‘Nothing about us, without us’ – working side by side with our students

Lisa Gallone, Student Projects Officer, reflects on this year’s poster exhibition and highlights the Student Experience Partners scheme.

Annual poster exhibition  

On Wednesday, 29 April, the Student Voice and Partnership team in the Learning and Teaching Academy invited staff and students to attend the annual poster exhibition to celebrate and explore the inspiring, innovative projects our students have been part of this year and see how partnership is helping to shape the learning experience for everyone. 

Partnership and co‑creation are at the heart of what we do. Our Student Experience Partners are paid to work alongside staff on projects that deepen our understanding of students’ lived experiences and evolving needs.  

Exhibition visitors were able to read 20+ posters cataloguing just some of the projects the scheme has supported this academic year, with the Student Experience Partners being on hand to chat about their work and several giving presentations of the impact of their project. 

This year’s projects delved deep into topics which matter to students and staff alike – view the topics here 

• Co-creating AI guidance for students: AI tools are rapidly reshaping student life, yet university guidance hasn’t always kept pace. Students need clear, honest, and practically useful information: not just rules, but real examples of how to use AI ethically and effectively in their studies and careers.  

• Futures Curriculum: This project focused on the co-design and evaluation of an innovative Futures module, which will equip undergraduate students to engage with complex, interdisciplinary and future-focused challenges, with a particular focus on future wellbeing. Through collaborative, workshop-based learning, students will develop critical and creative thinking, futures-thinking and teamwork skills while responding to real-world challenges. 

• Understanding and improving student engagement with EDI activities in the School of Chemistry: Reapplying for Athena Swan is not only about meeting an institutional framework, but also about reflecting on how inclusive, accessible and responsive the School is in practice. Student input is therefore essential, as it helps ensure that actions and priorities are informed by lived experience rather than assumptions alone.  

Opening the event, Elgan Hughes, Student Voice and Partnership Manager, said the scheme has become one of the University’s most effective and transformative mechanisms for change, not just what it delivers, but what it develops, and how profoundly it is reshaping the work we do as staff. 

Guest speaker was Professor Amanda Tonks, Interim PVC Education and Student Experience, who said 

“At its heart, this is a partnership model that goes far beyond consultation. It is about co‑creation, trust, and recognising students as skilled contributors to institutional work. What the evidence now shows very clearly is that this model delivers exceptional value in two directions at once: it develops students as confident, capable professionals, and it strengthens staff projects in ways that would be impossible without lived student insight.” 

Wrapping up the event, Professor Tonks presented Outstanding Contribution Awards to two students who have been instrumental to the scheme for the past few years, both going above and beyond in the role and fully deserving of this recognition for their impact and professionalism. 

About the Student Experience Partners scheme  

Each year, around 35 trained Student Experience Partners work across the University on real, complex projects – from digital education and AI, to accessibility, policy development, and strategic change. These are not simulated exercises. They are live, high‑stakes pieces of work, and students know that their input matters. 

The student outcomes are clear: stronger skills, stronger confidence, and stronger employability but what is equally important – and sometimes less publicly visible – is the impact on staff projects and institutional practice. 

Mandy continued “Staff who use the scheme consistently report that working with Student Experience Partners improves the quality of their work. Partners do not just validate ideas; they challenge assumptions, surface issues staff may not see, and help projects stay grounded in the realities of student experience. 

It tells us that the Student Experience Partners scheme is not an enhancement on the margins. It is a strategic asset. It develops students into confident, skilled graduates while simultaneously strengthening the quality, inclusivity and effectiveness of institutional projects. It creates a culture where students and staff work together as partners, not in parallel, and where lived experience meaningfully shapes decision‑making. 

And perhaps most importantly, it shows what students are capable of when we give them meaningful responsibility, proper support, and genuine influence.” 

Applying for the scheme  

Student Experience Partners are paid for their work, with the funding coming from the Learning and Teaching Academy. 

Applications to use the scheme are closed for this year but will re-open in July.