I feel good, I knew that I would
I feel good, I knew that I would
Christmas is nearly here and the University corridors are buzzing with students and staff rushing form one lecture theatre to another. This is definitely my favourite part of the year and yet a very emotional period for a programme director. I have just finalised all the marks of my last year’s cohort and my new students are through their first four courses already! I want them to enjoy every minute of this big step into the unknown and my programme team know having fun is an integral part of our intro week schedule.
Student experience has become a focus for many institutions and we are all on the quest to ensure they receive the best education and care. But what is experience? We talk about it a lot but we often mistake it with process. We embark on process improvement initiatives without really understanding why. We do it to become more efficient, save budgets and time, and sometimes we forget the human side, the emotions associated with the process.
Do you remember when you last moved house? I bet it was stressful. Our house move last year was an emotional roller coaster. One minute I was singing with joy, the next day I had a strange email from somebody called Sarah telling me my mortgage had been delayed. ‘Oh no! I will lose my dream house!’ Then it was a phone call from Paul, no idea who he was, letting me know the solicitors lost my file. On and on it went until we finally moved. I love my house but I will never forget the upheaval. Does this remind you of anything? I think this is very similar to our applicants’ journey. They are excited about their offer letter one day, forgotten in a queue the next, and awarded a scholarship the day after. In the meantime, they get a phone call from a student ambassador trying to reassure them everything will be ok.
Universities operate complex and intertwined networks of processes with multiple teams and providers, all thriving to deliver excellent experience but not always holistically connected with the full student journey. The Amazon-like view of the world is very different. It is seamless and easy to navigate, despite the myriad of operations behind the app on your phone. I want my programme to be like that and I am happy to borrow some service design practices from our Amazon friends, or from the wonderfully citizen-focused gov.uk website.
Service design has given me a permission to feel, to be one with my students and programme team. In my endeavour to understand the experience of my students, I reached out to an emotional journey mapping tool that has complemented the functional feedback I receive from student staff committees and module surveys. Emotional journey maps capture the experience of the process. They show the highs and lows of the student journey through the University and capture key moments of truth. These visual artefacts produced by my students in a very sophisticated way on large sheets of paper, with Blue-Peter-like props and emoji stickers, reveal the most striking information about their experience.
The emotional journey mapping helps heighten my empathy with our students. It also shows that the key events they remember are not always directly related to the programme, but the students still reflect on those as a part of the programme. For example, a negative experience from the accommodation or a memorable trip to Blackpool can influence emotions related to the accounting and finance exam that takes place in the darkest night of cold and windy November. We also do one thing really well in November. It is the time when the UK job market opens and we invite high-profile employers to our Campus to discuss the future aspirations with our ambitious students. What a great idea, you may think. Well, imagine you arrive at the UK from a small town in the suburbs of Surabaya. You have only just settled but it starting to get cold. You have failed your first exam and you have started missing home. All you want is a home cooked meal, some krupuk, chat with your mum and a hug from a friend. And what you get? A PWC representative in a suit scrutinising you about your future ambitions. I know, this is all part of studying abroad and you may think, this is what the students signed up for. I agree. It is a part of the experience and we will not change this. But we will recognise that being homesick is natural, that feeling stressed is a part of getting to grips with master level studies, that feeling vulnerable and being able to talk about it is the most valuable skills a manager can demonstrate to their team. Emotions are a part of being human and recognising that they are a part of student experience is the first step to making that experience the best!
Dr Radka Newton
