'More than customers': conceptions of students as partners held by students, staff, and institutional leaders. Issue 12 (1st December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gravett, Karen; Kinchin, Ian M.; Winstone, Naomi E.
• Is Part Of: Studies in higher education. Volume 45:Issue 12(2020)
• Page Start: 2574
• Page End: 2587
• Publication Date: 2020-12-01
• Subjects: Students as partners -- higher education -- leadership -- student–staff partnerships -- neoliberalism; Education, Higher -- Periodicals; 378.005
• DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2019.1623769
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0307-5079

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Students as partners (SaP) practices are emerging in today's universities as a means to offer a more participative agenda, and to transform institutional cultures within an increasingly economically driven higher education context. This study contributes to understandings of partnership approaches, which largely still remain under-theorised, through exploring the conceptualisation of SaP by institutional leaders, staff, and students. Drawing on data from concept map-mediated interviews, this article offers a counterview to recent studies that have depicted staff understandings of SaP to be firmly located within a neoliberal discourse. Rather, our interviews portray surprising overlaps within students' and leaders' conceptualisations of SaP, depicting recurrent themes of communication, dialogue, community, and enabling students to escape neoliberal constructions: to become 'more than customers'. This article ends with a consideration of how investigating the ways in which students and staff conceptualise SaP can be valuable, as partnership approaches become further prioritised in institutional strategies.