Change agents: The impact of a student partnership on the educational practice of a diverse higher education engineering faculty

Abstract

This article describes the implementation of a new student partnership across a large and diverse STEM faculty and the impact this four-year partnership had on enhancing students’ experience. This innovative partnership recruited and employed students, termed student experience champions (SEC), to inform and develop inclusive educational initiatives in response to their educational experiences. This partnership enabled the faculty to develop a dynamic and agile working relationship with their students, creating an environment where students informed the strategic direction of the student experience and leading faculty and departmental educational projects that resulted in institutional changes. The breadth of the SEC projects enabled the benefits of student partnerships to be appreciated across the faculty, leading to a culture change where SEC are now viewed as partners in programme enhancement.

Revitalising Higher Education: Insights from Te Puna Aurei LearnFest 2022

“…Finally, the literature underscores the importance of university processes that are responsive to students' experiences (both good and bad) and recognise that students are active contributors who enhance the quality of education at such institutions (e.g. Knight et al 2022;Mertens 2019). The best practice for engaging students in the process of evaluation and improving an institution's teaching and learning systems is through 'closing the loop' .…”

“…However, word clouds tend to be based on the frequency at which keywords were used in feedback, which means that the valence behind those words is not always clear (e.g. Knight et al 2022). Further, students may misspell terms or use colloquialisms that pose a problem for frequency-based measures (Kukich 1992;Sag et al 2002).…”

The Robots are Coming for your Students' Feedback

“…Finally, the literature underscores the importance of university processes that are responsive to students' experiences (both good and bad) and recognise that students are active contributors who enhance the quality of education at such institutions (e.g. Knight et al 2022;Mertens 2019). The best practice for engaging students in the process of evaluation and improving an institution's teaching and learning systems is through 'closing the loop' .…”

“…However, word clouds tend to be based on the frequency at which keywords were used in feedback, which means that the valence behind those words is not always clear (e.g. Knight et al 2022). Further, students may misspell terms or use colloquialisms that pose a problem for frequency-based measures (Kukich 1992;Sag et al 2002).…”