How are staff student partnerships driving institutional change?

1. How are staff-student partnerships driving institutional
change?
Sarah Knight, Student experience, Jisc
London
9/12/2015
@CANagogy #JiscCAN http://can.jiscinvolve.org

2. Students as change agents - why do it?
‘In order for universities and colleges to foster more inclusive learning
environments, we believe that students must be empowered as
active and participatory agents, not as mere consumers, so that they
can articulate their own conceptions of what makes good learning
environments, and work in partnership with academics and
administrators to realise these conceptions.’
Report available from http://bit.ly/1L0Q02c
» The 2014 NUS Report, radical interventions in teaching and
learning:

3. Role of students as change agents
» Student ‘change agents’ are students who work with staff to lead, support or develop
change within an institution
» The 2014 UCISA Digital capabilities survey reports that 30% of respondents are working
with students as change agents with another 46% of respondents ‘working towards’ this.
» Different ways change agents can work from leading their own change to supporting a
defined project or taking part in institutional processes such as recruitment and teaching
practice observations
» Titles may differ:
› Champions, change agents, digital leaders, student fellows, student ambassadors,
student partners, student researchers, co-designers, co-creators, co-developers
» See new Jisc guide on Developing successful student partnerships available from
http://bit.ly/jisc-partnership

4. Where are you now?
Consultation
• Opportunities are provided for students to express individual opinions, perspectives,
experiences, ideas and concerns
Involvement
• Opportunities are provided for students as individuals to take a more active role
Participation
• Decisions are taken by students to take part or to take a more active role in a defined
activity
Partnership
• There is a collaboration between an institution or department or faculty and student,
involving joint ownership and decision making over both the process and the outcome
NUS Student Engagement toolkit – http://bit.ly/NUStoolkit

5. Working in partnership
» “Partnership is fundamentally about a relationship in which all involved – students,
academics, professional services staff, senior managers, students’ unions and so on – are
actively engaged in and stand to gain from the process of learning and working together.
Partnership is essentially a process of engagement, not a product. It is a way of doing
things, rather than an outcome in itself.”
» Healey, M., Flint, A. and Harrington, K. (2014) Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York,
Higher Education Academy. Available at: http://bit.ly/1gztC3u

6. http://can.jiscinvolve.org @CANagogy
» The Change agents’ network supports students working as change agents, digital pioneers,
student fellows and students working in partnership with staff on technology related change
projects
» Over 350 members subscribed to the CAN community mailing list
» Facilitates the sharing of best practice through
› Support for face to face networking events
› CAN webinars
› CAN case studies – 10 institutional case studies will soon be available
» Developing successful student staff partnerships online guide
» Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change
» SEDA accredited Jisc Institutional Change Leader online course running from October 15
» What is the Change agents’ network (CAN)?

7. Benefits of working in partnership
» Gain an experience of leadership and influencing change
» Gain experience of using research to shape change
» Students can gain recognition through awards such as leadership awards, academic
credit, extra-curricular awards and awards accredited through external bodies
» Increases confidence and skills (e.g. communication, team-working, management,
research skills)
» Enhances networking with e.g. employers, community
» Improved employability and job prospects
» Benefits for students:

8. Benefits of working in partnership
Staff
» Gain from and with students including the development of their own digital capabilities – an important
dimension to their CPD
» Raising of individual profiles in their institutions and in the sector
Institutions
» Aids retention
» Engages students with research-led change
» Students inspire academics in technology-led educational innovation
Employers
» Stimulates students to engage with employers and communities
» Students more likely to become leaders in their professions and communities
» Wider benefits:

9. Benchmarking the student digital experience
»Jisc, NUS andTSEP
»bit.ly/digistudentexp

10. Developing successful student staff partnerships
» New online guide available from:
http://bit.ly/jisc-partnership
» Benefits of student-staff partnerships
» Quick start
» Viewpoints implementation framework,
resources and guidance
› Partnership setup
› Partnership implementation
› Capabilities, development and
accreditation
› Sustaining and embedding
partnerships based on evaluation of
impact
» Case studies
» Webinars
» Other agency initiatives

11. Examples of student – staff partnership working
http://bit.ly/cancasestudies

12. Student engagement at University of Lincoln
“One of the things I got frustrated with is the project-based approach,
when funded projects highlight best practice in an area but that when the
funding stops the wonderful ideas just die. I wanted to make sure the
learning from ‘Student as producer’ was embedded into core quality
processes and the annual monitoring of programmes”
Professor Mary Stuart, vice chancellor, University of Lincoln

13. University of Lincoln
» Student engagement champions – each department was invited to nominate a
member of staff to lead on engaging students as partners to improve the quality
of what they do.The initial number of six champions has now grown to 46 with
20 of these being located within academic schools.
» Funded project leaders – staff and students can apply for development funds
which aim to stimulate and support innovative practice.
» Student recruiters – students are invited to participate in the recruitment
processes, interviewing potential members of staff including teaching staff,
senior managers, support staff and professorial students.
» Student consultants – the students consulting on teaching (SCoTs) team is
comprised of students recruited to provide consultancy on a subject other than
their own.
» Student and staff insight scheme – every member of the university’s executive
team is paired with a student for a year at a time.
» See http://bit.ly/canlincoln

14. Students as partners in UCL digiFest
» 5 day festival of all things
digital
» Designed to share and grow
innovation across the
university
» Students and staff collaborated
as equal partners
» “I learned a lot about project management,
having to manage the initiative from start
to finish. I also learned about working as
part of a wider project team and managing
myself in that team as well as marketing
and ticket management.”
Edward Conder, 2nd year Geography
student and President of UCL Film
Society
http://bit.ly/cancaseUCL

15. Student Academic Partners at Birmingham City
» Institutionally embedded
» 2009 – present
» Funding for around 100 hours student employment,
» Around 50 projects a year (339 total to date)
Main project themes:
» Development of new content
» Consultation
» Employability
» Thematic
» http://www.bcusu.com/learning/academicpartnerships/saps/

16. What is ‘Mission Employable’?
› Created a student-led employability strategy for the Faculty of Humanities, Faculty-
wide plan for an existing discipline-level peer mentoring scheme by giving the power
of change to the students
› Student interns collaborated with Career Destinations and Faculty staff to create
content for a compulsory Employability Module for all first-year students
› Launched aVIPAlumni Scheme and External Advisory Board (EAB), which together
encouraged greater employer engagement with the Faculty and build lasting links
with our students
› Faculty-wide Peer Mentoring Scheme, to encourage swift integration and an uptake
of opportunities by new students while simultaneously developing the transferable
skills of the current students acting as mentors
› Technology selected by students was seamlessly integrated into these activities
› To give all Humanities students the tools with which to create their own future career
opportunities
› https://blog.soton.ac.uk/missionemployable/

17. Using technology to support employability
» Summary report
» HE case studies and vignettes
» FE case studies and vignettes
» Full report including:
› 20 case studies + vignettes (HE/FE/skills)
› Challenges
› 5 dimensional model – technology for employability
› Guidance:
– programme teams
– institutions
› Recommendations for sector bodies
http://bit.ly/employabilityproject
02/12/2015

18. Share your ideas
» In your groups:
› Share how you are working in partnership
with your students on digital projects?
› Share ideas on how you could scale up
partnership working in your faculty or
university wide
› List any challenges or barriers to scaling up
and embedding partnership working
› Make notes on the flip chart
› Tweet with #jiscCAN
› Add to the Padlet -
http://padlet.com/sarahknight/CAN

19. Visioning – year 2020
» Student satisfaction, institutional reputation,
performance in league tables?
» Enhancements to programme design and delivery
(e.g.TEL)?
» Enhanced digital literacies (students and staff)?
» Embedded in QA processes /TEF / LearningGain?
» Enhanced student employability and employer
engagement?
» Student awards / HEAR?
» Enhancements to communications and engagement
(multiple stakeholders)?
» Student union initiatives?
What measures of success could we define for successful student-
staff partnerships?
» Enhancements to student services, resources and IT
infrastructure?
» Student recruitment, induction, retention, support,
mentoring and transition?
» Embedding partnerships in policies, strategies,
operational plans? (institutional, local and
programme levels)?
» Budgets and resources for partnerships?
» Approaches to innovation/change/enhancement?
» Senior management (real) support (institutional and
local levels)?
» Embedded in strategic business process re-
engineering / integrated ICT / student journey
initiatives?

20. Challenges
What are the key challenges we all face?
» Project funding running out.
» Other initiatives take over as flavour of the month
» Student motivation / involvingALL students
» Gaining buy-in e.g. from senior management, academic staff, administrative staff, support staffetc
» Demonstrating impact
» Integrating into strategies, policies, plans
» Implementation at the local level e.g. departments/faculties/schools
» Implementing at the programme level (including all transitional phases)
» Gaining appropriate budgets and resources?
» External factors and environment?

21. What one thing?
29/06/2015 Driving institutional change through staff-student partnership
» Send a text to 0207 183 8329
starting with digi
» NOTE - if you don’t start the text
with digi, it won’t go to our inbox
What one thing can you do to
support student-staff partnership
working in your university?

22. Find out more
» Jisc NUSTSEP Benchmarking the student digital experience –
http://bit.ly/digistudentexp
» Developing successful student staff partnerships - http://bit.ly/jisc-partnership
» Change agents’ network – http://can.jiscinvolve.org
» Enhancing the student digital experience - http://bit.ly/digitalstudentguide
» Case studies of institutional practice -
http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org/wp/exemplars
» Using technology to support employability - http://bit.ly/employabilityproject
» The Student Engagement Partnership – http://www.tsep.org.uk
» REACT project – http://www.studentengagement.ac.uk

23. Find out more…
Change Agents’ Network:
Sarah.knight@jisc.ac.uk
http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org
http://can.jiscinvolve.org
Follow us @CANagogy
Join our mailing list:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CAN
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