Jisc Change Agents' Network Conference 2024

Our 2030 Strategy identifies co-creation as one of its pillars for fostering students’ engagement.

It is a mission Queen Mary University of London that staff and students flourish. It is within this context that the SEED (Student Enhanced Engagement & Development) award was created in 2021.  

The SEED award recognises students' involvement and work alongside staff, co-creating ideas and solutions that can make a significant impact on educational development and change across the institution.  It promotes engagement of learners-as-experts of their lived experience as students, honouring the learner voice and capacity for vision, insight, and leadership.  

In this poster, we will present the findings of one research project conducted in partnership with Learner Interns (Queen Mary Academy - Learner Intern Programme 2022/23): Learner and educator experiences of co-creative work – what are the benefits and barriers? This research sought to understand the lived experiences of learners and educators who were directly involved in co-creation and received the SEED award. 

 The SEED award has given weight to student contribution and created a route, a language to reward students for taking their time to develop their educational experience.   

Our research has confirmed that co-creation was already part of the institutional culture and exists in pockets, which SEED has helped to recognise and surface. Our research has also demonstrated that the experience of those involved in co-creation recognised by the SEED award has been deeply meaningful in terms of developing curriculum and learning experience as well as inviting high quality connection and collaboration potentially enhancing human flourishing.