This page details the history of HISA's Board of Management Project - a project designed to enhance strong and effective student voice across UHI.
If you have any questions about the project, or want to find out if you can get involved in governance at UHI, email hisa@uhi.ac.uk for more information
Project Inception – Academic Years 2021/2023
Following research done on student involvement in governance in Scotland by HISA staff, we explored how students were supported in Board meetings across the UHI partnership. We wanted to see if the support provided was consistent, if students felt able to participate and if they were able to effectively contribute to meetings and influence decisions impacting our members.
Following conversations with staff across UHI, our elected officers and within HISA, we undertook a 9 month consultation that involved speaking to representatives from every Board of Management HISA officers sat on, all officers in HISA who sat on these meetings and the staff that supported them. We asked them about how these meetings went, how they were supported to participate, what training they were given and what could be done to help improve their ability to be prepared for and take part in these conversations that help shape the daily lives of UHI students.
This led to the creation of a report we shared in August 2023 which details all the conversations had and intended actions on the Students’ Association, in partnership with the UHI partnership, plan to undertake to ensure a strong and effective student voice at local boards.
Sharing our findings and Local Action Plans - Academic Year 2023/2024
Throughout academic year 2023/2024, we have been sharing this report with all Boards of Management and Trustee Boards to endorse our report and approve work to take place for a Local Action Plan to ensure that there is consistency across UHI in the support student board members – whether they are Local Deputes or not – receive.
Our plan was to have this work approved at ALL academic partners across UHI, evaluate this project in Autumn 2024 and see how this has helped to improve effective student members across UHI.
Consistent Implementation and Evaluating the Project - Academic Year 2024/2025
By academic year 24/25, the majority of AP board had discussed the project report, commending it on the thoroughness of the work and its findings and highlighting how important it was to ensure students were involved in decision making.
Many APs had made changes to their governance arrangements, from changing formats of meetings to ensure student issues were the first item on agendas to having regular meetings with student board members.
HISA also began to plan and undertake an evaluation of the project to see how much of an impact it has had on student voice in these high-level decision-making meetings. This involved planning meetings with our Executive Committee, HISA staff who support students and Board Governance Professionals across the partnership.
Sharing the Project’s Success and Next Steps - Academic Year 2025/2026
This academic year has seen the evaluation being completed, with a final report being prepared and its findings discussed at our Executive Committee and Trustee Board to ensure that the principles of student involvement in UHI governance continues to ensure students can participate and be heard in such discussions. The final evaluation report will then be shared across the UHI partnership so ensure that work continues to empower student involvement in these spaces – this importance growing stronger considering the impact of UHI Transformation.
Also following changes within our officer structure, we are beginning to help recruit UHI students to various Boards of Management across the partnership where there are spaces for two students members – one of these being the elected Local Depute President. When spaces are available these will be promoted via HISA social media channels.