6: Student-Led Change: Creating Authentic and Engaging Experiences for Staff and Students

Traditionally change in a university is led by corporate strategy or academic development driven through institutional leaders or faculty. In more recent times, in many countries, there has been a move to engage with all stakeholders across a university community and this has, on occasion, led to other voices becoming the drivers for change. This chapter will consider student-led change and how it can impact on the curriculum; the wider student experience and the perceptions of faculty. Student engagement in innovation generates relevance and currency for the proposed change creating authentic and engaging experiences for staff and students. In this chapter, we will consider the partnership working that saw students co-creating design projects that required boundary-spanning approaches to change (Ernst & Chrobot-Mason, 2011). We would also seek to expose some of the challenges to change in this regard within reticent academic schools and even the friction between who owns the student voice – a Student's Association or the course team – and how this can be addressed and redirected to collaborative approaches.