Student Focus Groups

I have recently been involved in two sets of Student Focus Groups and have found them to be very interesting and informative.  The first group was one that is part of a number of groups that have been set up and facilitated by the communication strand of our project.  For background information, the Student Information Points that I manage are one strand of the Student Experience Project at the University of Edinburgh.  The other strands are Communication, Pre-arrival and Induction, Online and Innovation, Enhanced Selection, Emergency Response and also Surveys.
As the project has progressed and evolved there has been more collaborative working between the strands and this has been very positive.  It also means, on a practical level, that there is less chance of duplication of work and effort and more sharing of results.
A batch of focus groups was set up and facilitated for undergraduate students in December to ask them about communication at various stages of the student life cycle from application to pre-arrival to induction.  The questions and discussions were based on how the information was communicated to students at the different stages via different channels, methods and media.
The focus groups set that I helped to facilitate was with Postgraduate research students in the College of Science and Engineering.  There was a mixture of Home/RUK/International students and the questions were based around the ones that had been asked of the undergraduates.  The students were asked about the communication methods used by the University/College/School to inform them before they arrived and once they were at the university.  As these were PGR students there was obviously a difference between the amount of general information and methods as there was a greater involvement on a one-to-one basis with their supervisor.  It was interesting that some had been undergraduates too at Edinburgh so they had some prior experience of the institution.  The feedback was in general positive, they have high expectations and are very able so can filter and adapt information for their own purposes.  There is a need as a PGR student at any institution to be self motivated and this was evident from the feedback - you need to be persistent and spend time investigating the information you need.  This is good but obviously it means that any communication by the University/College/School has to be relevant otherwise it is filtered out.  (There is a complication with an institution as large as Edinburgh that you are going to get information from a number of places as you will get whole University information then College i.e. Science and Engineering information then information from your particular School (Faculty).
Two points that surprised me but are pretty obvious really and happen at lots of places are firstly that most students have their University emails automatically forwarded to a gmail account.  Secondly to find some information on the University website, sometimes it is quicker and easier to Google the phrase or key words you want and then follow the results link back to the website.  Simple.
The second group that I have been involved in (mainly as an observer) was one that was set up and facilitated by Registry with an external facilitator.  The format was that there were long sheets of brown paper stuck on the walls around the room in three sections.  1. Enquirer 2. Applicant 3. Student (this might have been a different title) - basically it was to get feedback at different phases of the student life cycle or journey.  In each section there was a series of post it notes at the top of a column with different subjects e.g. website, library, matriculation, scholarships, portal, induction, feedback etc. etc. The students were given green post it notes and pink post it notes and had to go round writing feedback about as many areas as they could (green = good, pink = not good) and stick them in the appropriate columns on the brown paper sheet.
There were about 20 students - a mixture of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, PGT, PGR - international and home.  They were all very engaged with the process and wrote lots of feedback on the post it notes.  They also discussed their opinions informally while moving around the room and also more formally during the round table discussion.
I've been impressed at how useful and informative the focus groups have been.  Student Information Points (SIPs) were added on at the end of both groups and the feedback is that students think they are a good idea, those that have used them have found them very helpful but they need to be more widely publicised.  We have done and are continuing to do a series of campaigns to raise awareness of the SIPs and the services they offer.  This year we will have the weeks leading up to Induction to promote the SIP service and already have started planning for Freshers Week activities and events.