Students as Partners at Deakin

In mid- 2019 Deakin commenced a pilot Capacity and Culture project which built upon an initial 2018 Deakin Students as Partners (SaP) project. Its broad purpose was to steer the framework that had been developed earlier, and to create tools and resources which would be trialled by six smaller SaP projects, with feedback and suggestions provided by staff and student project “champions.”  

Taking an equity-first approach, the Capacity and Culture project endeavoured to fully operationalise several Guiding Principles. Student and staff partners worked together to co-develop a professional development program for staff across the university who are interested in adopting/participating in  a students as partners approach,  and also a development program for Deakin students interested in adopting/participating  in a students as partners approach.

The project champions were consulted throughout this project, and our first community of practice meeting, which included these champions and other interested parties, was held across all campuses in December.  The SaP Community of Practice now includes members from a Maths Help Site Project, an Evaluation Project, a Governance/Hallmarks Project, a Wellbeing Project, a CloudFirst Co-Design Project and a Social and Cultural Engagement Project.

The project team listened to all involved staff and student partners to develop the most effective SaP training and support package possible.  They found that staff were concerned about the time needed for face-to-face training and felt that training on a ‘needs to know’ basis would provide the greatest flexibility and ensure that the training focused specifically on what each staff partner needed to know, making it an efficient approach. Students, however, expressed a preference for face-to-face training, with its immediate feedback and support.

With this feedback in mind, the project team (which is available for consultations) developed and implemented a resource/support package that includes a SaP SharePoint and a SaP Microsoft Teams site.  Student partner training (in development and likely to be offered in 2020) will be held centrally to ensure that potential student partners have a good understanding of SaP at Deakin.

The staff partners handbook contains information needed by staff who are interested in implementing SaP at Deakin, including an overview of SaP, what it is at Deakin, how to start a program, resources and testimonials from student and staff partners. While the student handbook is similar, it focuses on what potential or current student partners need to know. A major emphasis in this handbook is encouraging students who normally would not be involved in working with staff to consider becoming a student partner.

The Culture and Capacity project developed, implemented and revised several SaP tools for use by Deakin SaP initiatives. They include a profiling tool, a participation matrix, a timeline template, a program evaluation template, an “Agility” planning model, and student reflection as well as self-evaluation sheets so that students can describe, examine and articulate their learning.

The project was successful in developing not just tools and handbooks but in cultivating a culture of partnership that demonstrates and enacts the core values of respect, reciprocity and shared responsibility. Learnings have been significant and substantial for both student and staff partners involved in the project. Partners from this project are playing a major role in leading and organising the 2020 international SaP Roundtable that will be hosted by Deakin at Deakin Downtown August 28, 2020.

Further reading can be found here: https://studentsuccessjournal.org/article/view/1311/779