Introduction

A collaborative project nationally funded by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education and is conducted in partnership between 4 different universities across UK, being University of Sussex, University College London (UCL), University of Brighton and University of Salford. 

The study was conducted to better understand how staff are supported to undertake student-staff partnership work and developed practical outputs alongside academic outputs from collected data. In total, eight student researchers worked across these 4 educational institutions in the UK to interview staffs and students exploring their experiences and the values of partnership to develop insights to support student-staff partnerships. The findings revolved around the concepts of trust, power dynamics, relationship formation, motivation, incentives, communication and overarching impact at individual, community and institutional level; its importance in being able to formulate successful student-staff partnerships. 

6 outcomes were produced as part of this project: 

• 2 research papers (currently awaiting publication in the International Journal for Students as Partners [IJSaP] and Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal [SEHEJ]) 

• 1 toolkit published at the QAA website (https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/members/toolkit-preparing-for-student-staff-partnership.pdf?sfvrsn=c311b581_2)

• 1 blog (https://www.qaa.ac.uk/news-events/blog/on-the-right-track-with-supporting-staff-student-partnerships) 

• 2 conference presentations (SEDA and QAA dissemination event) 

1. https://www.seda.ac.uk/seda-events/seda-autumn-conference-2023/ 

2. https://www.qaa.ac.uk//en/membership/collaborative-enhancement-projects/innovative-and-evolving-quality-processes/how-are-staff-supported-to-undertake-student-staff-partnership-opportunities