STEP Overview
Publication date: 22 Nov 2024
This document provides an overview of Scotland’s Tertiary Enhancement Programme (STEP), including the phases of STEP, how STEP will be managed, and how to get involved.
| Author: | QAA |
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What is STEP?
STEP (Scotland’s Tertiary Enhancement Programme) is the new national enhancement programme for the Scottish tertiary sector. It is designed to enable Scotland’s colleges and universities to work together to improve and enhance learning, teaching, the student experience, and staff development across tertiary provision. It is one of the delivery mechanisms of Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF) and is underpinned by the TQEF principles. At the heart of the programme are collaborative enhancement projects that will produce outcomes and outputs of value to the entire tertiary sector.
STEP runs on a four-year cycle that moves through three distinct phases – Discovery, Implementation, and Reflection – during which projects are designed, delivered, and evaluated. The programme is sector-owned and jointly managed by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and College Development Network (CDN).
The topic for the first cycle of STEP (2024-2028) is Supporting Diverse Learner Journeys. This topic was determined through extensive engagement with colleges and universities during 2023-24, including sector-wide co-creation events in October 2023 and March 2024 and a sector-wide survey in April 2024.
The same engagement with the sector highlighted four priority areas.
Find out more about STEP
STEP Overview
Publication date: 22 Nov 2024
Supporting diverse learner journeys by...
Supporting transitions and navigating pathways
Strengthening engagement, community and belonging
Developing skills and capabilities for learning
Delivering tailored, targeted and personalised support
How will STEP work?
STEP runs on a four-year cycle that moves through three distinct phases – Discovery, Implementation, and Reflection – during which projects are designed, delivered, and evaluated.
Discovery
During the Discovery phase (year 1), staff and students will come together for a series of Discovery Days to establish collaborative partnerships and design projects that will form the core of the programme.
Between these days, there will be four Navigation Sessions to provide support and maintain momentum.
In developing projects there will be a focus on collaboration, clarity of outcomes and impact, and the formation of a cohesive programme of work that involves every college and university in Scotland.
Implementation
The focus of the Implementation phase (years 2 and 3) is to launch and conduct the projects planned during the Discovery phase. Project leads and teams will be responsible for taking forward the programme of work identified in their proposals. In each of years two and three, the following activities will take place:
- In-person events to progress work already underway and support development of further projects on emerging issues
- Annual conference to share updates, develop networks, and identify new opportunities
- Topic-related CPD for which a need has been identified.
Evaluation will be embedded within each project and undertaken on a continuous basis, with regular reports form each team updating on impact and progress against plans.
Reflection
In the Reflection phase (year 4), summative evaluation of the STEP programme and its constituent projects and additional activities will be undertaken to consider the impact and effectiveness of the work. As projects conclude, the Reflection phase allows for the dissemination of project outputs throughout and beyond the sector. More fundamentally, an aim of the Reflection phase is to ensure that outputs and outcomes are embedded within the mainstream activities of colleges and universities to become ‘business as usual’.
Also built into the Reflection phase is consultation on the topic for the next four-year STEP cycle. This process will involve colleges, universities, sector agencies and other stakeholders agreeing on the topic that is most relevant to the Scottish sector at that time.
Work already underway
During summer 2024, the following collaborative tertiary enhancement projects were launched on the theme of student transitions.
Transition Learning
Partners:
- Nicola Mulholland, New College Lanarkshire (Lead institution)
- Pauline Radcliffe, SCQF Partnership
- Julie Grace, Dundee and Angus College
- Sarah-Jane Linton, Fife College
- Kenny Anderson, SWAP
The project seeks to enhance the understanding of programmes and resources that support student transitions out with their localised setting, to evaluate if and how they can and might operate at a national level. Consideration will be given to the diverse range of learners who engage with these programmes and resources, and how the institutions involved make use of the output from these activities to ensure commitment to achieving the Scottish Government fair access targets. In addition, this project will review and evaluate the effective and appropriate use of the SCQF by institutions to credit rate these programmes and resources, as well as consider how such programmes can enhance further developments to support transition.
Student Success through Institutional Tertiary Alignment: Pathways, Process and Design to Enable Student Success
Partners:
- Luke Millard, Abertay University (Lead Institution)
- Julie Grace, Dundee and Angus College
This project will bring two partners, Dundee and Angus College and Abertay University, together to systematically and procedurally review how students are enabled to succeed as they prepare for and transition from college and into university. The task will deliver a cross-institutional consultation and development process that can be shared with others so that they can learn from and adapt within their own partnership process.
Pedagogy for Transitions: Setting Students Up for Success through Enquiry Based Learning
Partners:
- Phil Storrier, Dumfries and Galloway College (Lead institution)
- Jennifer Lowe, New College Lanarkshire
- University of the West of Scotland
- Glasgow Caledonian University
Pedagogy often does not receive a specific focus in relation to transitions but plays a critical role. Although institutions individually support development of pedagogy, in the context of transitions, a wider cross institution and cross level perspective is needed. This project tackles the critical challenge of student transitions from Further Education (FE) to Higher Education (HE), a period often fraught with difficulties in adjusting to new academic expectations, environments, where the, often significant, difference in pedagogical approach has an impact. Research indicates that many students struggle significantly during transition as a result, potentially leading to lower retention rates and academic under performance.