Your Journey to Success: A student crowdsourced research project

Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) is conducting a research study to explore student experiences, particularly focusing on what contributes to student wellbeing, a sense of belonging, and overall success. This study is part of a larger project funded by TASO (Centre for Transforming Access & Student Outcomes) and Ipsos UK. The goal is to understand which factors and interventions help students thrive.

We hope you will join us by contributing your own unique voice to the study. This web page explains what the study is about, what you will gain by participating, and how your personal data will be used and stored. Use the links below for more detailed FAQs about how the study will work, about data confidentiality and protection, and about the potential benefits and drawbacks of participating.

Participation is voluntary. Please consider all the information carefully to decide whether you want to participate.

Background: What the study is for

The Your Journey to Success study at CCCU explores student experiences and success, focusing on what contributes to wellbeing and belonging. It’s part of a larger project testing evaluation methods for student wellbeing interventions, supported by TASO and Ipsos UK.

To ensure strong results, we need to crowdsource as much student input as possible. We’re inviting you to join in by sharing reflections on your own data and experiences. Will you join us? You can still join in from now even if you haven’t participated in earlier stages.

Participation Information and FAQS

Background, Funding and Research Methods

For the Your Journey to Success study, we are asking students to help us test and develop approaches for implementing CCCU’s Vision 2030 commitments to ‘ensure our students are cocreators of their learning experience’ and to ‘place wellbeing at the centre of every student’s experience, ensuring every student thrives through a compassionate and inclusive student journey, innovative curriculum and a strong sense of belonging with successful outcomes for all’.

The study is part of a project arranged and funded by TASO (Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes). TASO is a What Works Centre funded by the Office for Students with a mission to improve lives through evidence-informed practice in higher education. CCCU is one of three universities included in the project, which is focused on the use of quasi-experimental design methods to test the impact of interventions to improve the student experience.

TASO has appointed the global research group, Ipsos, to work with the three universities in designing their studies and to act as an independent evaluator of each study. Participating in the project offers CCCU a very valuable opportunity to benefit from the expertise of these respected external partners. The study will help CCCU to develop evaluation frameworks, which can also be used in the future to test approaches for improving student experience and learning.

We are seeking the active participation of CCCU students to crowdsource data for this project. We need as many participants as possible because quasi-experimental design methods need high volumes of data in order to make comparative analyses which can find causal connections between interventions and outcomes. We are also asking participants to join us as co-researchers by reflecting on their own data and experiences in order to identify key ingredients relevant to their own success.

What is meant by ‘crowdsourced’ research and being a ‘co-researcher’?

We are seeking the active participation of CCCU students as co-researchers in this project. Crowdsourced research means asking members of the public to help collect the data for a research project. We need to crowdsource data from as many students as possible because quasi-experimental design methods need high volumes of participant data in order to make comparative analyses which can find causal connections between interventions and outcomes. Asking you to join as a co-researcher means we are not just asking you to answer some questions in a survey. We are also asking you to help us identify relevant data and relevant ways to analyse the data, by reflecting on your own data and experiences in order to identify key ingredients relevant to your own success. You don’t need any special knowledge or research training for this – you are the expert on your own experience.

The study will have further follow up phases with evaluation and cocreation focus groups and other activities aiming to develop online modules for a new curriculum. These phases will be recruited to separately. Participating in the first phase doesn’t commit you to participation in any other phase of the study.

Will you join in? Please read the other FAQ sheets together with the participant information summary to find out more.

Survey Participation Full Procedures

The online Check In surveys each require you to answer questions relating to your student experience, wellbeing and sense of belonging. We have called them Reflection Toolkits because they provide an opportunity to reflect on challenges you have faced and your personal development.

You will need to consent to your survey answers being linked with other data that the University already collects, such as data about: your personal characteristics; your attendance and engagement with learning; your module feedback, completion and outcomes; your use of support.

(See below for how we ensure that this data will be processed confidentially and analysed anonymously.)

• Consent: Once you have considered the participant information in full, and understand how your data from the surveys will be linked and processed, you can decide whether you are happy to provide your informed consent to participate in the study.
• Survey Check In 1 (September): This survey was available at the start of the Expect Respect mini-module, which all students are expected to complete this year.
• Survey Check In 2 (November/December): This will be publicised to all students during November and December, and focuses on a review of your year so far. If you chose not to take part in Check In 1, you could still complete Check In 2 but would not have had access to any comparative data for your reflections.
• Survey Check In 3 (April): This will be publicised to all students during April and focuses on a review of your year so far. If you chose not to take part in Check In 1 or 2, you can still complete Check In 3 but will not have access to any comparative data from previous surveys for your reflections.

Part A: The first section of Check In 3 will have the same 10-minute question set as Check In 1. Part B: The second section of Check In 3 takes about 30 minutes, with the opportunity to reflect on your own data and space to describe your experiences in your own words.

Evaluation interviews & focus groups (April):

The University collects, processes and analyses data about you and your engagement with learning as part of delivering and evaluating your learning experience. The Student Privacy Notice tells you more about how this data is routinely processed and used for evaluation. You will make your own decisions about participation in your course and the suggested activities that your course team provides to support your learning.

Consenting for your survey data to be linked with all your other data, and then processed anonymously with data from other students, will allow powerful analysis to determine key ingredients which contribute to student wellbeing, belonging and successful outcomes at CCCU.

Prizes

The first 250 students who completed Check In 1 received a £3.50 UPAY voucher (enough for you and a friend to get a coffee).

A draw took place for 20 x £30 voucher which you could choose to redeem with: a CCCU hoodie, a book bundle/book tokens for CCCU bookshop, UPay voucher (for CCCU catering outlets), Christ Church Students’ Union clubs/societies/events, or a 2-month student gym membership. You could use the vouchers for yourself and a friend, if you wish (e.g. two 1-month gym memberships).

Prize distribution took place in mid-October one week after the survey closes.

Check-In 2 Prizes:

• 20 x £30 and 1x £75 voucher which you can choose to redeem in either: the bookshop, catering outlets, Christ Church Students’ Union or student gym membership.
• 1 x £100 and 1 x £250 shopping vouchers.

You were eligible for these prizes if you completed Check In 2, even if you didn’t complete Check In 1.

Check-In 3 Prizes:

As a one-time thank you offer to every student who completes Check In 3, you can opt in to receive a shopping voucher worth up to £15; £5 for completing Part A and £10 for completing Part B.

You can also opt in to be entered into a prize draw to win a shopping voucher worth £200!

Other research activity prizes:

Benefits and Drawbacks

Take time to consider the various benefits and potential drawbacks of participating in the study, and how to get the most out of it:

• Personal development: The Check In surveys are designed as reflection toolkits with personalised feedback and tips which may help you develop personal insight and contribute to your own wellbeing, sense of belonging and success. Even if you find it challenging, completing a Check In may give you a sense of achievement.
  
  
• Making a difference: We need as many unique voices as possible in order to produce robust findings. Sharing your experiences in the surveys or co-creation activities will contribute to findings aiming to improve the experience of future students and shape new modules, and quotes from the surveys will be shared anonymously to inspire other students (e.g. in the new online module).
  
  
• Learning about research and cocreation: It’s an opportunity to experience from the inside being part of a research study, considering the different kinds of data and research methods that can contribute to useful results and playing an active part in cocreating outputs.
  
  
• Prizes: You will be able to opt in to receive shopping voucher and/or a prize designed to give an extra little boost to your wellbeing, belonging and success as outlined above. For many of the options you’ll be able to pay for a friend as well, to support building your connections.

There are also various potential risks or drawbacks to consider and plan for:

• Planning your time and self-care: Participating in the Check In 3 will not take a lot of your time. Part A takes 10 minutes and Part B takes a total of 30 minutes. But you will get the most out of participating if you plan to complete the Check Ins without rushing, and leave time to reflect on the personalised feedback you receive and maybe to do something soothing or fun afterwards.
  
  
• Managing potential discomfort: The survey questions explicitly ask you to reflect on issues that are likely to connect with a range of emotions. You will not be asked to provide any details or descriptions of personal experiences you do not want to share, but it is possible that reflecting on any challenging experiences may cause you some discomfort or distress, especially if you are finding things particularly difficult at the moment. The feedback will offer suggestions and signposting for additional self-care and support if you have any distress.
  
  
• Self-care for painful memories: Being asked to reflect on your current sense of belonging has the potential to evoke painful memories or emotions if you have had difficult experiences recently or in the past. Check In 1 and 2 will cover some further challenging topics, including asking about experiences of harassment or sexual misconduct. This may cause particularly difficult feelings or trigger painful memories or emotions due to previous trauma. You can choose to participate in the rest of the survey while skipping that section if this is the right decision for you. If you have concerns then it would be useful to plan in advance some self-care strategies that you can use to help you manage any discomfort or distress that might arise.

• Making an informed decision: There is evidence that reflective activities similar to this can contribute to an improved sense of belonging and to your ultimate success in your studies. It can be very beneficial to engage directly with challenging feelings, rather than avoiding them, but this should be done freely and at a time that is right for you. It is good practice to plan ahead for self-care even if you don’t have any particular concerns. Key strategies include making sure you have enough time to complete the reflection tool without being under pressure, and that you have planned in advance who you could reach out to if you want to talk things through or need some additional support.

Data Confidentiality and Protection

Confidential linking and anonymising: By consenting to participate in the research activities you are consenting for the identifying personal data you supply (name, date of birth and student ID number) to be stored confidentially, accessible only to a small research and evaluation team, and used for the purposes of confidentially linking your data from the research activities with your other student data. Your linked data set will be ‘pseudonymised’, which means it will be assigned a unique code with no identifying features so that your data set can be separately stored, processed, shared and analysed anonymously.

Personal and special category data: In order to identify effective interventions to improve student wellbeing, belonging and success the study will collect and process relevant personal and special category data. The University collects and processes a variety of relevant personal and special category data about you, and data from the study surveys will contain any additional personal and special category data which you choose to share about your personal identity characteristics, including race/ethnicity, religion, mental health, disability, sex life and sexual orientation.

Data protection accountability and governance: The arrangements for data processing and sharing have been fully reviewed via the University’s Information Governance processes and a DPIA has been completed. The agreed external research partners, TASO and Ipsos UK, have also conducted accountability and governance reviews and DPIAs for their role in the study, contributing to a joint Data Sharing Agreement reviewed by the CCCU Information Governance team.

Lawful basis for data processing and sharing: The Data Sharing Contract designates Canterbury Christ Church University, TASO and Ipsos UK as Joint Controllers of the study data for the duration of the evaluation. The legal basis for processing this data has been determined as the Legitimate Interests of Not-for-profit Bodies for Archiving, Research and Statistics purposes. Canterbury Christ Church University is the owner of the data collected and collated for the study, and also remains an Independent Controller of the data. CCCU will continue to store and review the data in line with the lawful bases outlined in its Student Privacy Notice and Student Survey Privacy Notice, including for Legitimate Interests such as benchmarking and further evaluation of its teaching, learning and support services.

Data access: The study is led by the CCCU Director of Student Wellbeing, Community & Belonging, supported by an Intervention Co-ordinator. A Research Fellow role designated as Evaluation Co-ordinator for the project (which may be occupied by more than one individual, e.g. on a job-share or individual basis) will report to the Director, with support from technical and research staff in the CCCU School of Psychology and Life Sciences and from central teams in the University responsible for student data analysis. The Evaluation Co-ordinator/s (or appropriate delegate) will be responsible for confidentially processing your personal data in order to create a personalised link between the two sets of survey data. They will also be responsible for confidentially linking your survey data with your other student data and pseudonymising the data set, then following contracted processes for sharing the pseudonymised data with the external evaluation partner, Ipsos UK. The Evaluation Co-ordinator/s (or appropriate delegates) will be responsible for maintaining and accessing the separately stored list of participants when needed, for example if you agree to being contacted about further opportunities to participate in follow up parts of the study. The Evaluation Co-ordinator (or any other appropriate delegated CCCU staff member e.g. from a central responsible for data analysis and evaluation) will not be responsible for any teaching or student support.

Retention of personal identifying data: The key connecting your assigned unique code with your identifying personal data (name, date of birth and student ID number) will be retained confidentially in a separately stored list for up to 10 years, in order for the University to contact you about possible participation in further linked evaluation studies about your student experience and success. Pseudonymised data sets will be retained for 10 years per CCCU’s Retention schedule. You are under no obligation to agree to provide any further information or to participate in any further study. There will be an opportunity in each research activity to opt out of being contacted for this purpose. Each research activity will have a separate opt in for the prize draw, for which you will need to provide your email address. This will be kept in a separate list specifically for the prize draw. This list will be deleted once the prize draws have taken place.

Data platforms and sharing: Data will be stored and processed using approved, secure, password protected methods and platforms. Survey data will initially be collected and processed on the CCCU Qualtrics platform and then processed via statistical and other software and stored on restricted access SharePoint site on University servers. Other data will be downloaded from other University systems and platforms in order to be linked and stored on the restricted SharePoint site. Pseudonymised and amalgamated data sets will be shared with Ipsos UK via its ‘Ipsos Transfer’ system using a web based secure file transfer portal with timed secure links and stored on its secure third party UK servers. Both Ipsos and CCCU may use a range of approved statistical platforms and systems to process and analyse the data.

Data processing for independent evaluation: Unless you have opted out from being contacted for further phases or studies, you may be contacted to see if you wish to consider participating confidentially in an independent evaluation focus group run by Ipsos. If you agree to participate, this might result in your pseudonymised data set from this first phase of the study being re-linked with your identifying personal data (name and contact details). However, this further phase of the study has a separate information and consent process and you will be under no obligation to participate.

Data archiving and further uses: The amalgamated and analysed data sets and findings will be archived by Ipsos in a manner which will aid secondary analysis to inform further research conducted for the benefit of society. The data and findings will likewise be stored and reviewed by Canterbury Christ Church University for the purposes of benchmarking and use in further evaluation and analysis. Staff in designated evaluation roles, or with evaluation remits, may access the data sets for further review when collating evidence for internal and external evaluation purposes including formal returns or applications in relation to the University’s Access & Participation Plan, Office for Students conditions for registration, the Teaching Excellence Framework, applications for a University Mental Health Charter Award or the Race Equality Charter and so on.

Results and Findings

Students will be able to engage with initial analysis and findings from this first phase of the study during the second phase of the study, which will include evaluation and co-creation workshops including those conducted independently by Ipsos. Practical outputs from the study and its later phases will include content for some of the new online Success Modules to be rolled out in 2025/26 in as part of the University’s new academic framework.

CCCU will aim to disseminate some of the high-level research findings internally, via student and staff newsletters and blog posts, and here on the study web pages. Some findings may be used within formal reports or charter applications, some of which may be made accessible to students and staff. The project team will also seek to make secondary analyses of the data and to publish relevant findings in relevant academic/research journals.

Timeline and Updates

Check In 2 opened on Monday 9 December 2024 and closed on Friday 10 January 2025.

Check In 3 will open at the end of March and close on Wednesday, 30 April 2025.

Contact Us

If you after reading these FAQs you have any further questions or concerns then you can contact the principal investigator: Dr Denise Meyer, Director of Student Wellbeing, Community & Belonging via directorstudentwellbeing@canterbury.ac.uk