We’re excited to announce that the London School of Economics and Political Science will be using Unitu in the new academic year to support their student voice project and their strategic priority of putting students first.
This announcement has a slightly more special spin on it, as the founder of Unitu, Anish Bagga is an LSE graduate. Anish created Unitu as a result of his experience, where he could clearly see the need for students and staff to communicate more effectively and solve problems quicker. Anish states:
‘It’s a real privilege for me to be back on familiar grounds at the LSE and more importantly to support the institution in their priority of putting students first and engaging more effectively with their student voices. I am excited of the prospect of bringing Unitu to the students at the LSE to really help make a positive difference in their daily experience as a student”
In the previous academic year, LSE piloted Unitu from January 2020. The departments piloting Unitu had seen growth in their Student Voice scores on the National Student Survey. For instance, the LSE Department of Law saw a 15-point increase in Question 23 (“I have had the right opportunities to provide feedback on my course”). There was also a 4-point and 8-point increase on Questions 24 (“Staff value students’ views and opinions about the course”) and 25 (“It is clear how students’ feedback on the course has been acted on”) respectively.
After witnessing these improvements, the university will continue to use Unitu to ensure that student feedback collected is truly representative and that students feel that their suggestions are heard and being acted upon.
Students from various programmes within LSE’s diverse institutional structure, including the Department of Economics, Department of Law, Department of Management, Department of Social Policy and Department of International Relations, will have the advantage of using Unitu to raise their feedback at any point throughout the academic year.
In addition, a University Board will be available so that students, irrespective of their degrees, can raise institution-wide feedback to management level and Student Union Officers.
Due to COVID-19, running elections through lectures is a big challenge. However, LSE departments using Unitu will be able to overcome this by running their rep elections through Unitu to create a more consistent, streamlined and effective method to fill the student rep positions.
The new academic year will present new and unprecedented challenges to higher education, and in such uncertain times, hearing the student voice and building a strong virtual community has become more important than ever. Recognising this, Unitu is excited to empower staff and reps at LSE to effectively connect with their student body during this complex climate.
