Building community using staff-student partnerships - a case study and framework

This case illustrates how a staff-student partnership approach was adopted to better understand staff and students’ expectations of community within one department at the University of Sussex Business School. The project is an example of a staff-student partnership designed to co-create a defined outcome, that is enhancing feelings of community within the department. A short and concise project, it ran for a period of four weeks during the autumn of 2020. The team consisted of four students and five members of faculty along with the School’s academic developer, learning technologist and student academic success advisor, and was facilitated by the Associate Dean. The staff members were invited to join due to their roles as programme directors, education lead and Head of Department. Students applied to work on the project via the University’s established student partnership scheme (Sussex Connectors). This helped to promote authenticity and ensure a diverse range of experience and backgrounds in the project team.