Showcasing Student Partnerships

Partnership is at the heart of our academic community, and the Student Partner scheme enables staff and students to work together to create positive change and improve student engagement.

On 9 June, the University hosted its first Student Partner showcase to shine a light on all the brilliant work student and staff partners have done over the past academic year.

The event was a celebration of a variety of projects across six Schools, with two examples shared below. Each project was a unique opportunity for staff to consider student perspectives when making any changes, whether it be related to teaching or building a sense of community within the department.

Student Partner projects

Food and Nutritional Sciences: Improving student engagement on social media

To improve student engagement with their social channels, the Nutritional Sciences Department set to evaluate their current strategy, benchmarking against other departments and universities. Their evaluation showed that to increase engagement, more time needed to be spent on researching the content, ensuring it is interesting, exciting and relevant to the department. Other engagement strategies were used across social media channels such as polls and questions to promote a sense of community and provoke interaction between users.

Partners: Emily Brook (student) and Dr Afroditi Chatzifragkou (staff)

Emily Brook, Student Partner for Nutritional Sciences, said: “My time as a student partner enabled me to greatly develop my understanding of the different teaching and learning practices across the Nutritional Science department. I also learned a lot about the importance of time management, when balancing projects, and communication, when discussing projects with professors and fellow student partners.”

Institute of Education (IoE): Improving student engagement and building a community

To improve student engagement and to help build a community, the IoE created various new initiatives that were in line with their School Teaching Enhancement Action Plan (STEAP). To ensure all students have access to the same induction material, the partnership created an induction newsletter with a London Road campus guide which has a particular focus on accessibility. The induction newsletter and campus guide has been created by students for students to help build a community from day one.

Partners: Emma Pullen (student), Myah Dawkins (student), Dr Maria Kambouri (staff) and Professor Yota Dimitriadi (staff)

Emma Pullen, Student Partner for IoE, said “This project has allowed us to develop skills beyond our studies and build valuable relationships with staff to work towards identified goals for the benefit of students.”

For information on recruiting Student Partners please contact Victoria Grace-Bland.