King’s College London is glad to announce its participation in the Erasmus+ funded ESSA Project. This 3-year project has been developing a more flexible approach to student learning, assessment and certification across Europe’s higher education sector through providing an opportunity to engage with a real-world issue that is of considerable significance to many of them – social responsibility.

The ESSA Project is led by the UK’s National Union of Students, supported by the European Students’ Union, working with the University of Edinburgh (UK), the University of Porto (Portugal), Kaunas University of Technology and the Students’ Associations of these universities (EUSA, AEFPCEUP and KTUSA).

The project makes use of the Benchmark Standards for University Social Responsibility across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and strives to effectively engage students as active agents of their own learning.

A cohort of 20 students from the three participating universities have been trained as Social Responsibility Auditors in a student-centred, action-reflection learning based programme. From the 11th to the 15th March, they delivered an audit of King’s, complete with an audit report that provides the university with recommendations for improvements in the sphere or university social responsibility. During the audit, they examined King’s policies and procedures, interviewed senior staff, and conducted a focus group with King’s students.

8 students from King’s have also been trained as Social Responsibility Audit Assistants, and supported the visiting students throughout the audit of King’s.

Visiting students will be awarded a Level 6 European Qualification Framework Certificate in Social Responsibility Auditing following satisfactory completion of the training, the linked audit and the assessment of an individual e-portfolio of evidence of learning.

The ESSA Project itself will provide an innovative Open Education Resource (OER), to be launched in summer 2019, that will provide universities across the European Higher Education Area to deliver the programme.

Students Auditors from Edinburgh, Porto and Kaunas University

For more information, consult www.essaproject.eu