ARTS UNIVERSITY BOURNEMOUTH’S STATEMENT OF FINDINGS GOLD TEACHING EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK AWARD

We are Arts University Bournemouth, and we have been awarded the Gold TEF award.We are extremely proud of our teaching at AUB which educates, guides and inspires our community of makers.

STATEMENT OF F I N DI N GS FOR

Arts University Bournemouth

UKPRN: 1 0 0 0 0 3 8 5

This award was made in June 2017 and is valid for up to three years.

The TEF Panel reviewed the provider metrics and provider submission according to the process and criteria specified in the TEF guidance.

The University metrics, supplemented by the submission, indicate that students from all backgrounds achieve consistently outstanding outcomes. Very high proportions continue with their studies and progress to employment and highly skilled employment or further study, notably exceeding the University’s benchmarks. The metrics indicate very high levels of satisfaction with teaching, feedback and academic support.

The Panel considered all the information in the provider submission in relation to the TEF criteria and its judgement reflects, in particular, evidence of:

– Students’ independence that is developed through the negotiation of assessments, project work and live briefs

– Course design, delivery and assessment that is informed and enriched by research and is practice-led, which engages professionals in delivery so that students develop the relevant skills to succeed in employment

– Physical and digital resources, which are actively and consistently used by students to enhance learning and progression, and are of the highest quality to provide a professional work environment for students

– An embedded institutional culture that facilitates, recognises and rewards excellent teaching, which is a strength

– High quality teaching which provides stimulation and challenge with small classes and high levels of tutor contact

– Overall, the TEF Panel judged that the combination of evidence in the provider metrics and the provider submission best fits the descriptor for a Gold award

For further information see: hefce.ac.uk/TEFoutcomes

PROVIDER CONTEXT

Additional context further to the standard contextual dataThis Provider Statement will demonstrate that the highly effective approach to teaching and learning at the Arts University Bournemouth has led directly to our success in achieving the consistently outstanding results shown in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) metrics.

Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) is a specialist institution whose teaching and research is exclusively delivered through the disciplines of art, design, architecture, media and performance. Our Mission is to be the leading professional arts university dedicated to turning creativity into careers. A fundamental concept of the University is the practical application of knowledge realised through the delivery of excellent teaching within a collaborative creative community.

A cross-section of academic and professional services staff along with the Students’ Union, have been instrumental in contributing to this Provider Statement. We have focused our statement on three strategic objectives:

– To build influential teams. – To deliver excellent practice-led teaching

and learning. – To provide a professionally relevant teaching

and learning environment.

These objectives are mapped against the key statement areas of excellent teaching quality; outstanding learning environment; exceptional student outcomes and learning gain. The objectives are cross-referenced with additional evidence to contextualise the core and split metrics where appropriate. We have given a deliberately broad range of examples as evidence of teaching excellence to demonstrate that our activities and initiatives are embedded across the University.

It is our view that a specialist arts education should be delivered within a studio culture, which allows proximity to both academic and technical support staff. This studio culture includes direct teaching and tutorials, but also extensive independent time supported by technicians in accord with our strong commitment to applied learning. Our Staff/Student Ratio of nearly 15:1 provides the optimum balance of contact for this professionally-oriented learning environment.

Our 19 undergraduate awards consist of bespoke units of teaching that are unique to each course rather than utilising a modular framework where taught modules are offered across disciplines. Consequently, each one of our students experiences a highly personalised provision and negotiates the nature of the project work they will undertake. These projects can vary widely across a cohort and students are supported by teaching and assessment. This enables them to achieve strong individual

creative outcomes as fully independent learners, evidenced by our excellent retention, progression and employment metrics.

Our progressive approach to specialist learning is essential in gaining employment for our graduates. A graduating student at the Arts University Bournemouth applies their learning in a variety of employment contexts enabling them to both work and lead in their chosen profession.

Key strategic actions relating to teaching and learning Since 2013 key strategic actions have been taken to reinforce our commitment to teaching excellence. They are as follows:

– The creation of the Centre for Creative Learning. The Centre has brought together key areas that support learning, teaching and research in the University i.e. the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office, the Library, Museum and Archives and Digital Campus Services and teaching development under the leadership of the newly created post of Dean of Creative Learning

– The adoption of ten principles of student engagement. These inform the ways in which students can contribute to their learning and take an active part in decision-making including the creation of our teaching and learning plan (known as the Creative Learning Plan). Students engage with initiatives such as the development of digital assessment,

as members of staff/student teaching and learning projects and on committees and staff interview panels

– The establishment of senior teaching and research posts (Principal Lecturers Learning and Teaching and Principal Lecturers Research). These key academic appointments provide strong networks across the institution to advance university strategies for teaching, learning and research. These new posts are embedded in courses and provide a vital conduit between central teaching and research committees and course teams. These committees are also attended by members of University Management Team and chaired by the Deputy Vice Chancellor

– The devolution of key budget responsibilities to the two Faculties. This enables Deans and Course Leaders to have greater discretion to support local course requirements such as the purchase of course materials, staff development and Faculty initiatives.

– The instigation of annual ‘Challenge’ meetings for all degree courses. These meetings focus on supporting course teams in their efforts to meet the teaching and learning actions of the Strategic Plan and to consider progress against relevant performance indicators. The course team is also able to raise issues that require strategic and operational intervention from members of the University Management Team who attend these meetings. This enables quick

management responses to any issues raised. For example, Challenge meetings have led directly to improving studio space and the acquisition of additional computing resources.

– Increasing the University’s engagement with national research projects in teaching and learning. This is supported by the development of internal initiatives that will result in collaborative external projects and has resulted in an increase from two external projects in 2013 to five external and four internal projects in 2016.

Contextualising performance against the Core and Split Metrics Arts University Bournemouth has shown consistently outstanding performance for the learning environment, for student outcomes and for learning gain as demonstrated in the core and split metrics.

Our highly specialised curriculum has been designed to support high-levels of subject knowledge, skills development and understanding together with exceptional preparation for employment. Our students are passionate, independent and committed to their creative subject area

Our internal 2015/16 Student Perception Survey (SPS) of every student at all levels, showed that 93% agreed that their experience at the University had helped them to think more critically and analytically and 95% agreed that it had helped them to apply their creative skills in practical ways. Our National Student Survey scores are in line with the benchmark and should be set against a context of creative arts education that is predicated on constant critical evaluation and challenging assessment tasks.

The deviation in the split metrics resulting in the single negative flag given for the National Student Survey (NSS) by males, represents only 17 students for part of the period under consideration; statistically marginal when set against total student numbers. It is important to note that this student group go on to do exceptionally well in terms of progression, retention and employability outcomes in line with the other split metric groups. This is evidence of the impact of our inclusive teaching practices and personalised provision and is further discussed in this document.

Student perceptions of teaching and learning are regularly monitored including NSS, internal SPS and teaching evaluations. They are also reported through various groups and committees including University Management Team meetings, Learning Teaching and Quality Committee, Faculty Boards, Equalities Committee and Challenge meetings. In 2015/16 these committees noted that in our

student evaluations of every taught Unit we achieved an exceptionally high satisfaction average of 89%.

TEACHING QUALITY - EVIDENCE AGAINST THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Building influential teaching teams Significant University investment in staff development has ensured that all staff are highly academically and/or professionally qualified and are supported to undertake staff development in pursuit of teaching excellence. The impact of our strategy to increase engagement in teaching development is evidenced by a 60% increase in staff holding teaching qualifications and a 153% increase in Fellowships of the Higher Education Academy since 2013. Our peer observation of teaching scheme engaged 86% of our academic staff in 2015/16, an increase of 40% from 2012/13.

The course teaching teams are made up from a combination of staff with significant research achievement, high levels of industry experience, expertise in teaching and learning and skills and knowledge in technical application. Course teaching is also supported by a team of visiting tutors drawn from current industry practitioners. Course leaders are given budgetary responsibility to develop teaching and learning on their courses and have significant autonomy in bringing in additional visitors and speakers who can provide specific industry relevant expertise.

100% of our courses have permanent members of staff whose role is to demonstrate and support technical aspects of the curriculum. For example, a Technician Demonstrator on the BA (Hons) Fashion course has responsibility for teaching traditional as well as state-of-the-art digital pattern-cutting skills to students.

Our Animation degree courses exemplify the notion of the influential team. The teaching team includes former employees of BAFTA winning film, animation and games companies. These include Walt Disney, Aardman Animations, Cosgrove Hall and Creature Shop. These staff work alongside internationally recognised researchers whose publications inform innovation in animation pedagogy and course team members who are award winning independent filmmakers.

Arts University Bournemouth rewards and recognises excellence in teaching in several ways:

– Recognition of course leadership in teaching and learning was instigated through the creation in 2014 of nine senior academic roles of Principal Lecturer Learning and Teaching mirrored by a further nine posts of Principal Lecturer Research. Principal Lecturers Learning and Teaching sit on Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee

and undertake projects to continually improve teaching and learning. This has included projects on digital assessment, the development of the Virtual Learning Environment, digital literacy and re-designing our teaching observation scheme.

– The new strategic role of Dean of Creative Learning was also implemented to ensure that the leadership of teaching and learning was accorded the same status and reward as other areas represented on University Management Team.

– Our teaching and learning project awards and teaching fellowships offer opportunities in terms of remission of hours or seed funding to develop scholarly, evidence-based projects that will result in exciting, innovative and high-quality teaching and learning practices. We currently have two new internally funded Teaching Fellows working on projects focused on design sustainability and technology-enhanced platforms for learning.

– Excellent teaching is further rewarded in ‘Thank You’ Awards hosted by the Students’ Union, to recognise staff who have made an exceptional impact on students’ learning and attract over 100 nominations per year.

One of the key student engagement principles is that students are also partners in the development of their learning. For example, in 2014/15 the University secured funding from the Higher Education Academy to develop a new BA (Hons) Creative Writing course that engaged students in a curriculum co-design

process. This co-design process included students as creative partners, enabling them to get involved in areas of curriculum design and academic administration. This process of course design is being used in the development of other University courses.

Students are routinely included in working groups to consider specific matters of policy or practice relating to quality management and the student experience. Students were included from the ‘ground-up’ in the scoping of a new Virtual Learning Environment and then as part of the User Group. There is also student representation on the Project Board. An early outcome of this project is a new digital student

portal, which includes access via students’ mobile devices to a personalised timetable. This feature was indicated as a top priority by students at our original scoping workshops. Current usage data evidences a high level of student engagement, over 80% of students have downloaded the mobile app. Students are also involved in observation of teaching, our revised Teaching Review Scheme enables students to be peer reviewers of teaching at the request of individual academics.

Academic engagement with teaching development activities is captured by an innovative digital CPD portfolio which is part of our well established online Staff Performance Review system. This enables academics to record research and staff development activity such as research outputs, teaching qualifications, Higher Education Academy accreditation and teaching observations.

Delivering excellent practice-led teaching and learningThe high attainment of our students and the excellent outcomes of our approach to teaching and learning are evidenced in consistently outstanding employment statistics and learning gain. We also point to formal professional recognition and testimony from established industry leaders to evidence the effectiveness of teaching and learning at the University.

Wherever professional recognition is available, we have made successful applications. This includes:

– 100% Creative Skillset Accreditation of eligible courses.

– Architects Registration Board/Royal Institute of British Architects (ARB/RIBA) part one and part two Accreditation.

– Drama UK and CILECT (Centre International de Liaison des Écoles de Cinéma et de Télévision) Recognition.

The accreditation process through the Architects Registration Board, takes into account views from the student body and students are expected to reflect critically on their learning gain as evidence of the quality of the curriculum and their experiences of teaching and learning. Both Creative Skillset and Drama UK also consider student and alumni views in their decision-making processes.

The values and standards of employers are considered when courses are validated or reviewed and all validation and course review

panels include an industry representative. There is active use of Industry Liaison Groups whereby course teams meet regularly with industry colleagues to share the latest research and industrial practices with a view to developing new and innovative curricula. 100% of our courses integrate personal andprofessional development learning at every level and students are continually challenged to reflect critically on their learning in the context of cutting-edge industry practices. The Report of the Royal Institute of British Architects Visiting Board explicitly mentioned the confidence and ambition of the course team to challenge students to be innovative and to engage with realistic personal development that recognises the changing role of the architect and new and emerging forms of practice (2015).

It is important to the University that that those teaching have professional relevance and authenticity to ensure that our students are exposed to the latest developments in teaching professional practice. For example, teaching staff can demonstrate the following internationally-recognised achievements:

– The award of the Association of Photographers Gold Medal and the prestigious Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, (exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, 2015) for practice-based research on the traveller communities living under the Westway in London. This outstanding work in photographic practice

has been directly utilised in the development of curriculum design.

– The development of a system that supports the creation of historical patterns for a modern body shape. This innovative work has led to a recent publication on pattern drafting: Stays and Corsets: Historical patterns translated for the modern body and was presented at the conference of the leading association for practitioners and academics working in theatre design in the United States in 2016.

– Research into applied contemporary manufacturing methods to inform the construction of a replica model of the dome of Berlin’s Reichstag Building commissioned by the world-renowned architect Lord Norman Foster for presentation at a specialist symposium in Madrid in 2016.

As well as expertise in professional practice we have a developing culture of creative pedagogy evidenced in staff research and an increasing number of academic staff with doctoral qualifications. For example, research is being advanced in:

– Designs on learning, the role of cross-university collaborative undergraduate research symposia (2013) in For the Love of Learning, Innovation from Outstanding University Teachers, Palgrave-Macmillan.

– The development of new practice-based pedagogies: Collective Design: Merging Industry and educational methods for

multidisciplinary student design projects presented at the International Conference of Engineering and Product Design, (Copenhagen, 2016).

– Advances in architectural education, Make Re-Make: A Temporary 1:1 Workshop for Architectural Education, California Polytechnic State University, NCBDS32 Conference Proceedings - 1:1.

Our course design provides scope for outstanding levels of intellectual stretch and ensures that all our students acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding that

is highly valued by employers. To enable all students to experience industry standard work we ensure that 100% of our courses are involved in live briefs which are a vital part of a creative art and design curriculum enabling students to engage in real problems for real clients. This engagement with the ‘real world of work’ is explicitly referenced as part of our strategic intention to support highly skilled graduates. For example:

– BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design students worked on a brief to design the interior of a bar for a new Hilton Hotel, with one

student winning the commission to develop their work for the final design.

– BA (Hons) and MA Illustration students designed a Smart car ‘wrap’ for clients Mercedes Benz (2015).

– BA (Hons) Graphic Design students worked alongside industry designers on ethical design. A measure of their success was that one student won a Royal Society of Arts Award and six students won prizes, including gold, at the Creative Conscience Awards (2016).

– BA (Hons) Fine Art students worked with researchers at the international Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) in Oxford, supporting scientists to find new ways of explaining what scientists do and why to a wider audience.

– The Students’ Union works collaboratively with all students to foster a professional culture, for example, developing a campus magazine and running a linked exhibition space to enable students to present and contextualise their work in a gallery environment.

We also facilitate many opportunities for our students to undertake internships and industry placements. For example:

– BA (Hons) Textiles students have worked with cutting-edge fashion designers such as Matthew Williamson, Eley Kishimoto and Zandra Rhodes, and design studios such as Mirjam Rouden and Eyefix.

– BA (Hons) Film Production and BA (Hons) Animation Production students have secured internships at Framestore, the leading European post-production company with a studio on the University campus. This has enabled our graduates to contribute to Academy Award (The Oscars) winning feature films such as Gravity (Cuarón, 2013).

The external verification of our courses, coupled with excellent employment outcomes, gives us the confidence that our students are well equipped for graduate level employment and leadership in their chosen fields. The following examples give further testimony to the impact of our high quality, practice led-teaching:

I have provided work placement opportunities with AUB costume and performance design for the last 8 years across a selection of drama productions including Hustle, Dancing on the Edge, WPC56 and Father Brown…. It is fundamental that the students undertaking work placement arrive already armed with a foundation of key technical and creative skills alongside a committed work ethic. The understanding of industry practice is outstanding as is the students’ ability to transfer their skills from classroom to workplace. I am yet to experience work placement students from other costume courses that demonstrate such a broad range of fundamental skills, understanding of industry practice and willingness to turn their hand to anything.Costume Designer, BBC

It’s a pleasure to be able to offer [her] employment at my wig making company. She is a talented wigmaker and her studies at AUB have prepared her well for the reality of the industry.Hair and Make-up Artist, Academy Award and BAFTA winner

The curriculum is designed to encompass comprehensive and innovative assessment practices. These consist of collaborative group work; the production of creative artefacts; live performances; presentations and group critiques, all of which provide effective preparation for the studio culture of the creative industries in which many of our graduates work.

AUB’s Bournemouth Film School, the largest film school outside London and which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016, brings together the many disciplines across the University required to produce and market a film including animation, visual effects design, film production, costume, make-up, acting, modelmaking, graphics, dance and events management. The University’s commitment to this collaborative, practice-led approach to teaching and learning is evidenced in its annual investment of circa £230,000 to support all student productions such as theatre performances and short films. The success of this approach is evidenced in the student film Little which won the national Royal Television Society Student Television Award for Comedy and Entertainment in 2015.

The External Examiner for BA (Hons) Make Up for Media and Performance (2016), confirmed the value of collaboration at the University:

Internal and external collaboration at AUB is continuous and superb, the evidence of this was rich throughout the work, with student assessments tasks linked closely to other courses at AUB; Fashion, Photography, Theatre, and other theatrical/media based productions outside of AUB. The team manage this superbly and the students respond to this experience with fantastic positivity. I would say that the collaborative provision for the MUFMAP [BA (Hons) Make Up for Media and Performance] is the best I have seen in practice in the UK and this is evident in the portfolios, web content and assessment output.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Providing a professionally relevant teaching and learning environmentOur students benefit from an outstanding learning environment that supports our specialist courses. The campus has been designed to have physical, visual and discipline coherence; this includes the design of specialist teaching spaces and studios. The overall effect is one of a unified creative community with high levels of engagement by our students and which promotes a sense of belonging. This has had a positive impact shown in our excellent retention data. In the AUB 2015/16 Student Perception Survey 95% of students confirmed that they were proud to be a student of the Arts University Bournemouth.

The University has made significant investment of £28 million in a building programme to realise new studio spaces in the last three years. This programme further enriches the student-learning environment with 100% of the estate rated as Excellent or Good for Functional Suitability between 2012/13 and 2014/15 in HESA Estates Management Return. Our studios and production spaces mirror the working environment as closely as possible. This is evidenced in the following examples:

– A dedicated ‘maker’ space housing up-to- date software and hardware for the study of graphic design.

– The University has been an advanced partner of ‘Lectra’ the world-leading fashion technology system since 2011.

– The University was also one of the first in the country to offer students exceptional high quality, industry-standard digital cinematography resources and one of the first in the country to purchase a high-end Chromira Digital Colour Printer for student photographers.

Exposure to cutting-edge digital resources ensures that students are ‘work-ready’ which in turn contributes to our consistently highly skilled employment statistics. In addition to studios the University has developed other specialist supporting resources. For example:

– The first dedicated drawing studio to be built in the UK for more than a century. Its primary significance lies not in the 17 plus awards that the building has won, including the RIBA National Award and World Architecture Federation nomination, but in enabling the development of visualisation skills for students, a fundamental pre-requisite for anyone working in the creative industries.

– The Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP), the only accredited museum dedicated to design in plastics in the UK and fully funded by

the University since its formal inception in 2007. The Museum also supports the visualisation and design skills of our students in providing comprehensive examples of the history of natural and synthetic plastics in design with some 12,500 artefacts in its collection. Our investment was formally recognised by HEFCE as one of only 33 museums awarded Higher Education Museum, Galleries and Collections funding in January 2017.

– ‘TheGallery’, a unique space for arts in the South of England, brings creative work to the region and to the campus from major museums and collections. The text + work research programme that accompanies exhibitions provides a challenging dialogue between innovative contemporary art, design and media practice and its theoretical context.

Arts University Bournemouth students feature consistently as finalists and winners of many prestigious industry prizes and awards demonstrating their active commitment to learning and study. For example:

– BA (Hons) Fashion students were recognised with awards at Graduate Fashion Week 2016 including the George at ASDA Catwalk to Store Award.

– BA (Hons) Graphic Design students won eight D&AD New Blood Awards 2016

– BA (Hons) Commercial Photography students won the Single Image British Journal of Photography Breakthrough Awards (2015) and the Royal Photographic Society Photographic Essay Award and the Open Award (2015).

The External Examiner for BA (Hons) Graphic Design (2015) commended the team for student competition successes in a number of national competitions as this demonstrated the professional capabilities of the students beyond the University. Students often use awards and prizes in their interview portfolios to gain their first employment opportunities.

STUDENT OUTCOMES AND LEARNING GAIN

Performance for specific student groups The University consistently achieves outstanding outcomes for its students for all backgrounds as evidenced in the outstanding performance shown in the split metrics across all the specific target groups. These high levels of congruency in the

metrics are particularly important when taking into consideration the data showing that 28% of our students are from a low entry tariff starting point.

In the Social Mobility Graduate Index (2014), the University was ranked in the top ten out of 162 institutions, for the very high proportion of students from disadvantaged groups or backgrounds and non-traditional students in graduate-level jobs within six months of leaving university.

We have made an active commitment to ensuring positive outcomes for every student; each one is challenged to realise his or her full potential. This is particularly important at a University where over 16% of students have a defined disability, most commonly dyslexia. All students can access the support offered through Student Services including academic support, well-being, disability and mentoring; access to this support is not dependent on students being in receipt of the Disabled Students’ Allowance.

The University is also particularly mindful of the need to protect the quality and equality of student experience and outcomes. As part of its commitment to ensuring assessment parity the University undertakes a verification exercise every year that benchmarks final year work across all courses. In addition, the University is sponsoring an internal research project into the grading of written cultural theory assessments and their impact on final degree classifications.

AUB has a significant record of research into diversity and creative pedagogy, for example:

– Ground breaking action research with dyslexic students to support their voice actor training (2016) A facilitation of dyslexia through a remediation of Shakespeare’s text, Routledge/Taylor Francis.

– Strategic and directed support to make the most of mentoring as a career intervention paper presented at the 2013 British Educational Research Association Annual Conference.

– HEFCE project on the impact of work placement on Employability Learning Gain (2016) (with partners).

– HEFCE project on lecture transcription to support dyslexia (pending 2017, with partners).

– HEA funded project to address Black and Minority Ethnic attainment (2015).

CONCLUSION

Ultimately the most powerful validation of our teaching excellence is in the work and the words of our students:

It has been a fantastic three years, and I would not have been able to get through it without the support and advice from the fantastic team of tutors and technicians. Since graduating, I am in the process for setting up my own business while doing free-lance work on the side, and will be exhibiting at The National Centre for Craft and Design come September.BA (Hons) Textiles

We get to collaborate with a lot of courses, particularly Make-up for Media and Performance. Each year gets better and better. When we give feedback, the course always tries to improve. BA (Hons) Costume and Performance Design

I got an Association of Professional Model Makers award for my project. I won First Prize in the 2016 Art Hedlund Student Modelmaking Competition….My time at AUB had been really great. The course has been amazing and the tutors have been incredible. It’s really nice to have had the freedom to do what you want to do. BA (Hons) Modelmaking

AUB is proud to submit this Provider Statement to contextualise our consistently outstanding achievements in areas demonstrated by the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) metrics. The University’s exceptional achievements in teaching were further validated in November 2016 by the award of the prestigious Sir Misha Black prize for our innovation in Design Education. This international award recognises the exemplary nature of the curriculum and its impact on teaching and learning across our whole provision.