Mini-Fest on Student Engagement
and Co-Design

This session will report on an institutional approach to enhancing and addressing feedback loops at The University of Winchester and Winchester Student Union, specifically in reference to our largest student representation mechanism (the Student Academic Representatives Scheme – StARS). 

Drawing on Bols’ (2017) framework for effective student representation, our session will outline a rejuvenated approach to the scheme by considering an ethos of institutional partnership and co-creation, namely in the context of a university and students’ union working collaboratively to fulfil such aims. This includes: an updated suite of StARs training; a fresh approach to building staff engagement as an integral part of student representation processes; and an attempt to rebalance power dynamics within formal student-staff committee structures. We conclude by advocating for similar ways in which value of partnership can be meaningfully adopted/embedded within student representation work.