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Student Success Strategy
Abertay will create a student experience that builds confidence, deepens learning and prepares graduates for a changing world.
Abertay will create a student experience that builds confidence, deepens learning and prepares graduates for a changing world.
The Student Success Strategy replaces Abertay's Learning Enhancement Strategy (2020–2025) and enhances our ambition to ensure our learning and teaching approaches, curriculum and assessment design, processes and policies are purposefully focused to enable our students to be supported, challenged and successful throughout their time at Abertay.
The strategy, like our students, embraces the future and therefore employs the language of external policies and strategies that will shape that future. These include:
The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in stressing the importance of climate change and equality, diversity and inclusion.
The development of student meta-skills, as exemplified by Skills Development Scotland.
Successful student transitions and their integration into curriculum and processes, as endorsed through the Scottish Funding Council's Scottish Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework.
One of Abertay University's four purposes is "to offer transformational opportunities to everyone who has the potential to benefit from Abertay's approach to university education". Through this we open the door to students from all backgrounds and pursue our continuing vision of providing access that leads to student success. This purpose is enabled by the University's values that challenge our community to be inclusive, caring, innovative and collaborative and to place students and staff at the heart of all that we do. This Student Success Strategy seeks to fulfil those commitments and deliver an ambitious set of objectives that will challenge the aspirations of Abertay's students, staff, employers and the region.
This strategy sets out the ambition to educate the whole student, providing challenge and support during their educational journey. This will see a focus on personal and discipline-focused development that best prepares a student for their future careers within a changing world. For our students to fulfil their potential they need to successfully complete their programme of study, be career-ready and develop the knowledge, meta- and discipline-related skills that will identify them as sought-after graduates by employers. To deliver this approach, Abertay will employ a co-creation philosophy that enables effective stakeholder integration to design and implement such a high-quality student learning experience.
Abertay enables students to access learning on campus, overseas and online. This strategy applies to all our students and Abertay will work with its partners to enable alignment with these ambitions. This may result in different and creative solutions across the world that Abertay can learn from and that will enhance our own offer.
There are three elements to the Student Success Strategy that align and support the delivery of an engaging student learning experience:
Transitions and Student Outcomes
The Abertay Curriculum
The Abertay Learning Environment
The elements below explain what we are trying to achieve and how it will be designed, supported and delivered to enable student success.
Abertay recognises and welcomes the diversity of its student body, in Dundee, overseas and online. We will support a personalised approach to the Abertay student experience that acknowledges a student's prior educational experience and support needs.
All programmes will purposefully support the transition into and through the University, providing guidance that sets clear expectations and best prepares students to be successful through each stage of their academic journey at Abertay.
Abertay graduates will be able to reflect upon and demonstrate the Abertay Attributes, enabling them to successfully access graduate-level careers.
Student success and a high-quality learning experience remain key drivers for the University. Programmes will provide shared student experiences, at all levels, that enable students to connect and generate a sense of belonging.
Abertay sees co-creation as being at the heart of what we do. This requires staff, students and all partners to work proactively and collaboratively to develop programmes, learning experiences and opportunities that enhance the Abertay student experience.
The generation of a sense of learning community is a priority for the University. Academic departments and professional service areas will collaborate with the Students' Association and students to co-create opportunities that enable a sense of welcome and community across the University.
Curriculum design will embrace active, compassionate and inclusive learning pedagogies that employ authentic assessment practices, harnessing the responsible and equitable use of Generative AI, as each programme prepares students for the world of work. Our curriculum will be research-informed and contemporary, addressing the emerging needs of the discipline.
The student experience will be designed for the whole student and the skills that need to be generated for future careers. This will see a collaborative, coherent approach across the institution that integrates key stakeholders to create resilient, adaptable and skills-focused students.
Student wellbeing is key to student success, and this will be recognised within programmes through embedded learning activities, the alignment of relevant support services and the development of an enhanced sense of learning community.
Students will be made career-ready through integrated programme activities, across all years, that provide work-related experiences to stimulate and challenge, but that also prepare students to visualise, plan and prepare for their future working lives.
Student knowledge and development will be scaffolded across all years, enabling the enhancement of student meta-skills that will be co-created with industry and other partners to reflect the requirements of future careers.
Programmes will be cognisant of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to ensure students understand how the SDGs shape each discipline and future careers, drawing on industry input and preparing students for career paths that will evolve during and beyond their degree.
Abertay will listen to its students, through formal structures and informal conversations, collaboratively acting to enhance the student experience whenever this is possible.
We will prioritise flexibility, accessibility and inclusivity in both physical and digital spaces. Learning environments will support and promote active student engagement and be able to accommodate the diversity of student needs.
The University will deploy digital tools and platforms that enhance student learning and strengthen our learning infrastructure to meet the future needs of students and staff. This includes virtual learning environments (VLEs), AI-driven personalisation, support and feedback systems, and flexible classroom technologies that help to deepen our students' knowledge, skills and digital capability.
Abertay will design environments, both physical and digital, that promote environmental sustainability and community wellbeing. This includes green building practices, natural lighting, quiet zones and spaces that encourage collaboration.
Learning environments will be created to support contemporary active learning pedagogies such as flipped learning, problem-based learning and collaborative inquiry. These environments and pedagogies will align with the accessibility principles of Universal Design for Learning.
Professional development opportunities will be provided to academic and professional services staff that enable them to deliver on this Student Success Strategy, whether on campus, online or internationally. Pedagogic research and scholarship will be supported to inform curriculum development through the sharing of effective practices.
Learning analytics and feedback from students and staff will be utilised to improve the student experience and learning environments. Data will inform decisions about space usage, technology integration and pedagogical effectiveness.
Clear governance structures and long-term investment plans will be developed to ensure learning environments are sector-leading. Resources committed by the University will be allocated to ensure that our learning environments, information systems and assisting technologies are fit for purpose, addressing the rapidly changing needs of our staff and students and supporting the delivery of a high-quality student experience whether it be on campus or online.
If you would like this document in a different format (e.g. large print, braille), please contact policydocumentlibrary@abertay.ac.uk.
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