Given the democratic necessity to develop deeper and more inclusive levels of participatory decision-making in the public sphere, including in higher education, along with the growing diversity of university student populations, there is a growing need to develop meaningful mechanisms for enabling diverse student voices to be heard in university structures.

This project aims to provide an evidence base to support the development of such mechanisms. This will be achieved through an in-depth case-study analysis of the Access Ambassador Student Advisory Group Project recently developed by UCC Access. The Access Ambassador project was set up in 2022 to provide a multi-level forum for diverse student voices to be heard at the centre of decision-making in the Access Office. It is a unique initiative in a number of ways, particularly its use of small constituent groups, its focus on the development of a continuous and ongoing feedback pathway, its recognition of student involvement as valuable work for the university, and its valuing of the voices of students, particularly those oft marginalised within the learner population.

The research seeks to provide a critical lens on the concepts of ‘student voice’ and ‘student representation’ as they are understood in university structures and to prompt new directions in university policy and practice that positively impact on student access, accessibility and outcomes 

The project will take an action-research approach and will be conducted over one academic year.

Funder and Dates:

The project is funded by HEA Access Funding via Access UCC. It runs from September 2023 to September 2024 and is a collaboration between ISS21 and Access UCC.

Project Team:

Team members from Access UCC, School of Applied Social Studies, School of Education, Department of Geography and ISS21: James Bilson, Olive Byrne, Claire Dorrity, Claire Edwards, Caitríona Honohan, Caitríona Ní Laoire (PI) Piaras Mac Éinrí, Stephen O’Brien

Contact:

Caitríona Honohan, CHonohan@ucc.ie