Nicola Watchman Smith

Creating a sense of belonging for all students requires more than just open doors – it requires a commitment to accessibility in every aspect of university life. This understanding is central to the work of Dr Nicola Watchman Smith, Director of Student Learning and Academic Registry at Teesside University.

Nicola sat down with Max Webber, Co-Host of The Interview, to share her insights on topics including her institution’s approach to student orientation and the power of a holistic approach to student support. 

Nicola’s Journey

Max: Let’s start with a brief introduction to yourself and your institution…

I’m Nicola Watchman Smith, and I’m the Director of Student Learning and Academic Registry at Teesside University. We’re an institution based in the Tees Valley in Northeast England. We have a proud history of serving a local and regional skills agenda with a widening access ethos alongside a real drive to create a global presence through international partnerships. It’s a great place to work - we help people learn and we show them the world. On a personal note, I’ve worked in higher education for about 20 years across various roles, from lecturing to research to senior leadership. I was the first in my family to go to university and as a working-class girl from a small northern town, I know first-hand the power of higher education to change lives; it changed mine. I’m thankful every day I get to work with a great bunch of people and in a privileged role where we really do change lives for the better.  

Max: What initiatives are you working on to help create a sense of inclusion and belonging for all students?

It’s a hugely important area. One thing we are currently focused on is our approach to induction. We've recently introduced a new cross-institutional approach to student induction, moving away from this idea of a one-week induction experience to a transition-based orientation approach. Key to that is a message around student integration; I believe if students feel like they belong, then they are more likely to succeed. So we're doing as many things as we can to help our students feel connected with the university, particularly those who perhaps come from backgrounds where going to university wasn't the obvious choice. There’s a lot we can do as a sector to help students feel settled at university and to make sure they've got all the information they need.

During onboarding, there’s the danger of overloading students with too much information. A big part of our new approach is staggering the information we give to students so we can ensure they have the core information they need upfront but then drip-feed the rest when it becomes relevant and they have had time to understand what being a university student means. In many ways, they need to settle in first before we start talking about the finer details of our academic processes. We’re fortunate to have an excellent Student Journey team at Teesside University, who act as an academic touchpoint and support service for the students throughout their time with us. Students can reach out to a Student Journey Advisor to gain advice about how the academic side of the university works and what it means to them. By doing this we help students orientate student life and, usefully this helps us to better understand the student voice. Excitingly, we are also participating in something called the BBB survey – that’s Being, Belonging, and Becoming survey led by Prof. Harriet Dunbar-Morris – alongside a number of other institutions from across the UK. We’re involved in a trial and we’re really looking forward to hearing specific insights from our students on the notion of belonging but then having sector-wide data to allow us to test if there are in effect universal barriers to belonging amongst UK student communities. 

Max: What key areas are you focusing on during the orientation period to get your students engaged? 

Our approach is based on a framework called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). That means we think about accessibility in everything that we do, but recognise that we’re going to have to reach out to students at key points in their journey. Some of what we’re doing is based on Nudge Theory – the idea that there are certain pressure points students experience along their path, and that may look slightly different depending on the person. We aim to be holistic in our accessibility, but also understand when students might need more information or more support or perhaps just a gentle reminder at points throughout the academic cycle. We aim to know when these pressure points are and - at those points - gently nudge the student to let them know of the relevant support, information or resources we have to address that particular pressure point. For instance, that might be guiding students through induction at the start, reminding them of the academic support we have available at Teesside before the assessment windows open or helping them boost their employability with activities hosted by our brilliant Student Futures team just at the point we know they students might be worrying about getting a job. We try to think about the student journey holistically and try to meet them at the moments when they might need some extra help.

Max: How have you seen student engagement change in the aftermath of the pandemic? 

In my opinion, I think the sector did an excellent job in what we all know was a difficult situation. We had to pivot quickly to online delivery when we went into lockdown; the sector responded at breakneck speed and we did it brilliantly. That said, by demonstrating to our students that effective learning and teaching can happen remotely we set ourselves a challenge, a problem even. In this post-pandemic period, we now have to show students what added value our campuses offer. It’s a new challenge, but we’re listening carefully to students to help us figure out what that needs to look like. 

‍Max: Recent guests have discussed the difficulty of engaging students outside the classrooms on these key topics. What’s your approach? 

Well, there is difficulty in getting students into the classrooms post-pandemic as I’ve mentioned, but yes you’re right, there is a challenge in creating understanding amongst student populations that university is more than a classroom moment. Higher education institutions now have to evidence the impact of support beyond just teaching and learning - are learners attending, are they engaged, are they safe, do they feel like they matter and belong? These are all valid points and we are wholeheartedly embracing the holistic ask of us as HEIs, but to truly understand if we’re making a difference in these ways we need to hear that from the students, or at least be able to evidence that they have interacted with the support we provide. And that’s where the difficulty is - how do you ask for more of a student’s time to get this insight from them when they are already stretched because they are juggling part-time work, looking after dependants, studying, etc. Perhaps the key thing is to instil in students an understanding of what is offered in the curriculum, what is offered to supplement that classroom learning and how the combination of the two will help them get to where they want to be. My university has some excellent staff in Careers and Employability, as well as academic skills support. We have some wonderful facilities, particularly in the digital space, which can help students to get engrossed in their studies. A lot of it is about getting the message across that there's value in staying on campus between classroom sessions. But that’s easier said than done; we're still in a cost-of-living crisis, and we have a lot of students who live locally – so it’s understandable that they might want to - I don't know - nip home for lunch. We need to make it worth their while to make that trip back onto campus to engage in those things outside of the classroom. It’s our job to make sure they understand the value of that, so we're looking into creative ways to promote independent study, and how that can be supported on campus. Ultimately, we want to have a compassionate curriculum which leaves enough space for the creation of peer-to-peer connections without only relying on that happening in the formal teaching period.

Max: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received over the course of your career? 

That’s a tough question! My mam used to always say “to thine own self be true” and I carry that notion with me throughout life but it has helped me immensely in my professional life. Follow your own moral compass but make sure you are doing that with enough information to make the right choices. . I’ve also had some dreadful advice through the years too! A mentor early in my career told me to do the bare minimum and that’s how you get ahead - you won’t ruffle any feathers, plenty of time for research, etcetera etcetera. Rubbish! That’s just not me, I do sweat the small stuff and I do roll my sleeves up and do the work. I’ve wanted to be involved in education since I was in primary school. My dream job was to work at a university. When you’re doing the job you love, throw everything at it. My advice would be to keep the student at the heart of everything. Try to think about the journey they're trying to make, and ask yourself how you can get them where they need to be.