Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research – CLEAR, CUHK

Students as Partners (SaP) is regarded as a close collaboration between students and teachers aimed at enhancing teaching and learning by actively including students in the educational process. It is a collaborative reciprocal process in which all participants have the chance to participate equally, but not always in the same manner, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision making, implementation research or analysis (Cook-Sather et al., 2014).

Students-as-Partners, Co-creation, Pedagogical partnership
“Students As Partners” (SaP) can be used as an umbrella term for many of these similar terms that have come across, including “co-creation”, “pedagogical partnership” and “student-staff partnership”, etc.

Student Engagement
All SaP is a form of student engagement, but not all student engagement is partnership. Partnerships work along the continuum during different stages of student engagement —inform, consult, involve, partner, control (Healey & Healey, 2019; Student Voice Australia).

There is no one-fits-all model for SaP, various frameworks of partnership are in existence. We suggest designing SaP projects most suited to your pedagogical needs. Click here to learn about the common framework of SaP and the 4 Steps to initiate your SaP projects.

If you have troubles identifying the most appropriate SaP model for your purpose, feel free to reach out CLEAR. Click here to contact us for any enquiries or individualized support.

Benefits to student
SaP allows students to take greater responsibility and ownership of their learning. They can be more engaged and motivated in the process of teaching and learning with improvements in employability skills and graduate attributes (Cook-Sather et al., 2014; Dickerson et al., 2016).

Benefits to staff/faculty
SaP empowers students to offer valuable insights and perspectives on their own learning, which can enable staff/faculty to address their pedagogical needs, to improve the learning experience, and to explore new opportunities of teaching and learning.

SaP challenges hierarchical power dynamics and diversifies the identities of students and staff in the university education. SaP, in a broader context, is able to establish larger institutional cultures that promote egalitarian learning communities (Matthews, 2017).

Both students and staff have different positions, motivations and rationales for engaging in a partnership. To clarify the roles of your student partners, it is important to negotiate the following items with your student partners:

• The aims, goals and values of your partnership
• The approaches or models of your partnership
• The scale and time frame of your partnership
• The expertise, qualities and skills that you and your student partners can contribute to the partnership

Naming or typology of student roles can help reflecting the fluidity of identity, for example, “Student Consultant”, “Co-creator/Co-designer”, “Co-researcher”, etc.

Click here to learn the assumptions, challenges and solutions of SaP.

Not only be the quantifiable achievement worth recognized, but also the creative process of a partnership (Healey et al., 2014).

Suggested rewards/incentives to student

• Financial payment
• Voucher
• Course credit
• Participation certificates
• Professional reference for future employment opportunities
• Celebration event
• Opportunity to present experience such as attending a conference

Suggested rewards/recognition to staff

• A professional reference or certificate for career progression, award nominations, or grant applications
• Celebration event
• Opportunity to present experience at a showcase or Teaching and Learning Expo
• Development opportunities, such as training or conference
• Allocation of time to accommodate partnership work through a secondment

Student-as-Partners values the active involvement of students in the process of teaching and learning. It resonates with Goal 3 “Students taking ownership of learning and stepping out of comfort zone” highlighted in the CUHK 2025 strategic plan.

Communicate with college head office to seek available funds. The university also offers some teaching grants for facilitating SaP initiatives and activities.

Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant (TDLEG)
The University Grants Committee (UGC) introduced the Teaching Development and Learning Enhancement Grant (TDLEG) to provide funding support to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in local institution. At the individual staff level, it provides an impetus for initiating and experimenting new ideas on and approaches to achieving better quality of teaching and learning.

Click here to learn more about TDLEG.
CLEAR will also help identify potential funding avenues and support you in the application process. Please check out Teaching and Learning Grants for more information. You may also contact us for any enquiries or individualized support.