Improving equality, diversity, and inclusion in staff-student partnerships

Staff-student partnerships have become increasingly popular in educational spaces. Although staff-student partnerships have been shown to improve the inclusivity of assessment practices and increase curriculum engagement among underprivileged student partners, student partners still face barriers to access and face challenges when engaging in such opportunities. This makes it particularly important that all stakeholders involved, including institutions, staff, and students, actively work towards creating a cultural shift that celebrates and amplifies the minority voice. This paper is grounded both in current research and in evidence from a transdisciplinary staff-student partnership project from Imperial College London. During this project, team members conducted interviews and focus group discussions with students and staff from diverse backgrounds in order to develop a multimedia resource platform on best assessment practices. This paper provides a constructive framework, split into three themes, for promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in staff-student partnerships. The three overarching themes involve improving the inclusivity of selection processes, creating a flexible and trust-based working culture, and addressing power dynamics inherent in staff-student partnerships.