1. Paul Chapman Membership Engagement Manager Birmingham City Students’ Union Student Academic Partners at Birmingham City: Creating a community of Learners Outstanding support for students

2. Content By the end of the session participants will have: Been introduced to the partnership approach at Birmingham City Seen the SAPs scheme setup, management and process Identified the benefits of such a scheme to students and staff and to the Union and Institution Reflected on the ability to influence academic engagement at their own institution Seen some of the wider engagement activities born from this relationship Planned any next steps Decided upon the Dark Side vs. Rebel Alliance

3. Ethos for our student partnerships Generating the Learning Community – (From NSS/SES Feedback) Co-creation of learning experience: National Debate Student Representation Student Voice Student Experience Learning Experience Activities are student led and delivering at the interface Partnership with the Students’ Union

4. Secondment of SU Membership Engagement Manager 50% Secondment to the Centre for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Birmingham City University

5. …or is that joining the Dark Side?

6. What does it mean though? Partner a person who takes part in an undertaking with another or others, especially in a business or firm with shared risks and profits Collaborator a person who works jointly on an activity or project; an associate a person who cooperates traitorously with an enemy; a defector!!! (oxforddictionaries.com)

7. How did we get to this point? Institutional support – Directorate and Senate Funding from CELT NUS/HEA case studies in student engagement Building on best practice – Copenhagen Business School Student Assistants – Northwest Missouri State – University of Pittsburgh

9. Collaboration with the Institution

10. (Futurelab ‘Learner Voice’)

11. Student Academic Partners Joint student/staff proposals invited Union & University wide assessment panel Induction briefing for all students and staff Equality of role – No Junior researchers; no coffee getters! Students paid £10 per hour for up to 125 hours work (125hours / project) Employed through Students’ Union Generation of project plan Market place activities for collective activities (greater than the sum of its parts) Dissemination via posters, exhibitions and publications Change model – Become a contagion!

12. SAPNumber of applicationsNumber of projects awarded 2009/105225 2010/118473 Applications in 2010/11 Number of project applications Numbers of project awarded Birmingham Institute of Art and Design1715 Business School97 Central services66 Education, Law and Social Sciences11 Health1210 Performance, Media and English1812 Technology, Engineering and Environment1712 9073

14. Outcomes - barriers

15. Outcomes - enablers

16. Outcomes Learning – intended and unintended “I have just been offered the Student Associate position for LexisNexis next year and I truly believe my role in the SAP scheme played a big part in that. Main reason being was that my interviewer was very interested in discussing the project and could see that I could utilise the research undertaken for this role. I would therefore like to thank you for implementing this scheme and giving me this opportunity because I've had an amazing experience so far. Not only has this been an impressive experience to list on my CV, I feel that I have developed a whole bunch of new skills and it gave me the confidence to take on the role of Student Associate.”

17. What else? A new avenue of Student Engagement; Student Voice; Creating positive change SAP developments, benchmarking, sector dissemination and publications and collaborations with other students’ unions FE College Network: WP and Pre-Arrival awareness through www.bcusu.com/virtualstudentsunion www.bcusu.com/virtualstudentsunion Working with North West Missouri State University (USA) on student employment through the HEA Change Academy Expanding Students as ‘change agents’ - Investing in the learning experience whilst reshaping the university Support for a reviewed Representation Code of Practice Support for Academic Campaigning Manifesto Broadening the learning community...

18. Over to you… In two table top discussion groups: Card Sort: Agree or Disagree via discussion Snakes and Ladders: Identify the Enablers and barriers to collaborative working between students and staff in L&T If we have time! Continue to rate your Institution: Exploring the conditions for a learning community (Fielding 2011)

19. It’s not just us… University of Exeter – ‘Students as Change Agents’ University of Lincoln – ‘Student as Producer’ The University of Warwick – ‘The Reinvention Centre’

20. AGREE DISAGREE Partnership is the same Collaboration The Learning Experience is not the same as the Student Experience Secondments/Partnerships of this nature dilute the independent role and voice of the SU Students are not skilled or experienced enough to design their own learning Students come and pay to receive education, why should they create it to? 'My Institution and the SU already maintains partnership working' The Union's role is to fight for the rights and demand action, not help them do what they are there to do CARD SORT