Having been posed the question about what success might look like for students, I pondered for a few days trying to conjure up an appropriate answer.   You might think the answer is simple, after all the Oxford Dictionary defines ‘success’ as ‘The achievement of a desired result or outcome; the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.’   But what is that desired result or outcome?  For students and many others, I would suggest that the simple answer that comes readily to mind is a good degree.

Some will have looked beyond this perhaps suggesting that a desired result would be a good degree leading to a good job.  But such statements feel a little too simple, what is a good degree and what is a good job?  If we were to stick with generally accepted definitions, then a good degree is one where a student obtains a first or a 2:1and a good job is one that is defined as a graduate job.  Such definitions though serve to devalue both the achievements of many students and of the jobs that students take up.  

Students are all different, come from diverse backgrounds and deal with a plethora of social, economic and personal circumstances.  Achievement or what we might deem as success is only truly measured by taking these multiple, often hidden, facets of a student’s life into account.  Several of our students find work after university in organisations where the class of degree has little relevance, but the work makes a real difference to society; work in charitable organisations come to mind.  What many of these students have demonstrated is that through their studies and engagement with their course they have become able to understand the world through a different, far more critical lens.  They can show confidence, have conviction, argue their case, they can provide leadership where it is needed and above all they are able to show empathy, something sadly lacking in contemporary society.  And that to me is real success.  I

t is not what you can spout out parrot fashion from a book, not an AI generated essay; it is when the light comes on and a student can see what they did not see before, they attempt what they would not attempt before.  Success is part of a journey, but one where students have knowledge and skills to navigate to where they, and they alone, want to be.  Success is not what others define for you, success is whatever you decide it should be.