Students as Partners Framework: Approaches to Partnership
There are many ways in which we can build relationships between students and staff that can enable students to have a voice within the university. Deakin’s Student Partnership Framework sets out four broad approaches to establish goals for effectice student partnership.
Students as Partners at Deakin has been a program of work that commenced in 2018 and has centred on designing a scalable framework from which to build our Students as Partners activities and initiatives for Deakin. This framework conceptualises levels of engagement, voice and agency when engaging in student partnership.
There is no ideal approach to Students as Partners. Your unique approach will depend based on the aims or goals, available time and resources, and the individual students you are partnering with. You may also use multiple levels of partnership to strategically position your project in meaningful partnership with students. You may also find this framework useful in your professional practice as you work to embed student partnership principles into your work, teaching, and student interactions.
The four approaches to student partnership
- Students as sounding boards
- Students as influencers
- Students as decision-makers
- Students as co-creators
Students as Sounding Boards
Inform/Consult
Staff make a commitment to learn and acknowledge students’ unique opinions, perspectives, ideas, and/or concerns. This approach is helpful for staff who are just starting to engage in student experience research or practice and perhaps would like a starting-point or broad sample of perspectives and experiences to inform future planning.
Examples of potential activities that align to students as sounding boards include staff conducting focus groups, interviews, or surveys. Staff may also choose to collect student perspectives or ideas through open forums or online discussion forums. Other activities to collect student concerns or opinions may also include online polls or voting exercises.
Students as Influencers
Participate
The next approach, called Students as Influencers, are projects where staff actively involve students to ensure their input influences outputs or decisions. Therefore, a key difference between students as sounding boards and students as influencers is the transition from listening to students to actively engaging them in continuous dialogue.
Some examples of projects that take this approach include Student Advisory Groups, or students working with staff to create a report with recommendations. Another mechanism to involve students as influencers is to have student partners help staff conduct focus groups, interviews, or surveys (rather than just having students as participants, which would be students as sounding boards).
Students as Decision Makers
Partners
Students as Decision Makers are projects where staff have empowered the students to make decisions and take a more active role in shaping future initiatives and projects. In these activities, students are not only asked to participate and help, they are asked to co-generate solutions or decide future direction.
Similar to Students as Influencers, Students as Decision Makers requires ongoing dialogue to enable reciprocal learning. However, also key in this approach is transparency, or staff being honest about the issue or problem they are facing. For example, if staff approach students about improving mental health and wellbeing services at the university, they should also provide information on the current usage of services as well as any feedback or complaints students have made. If students don’t understand the problem, then it’s impossible to co-generate the solution.
Some examples of this approach are design thinking workshops (or design sprints) where students and staff work together to investigate a problem or topic and then colwhere students not only suggest ideas but are actually given the power to decide the focus of future work.
Students as Co-Creators
Control
Students as Co-Creators is a popular and highly meaningful form of student partnership. In this approach students and staff work together towards the creation of something, for example: curriculum, a learning resource, an event, or workshop, or even a new policy.
In these instances, shared decision-making and joint power are key, as both parties contribute their expertise to co-create the product or outcome. While students as co-creators have lots of benefits, it’s important not to jump to this step if you first haven’t considered the other approaches.
For example, it may not be productive to try co-creating a learning resource with students if you haven’t first asked a larger sample of students what type of learning resources may be beneficial for them. Co-creation can also be challenging for staff, as they may have to let go of control that they’re typically used to having. Uncertainty is a common feeling during co-creation. For example, staff may want to co-create an event with students but when they ask students to collaborate, the students suggest that the event may not be suitable or interesting to students. Key to co-creation therefore is maintaining an open mind and taking ownership of the learning experience inherent to this process.
Example activities might include co-designing curriculum, assessment or resources, co-designing or co-conducting training for staff, or co-researching and co-writing a new policy.
Reflecting on partnership approaches
Regardless of the approach you decide to take, it’s critical to reflect on some key questions before you begin:
Am I truly open minded about what the outcomes or outputs of this project may be? Am I ready to share this project with student partners?
Do I have the time in my workload to support the students successfully in this project? How can I make it a great experience for them too?
These questions are important because authentic partnership requires a commitment to the process of exploration and relationship-building with students, both of which can take time.
Finally, it’s important to remember why we engage in partnerships with students in the first place – to respect and learn from the unique perspectives offered on the student experience.
Successful partnership projects are mediated on the idea of reciprocal learning. Staff learning about students’ lived experiences, and students learning from staff about a discipline, project management, or how an organisation works. So before beginning, ask yourself, ‘What am I going to teach or share?’ and ‘What am I going to learn?’
