Across student voice activities, students are often labelled co-creators of knowledge, active pedagogy champions, course reps, or academic society presidents. But when did we last stop to consider the full perspective of students as … students?
Last year’s TEF panels appear to recognise providers that referred to structured approaches to student voice – albeit without substantive detail on process and the success or extent of such partnership.
Typical academic governance often relies on a subset of student representatives (and, in turn, the subgroup of reps for whom university fora are accessible) to consolidate feedback – placing several stages between students’ thoughts and action planning/oversight. So, who’s to say that the spirit of students’ feedback is correctly represented – and understood – by the time it reaches a committee that can respond?
While involving students throughout this structure might sound like a partnership, students’ roles in these processes are often prescribed and narrowed to the areas of importance at the time/place. Academic boards are for academic things, and student experience is for student experience things. Defining students’ roles and remits in this way reinforces an unequal balance of power in which the provider determines what is in or out of scope.
