Colin is well known for his work around student engagement and his links with RAISE (researching, advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement) http://raise-network.ning.com .

Colin started with discussion of the origins of student engagement having been some 60 years ago now in the US but that much of this originally was around behaviourist models and most of the research was being undertaken in schools. However in the 1970’s Tinto was also looking at student engagement but from the social integration perspective. Since this time there have been many other explorations of student engagement with work on ways of being a student by Dubet (2009) who found these included personal projects, integration into university and intellectual engagement with the subject. There is also relational engagement by Solomonides et at (2012) who focused on a sense of being, transformation, professional information and discipline knowledge.

The nature of student engagement is holistic and socially constructed but every student is an individual and so this is dynamic, fluid and multidimensional. Key influences on student engagement are their expectations and perceptions so matches to personal projects and interest in the subject. There should be sufficient challenge and appropriate workload with degrees of choice, autonomy, risks and opportunities for growth and enjoyment. There must be trust in the relationships, communication, a sense of belonging and community, supportive social networks and opportunities for ownership.

There is a flip side to student engagement which is around performativity and disciplinary power, battles of cultures and values and inclusiveness. How to create student engagement, there are varying origins to student partnership so the HEA and NUS, pedagogical and political dimensions Dewey and Rogers, student representation and democracy and student feedback through surveys. The values of partnership need to be ethical, democratic, dynamic and progressive. There have been a range of initiatives around this as have been shared at the conference.

At Newcastle there have been range of activities but many come from the combined honours degree programmes. This is a diverse initiative with 400 students across 24 disciplines all doing slightly independent degrees. Many of these students did not have a sense of identity and belonging. There is a centre for the combined honours and Colin is the director. The activity started outside of the programmes with social activities first and then progressed to building communities and spaces, peer mentoring and transition, the PASS scheme around academic integration and student staff liaison committees.

The student staff liaison committees are different because they are about empowering student reps. They are all student led with staff support. They are the engine room for ideas with each student rep having about 40 students they liaise with. There are working groups but these relate to student chosen agendas.

Students also presented and they discussed their role around co-designed modules. There have been modules on independent study module similar to a dissertation, graduate development and running the next academic year is one on issues of the 1^st Century. The partnership in these modules allows student to shape the delivery and content, types of assessment and weighting, assessment criteria and deadlines.

Reflections on the strategy at Newcastle are that it is important to join up all activities to share and promote, it is not easy to involve all some are hard to reach but use projects and internships, keep things radical and exciting, continue to evolve and grow the student champions. This can be exciting and rewarding but requires commitment and investment and believe. This can create an unpredictable and unknown future but co-creation and democracy is exciting.