributes. 

Recognise and reward excellence in teaching at programme level that is research based and practice led.

We will offer outstanding academic staff development based on a shared institutional understanding of teaching excellence which emphasises inclusivity.  This will be recognised nationally not just through our success in achieving HEA senior and professional status but being able to evidence how this enhances the student experience.  Our conceptualisation of what is excellent will be developed through listening to and responding to the student voice.  We will drawing in staff from across the institution not only to share good practice but also to shape it.    There will be an institutional pedagogical research project that will focus on delivering inclusive student success at the University to which all Professors and Associate Professors in Learning and Teaching will make a significant contribution.  Staff will feel supported in and will be confident in using digital resources and pedagogical approaches that deliver student achievement.   All staff who teach will have a personalised three year development programme as part of an institutional scheme jointly managed by HR and CoLT.  Annual development reviews and appraisals will be based around a common set of objectives drawn from the institutional success measures.   

Embed academically led and discipline specific approaches to well-being, sustainability, digital and community engagement within each programme.

All of our students will graduate with the knowledge, attitudes and skills that equip them as global citizens to make a significant contribution to their communities, in our region and beyond.  These will be articulated through a common set of graduate attributes that will be translated into programme learning outcomes for inclusivity, well-being, sustainability, digital skills and community engagement.    These will be complemented by a range of co-curricula opportunities and activities that will combine with module level learning outcomes to evidence achievement against an institutional set of micro-credentials.  Students will be able to map their own learning journey and evidence their own competencies in ways that enhance their employability. 

Match our students’ ambition to the needs of the local economy

As the University of Opportunity, we will be the University of choice for students and employers, supporting lifelong learning for our region from child to grandparent.  Our Access and Lifelong strategy will build on our existing pre-entry access work which supports adults and learners from a range of background into the University. We will work in partnership with a range of external stakeholders (schools, FE colleges, businesses, public sector and community organisations) to offer pathways into, through and out of HE.   We will work with our students and partners to establish entrepreneurial solutions to regional problems through student and graduate start ups.   We will be nationally leading in our contribution to the sectors that will play a significant part in the rebuilding of our region post-pandemic:  Digital, Health & Social Care, Construction and Education.   Our student-centred approach and its step on, step off model and standalone level 4 and 5 offerings will respond to the needs of the local economy.  Our students’ ambition will not be bounded by our region but our models of practice-based learning and community engagement will mean students make a remarkable contribution to their place, both before and after graduation.     

Design interventions that enable our students to develop their capabilities to manage their own wellbeing during and after university

The University will have a well-being strategy developed in partnership with students which will encompass mental and physical health.  This will be embedded into all programmes and throughout the student journey in our support for transition into and out of university, academic skills development and through our values and behaviours.   Peer support and student-led activities will be an integral part of our approach to well-being. Student wellbeing services will be strongly linked to communities both within and outside the University and inclusive of our student population and protected characteristic profiles.  All (academic and non-academic) will be clear on sign posting and immediate referrals (in and outside of the university).     All departments and services across the University will be trained on 3 minutes to save a life.  Wellbeing will be integrated into our personal tutoring model and students will be encouraged to own their own wellbeing as part of their personal and professional development.   We will be able to evidence increases in well-being at an individual and institutional level.   Campus spaces will be designed to encourage connectivity and belonging for all students. 

The Students and Education Sub-Strategy will be delivered through four strategic initiatives:

1. Inclusive Curriculum Framework
2. MyWOLVES
3. Wolverhampton Curriculum
4. Institute for Inclusive Student Success

Inclusive Curriculum Framework

A distinctive element of our approach will be our inclusive framework for curriculum design and delivery.  This consists of four overarching principles, with accompanying sub-principles, articulated through the following questions: Where am I in the curriculum? Are we removing obstacles to student success and progression? Are our student’s co-creators?  How are we developing our inclusive lens?

MyWolves

MyWolves will be our university model for partnership working for students and staff at both an individual and community level.  It will set out the expectations of all members of the University through a Wolverhampton Commitment.   This will be underpinned by the system that students use to plot, document and evidence their learning and development at the University of Wolverhampton and the dashboard in which all elements of their engagement and performance will be recorded (attendance, marks and feedback, personal tutor meeting forms).   The system logic will reverse that of NHS medical records:  the record will be a co-construction by the student and the University and it will be visible in its entirety to the student only.  

The Wolverhampton Curriculum

The Wolverhampton curriculum will provide an institutional approach to ensuring all students develop the attributes we have committed to delivering for all students in Vision 2030.  It will also provide the frameworks for our commitments to offer student choice in how and when they learn and are assessed.

Wolverhampton Institute for Students and Education

The Wolverhampton Institute for Students and Education (WISE), incorporating COLT, will develop, disseminate and evaluate excellence in learning, teaching and assessment.  It will coordinate the work of Associate Professors of and Professors of Learning and Teaching to drive transformation in inclusive pedagogies.  A group of institutional associate deans and academic leads will work in a matrix structure with  Faculty DAGs and Directorates on the embedding of the sub-strategy foundations.