This highly participative workshop will allow attendees to explore what supporting Student Success in and through Higher Education might look like in the context of a student lifecycle and whole-of-institution approach to an effective student success strategy. Our workshop we explore three interconnected themes: Student Transitions, Supporting Student Transitions and Empowering Student Success
Martin Ryan will introduce Design Thinking as a concept to participants and how it has been successfully used in other HE situations to improve student and staff experiences. Participants will have an opportunity to work through one stage of the Design Thinking process. This is a Design Thinking taster as opposed to a full workshop (this will hopefully come later!)
Oisin Hassan
Oisín is the Vice President for Academic Affairs with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), a national organisation representing over 374,000 on both sides of the border.
He is a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast in Law with Politics, and has begun an LLM in Law and Governance. He previously served as Vice President Equality and Diversity (2015/16) and Vice President Education (2016/17) in Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union, before election to USI.
Oisín sits on the Board of the QQI and on the Board of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. He is Chairperson of the National Student Engagement Network set up under NStEP.
Katie Deegan
Katie Deegan is Maynooth Students' Union's VP of education. During her time in Maynooth University Katie completed her degree in Business Management, was an academic rep and sat on the MSU senate. As VP of education Katie organises campaigns to help students during exam time, academic advisory campaigns and up skilling campaigns. She recruits and trains academic reps and ensures students voice is heard regarding any academic decisions made by Maynooth University.
Caitriona McGrattan
Caitriona McGrattan works in area of educational engagement at Maynooth University. Through her work, Caitriona empowers students to make informed decisions about their educational journey. She is also a part-time doctoral student in TU Dublin. She holds a BA from UL, a PG Diploma from UCC and a Masters in Child, Family & Community Studies from DIT. Caitriona has 10+ year’s experience in student support and engagement roles in a number of Irish Higher Education institutions including Dublin Business School, Trinity College Dublin and presently at Maynooth University. These personal and professional experiences have inspired her doctoral research into the academic engagement at Irish Universities. Her research interests include measuring Student Success, Higher Education Policy, student volunteerism, student transitions and the Second Year Experience.
Martin Ryan
Martin Ryan is programme director for the Product Design degree, lecturer and researcher in the Department of Design Innovation and editor of Ireland's only design journal, Iterations. After graduating from NCAD in 2005 he first worked in new product development with LED Group, a leading producer of lighting solutions in Europe under the ROBUS brand, managing projects from concept through to early production in China. Martin has also experience in the design of homeware consumables, sports equipment and industrial equipment in a consultancy function. In 2012 he founded www.buasaddles.com, a company servicing the equestrian industry based on a new technology, raised start up capital and established a leadership team. Since joining Maynooth Martin regularly guest lectures on a number of master programmes and to industry groups on topics of entrepreneurship, design thinking, service design and innovation. To date Martin has acclaimed a number of awards in design and entrepreneurship, notably including the Irish Dyson Design Award, IDI Graduate Designer Award, and finalist in the International Volvo Sports Design Award. His research interests centre on Design Thinking as a mediator of Innovation in SMEs.
Martin’s colleagues in EDEN recently successfully bid for funding from the HEA Innovation and Transformation Programme 2018. €810,950 has been awarded for the development of “Mi-Lab – the Maynooth University Innovation Lab,” which will harness Maynooth’s unique expertise to apply design thinking to current problems and issues in the education sector, including the structure of and access to postgraduate studies to improve pathways and outcomes for students.