Transforming the student learning journey through partnership
Thursday 4 July: Conference day two, 4:15pm – 4:45pm parallel session
Venue
Room 3 – 303-G15 Sem
Presenters
Dr Alison Jaquet
The University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
ajaquet@usc.edu.au
Donna Thompson
The University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Melanie Hulm
The University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Background
Student engagement has become a widely recognised and pervasive construct across educational contexts (Trowler & Trowler 2010, p.14). Student engagement is multifaceted and includes quality teaching and learning, supportive professional services and, increasingly, collaborating with students as partners (SaP). There is growing recognition of the value of students’ skills, knowledge and dispositions in engagement and that, in partnership, we can create a reflective and transformative experience for all (Healey, Flint and Harrington 2014, p.17).
This showcase presents the development of a SaP approach to student engagement across USC, including a student governance framework that enables students and the university to work towards authentic partnership in decision-making. To establish students as active partners in shaping their learning experiences, a bottom-up, tiered student governance model was created in partnership with USC students. This model, known as the USC Student Senate, has been adopted to encourage authentic student engagement and to amplify and diversify the student voice in learning and teaching across the multi-campus regional University.
The framework was designed to facilitate a collaborative and productive relationship between the institution and the student body with a tiered scaffold of student-led groups, committees, and associations from different spheres of the student experience. The USC Student Senate structure replicates staff governance structures to enable students to be an engaged and active voice in institutional change processes. We will showcase the initiative and the perspectives of participants which have created new insights into the complexity of embedding partnerships into the implementation of a multi-campus, institution-wide governance framework.
References
Healey, M, Flint, A & Harrington, K. (2014). ‘Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education’, The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved from www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/engagement_through_partnership.pdf
Trowler, V., & Trowler, P. (2010). Student engagement evidence summary. Report for the Higher Education Academy Student Engagement. Retrieved from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/evidencenet/Student_engagement_evidence_summary
Varnham, S. (2019). ‘Student Voice Australia’, Students and Tertiary Education Providers undertaking Partnership for Quality Enhancement, http://studentvoiceaustralia.com
Presentation topic
Students – Working in Partnership
