We Want to be More Involved: Student Perceptions of Students as Partners Across the Degree Program Curriculum

Authors

  • Kelly E Matthews Kelly Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, The University of Queensland Australian Learning & Teaching Fellow
  • Lauren J Groenendijk
  • Prasad Chunduri

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i2.3063

Keywords:

students as partners, student perspectives, higher education

Abstract

Engaging students-as-partners is gaining momentum in the higher education sector. This study explores undergraduate students’ perceptions of how involved they were in partnership activities across their degree programs, and whether this matched their desired level of involvement in such practices. Analysis of a quantitative study of 268 students showed statistically significant differences between perceived levels of importance and involvement for all the partnership practices (n=18) investigated in our survey. These results highlight that the students in this study want to be more substantially involved in partnership practices across their degree program. We argue against the consumerist rhetoric about the role of students as passive learners and advocate for greater inclusion of partnership activities that foster active student participation in shaping the university curricula. We discuss implications for Students as Partners in relation to the progressive development of university curricula and assessment practices along with future research directions. 

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Author Biographies

Lauren J Groenendijk

Lauren Groenendijk completed her honours year at the University of Queensland in 2016 and is now in Medical School.

Prasad Chunduri

Prasad Chunduri is a Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland.

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Published

2017-10-07

How to Cite

Matthews, K. E., Groenendijk, L. J., & Chunduri, P. (2017). We Want to be More Involved: Student Perceptions of Students as Partners Across the Degree Program Curriculum. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(2), 51–66. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i2.3063

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2017)

Section

Research Articles

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