Student Voices

Hello, my name is Ava and I studied Psychology and Criminology at Solent University. I was a student partner from my first year, so I first joined the team in my first year and then I was a student partner all the way up to when I graduated. So I would say that the biggest benefit of being a student partner is, for me, was the added sense of purpose that I gained from being part of that team and sort of interacting with as a group and what we could do for the uni. I think it gave me a more understanding of the institution as a whole and what maybe a typical student wouldn’t know goes on in the background. I felt like I was a part of the uni and that I could sort of help.

I think as well it was really great to be able to understand different people’s experience of uni, not just my own. So listening to the team, talk about their experiences with various different things at uni I found really interesting and the collaborative aspect of that, I really enjoyed. What I learned in terms of skills and knowledge and experience, I learned how to present, I learned how to network and to be a professional sort of obviously coming into uni, having done my A levels and not having been in sort of a professional environment before, being a student partner definitely gave me opportunities to work on my professionalism and work on how to speak to different types of people.

I think being a student partner also made me more confident in contributing to discussion. So made me… We talked a lot about having a seat at the table and sort of feeling valued in a conversation. Definitely helped and definitely helped me with my degree as well in terms of like working in a team. How I will apply those skills to my future career and potential studies. Definitely as I said, working in a team, being able to listen to various perspectives and even sometimes lead discussion, but knowing when to sort of be more forthcoming with my opinion and know when to sort of listen and being respectful of everyone in the room. And I think as well balancing commitments ’cause the student partner program ran side by side my degree, so being able to sort of balance and choose different priorities was definitely a beneficial skill to gain.

And then what I would say to a student thinking about becoming a student partner, I would definitely say go for it and be open-minded when you join. And I think the advice I would potentially give is that you can gain so much and have so many great opportunities being a student partner, but I do think that the more you put in, the more you get back. So definitely it’s important to make sure you have the time to dedicate to that and to sort of give your all, I would say, if you are sort of going into it sort of half-heartedly, you definitely won’t have as good of an experience as I have. I was a student partner at my time throughout my degree and one of the projects I was involved in was the mental evaluation of the mental health charter. S

o this project was about understanding what the students thought about the mental health services at Solent and about if students knew about them and what we could basically do to improve their opinion on it. So my role was to formulate and run a focus group with a section of students. So we basically came up with a presentation as a group and including like opinion polls and different statements that they had to agree with or disagree with. And then during the focus group I went around and spoke to the different students about their experience with the mental health services at Solent. So that was my role as well as sort of giving my own opinion as a student myself.

How I collaborated with staff. So, it was sometimes we went into specific class groups, so seminar groups, and ran the focus group there. So that was sort of giving the academics feedback on what the students thought. And then it was also about helping the head of student wellbeing, just more understand student’s perspective on the resources and what was out there to help them. What did the project achieve. So achieved a lot of feedback on the different mental health resources and how students felt that they could be more helped by the wellbeing team. And yeah, just a lot of data from students about their opinions and yeah, it was very good project to be a part of and it was very interesting.

Hi, my name is Abdul Sesay, and I’m currently studying law at Southampton Solent University. One of the main benefits of being a student partner is that it gives students a genuine voice in shaping the university experience. You are not just giving feedback. You are actively working alongside staff to improve teaching, learning, and student support. It feels meaningful because you can actually see how student input leads to real change. Through the student partner role, I’m gaining a range of valuable skills and experience. I’ve developed strong communication skills, particularly in expressing ideas clearly and professionally to both students and academic staff. I’ve also improved my teamwork and collaboration skills, as the role involves working with people from different backgrounds and perspectives.

On top of that, it helped me build confidence, problem-solving skills, and a better understanding of how universities operate behind the scenes. As a law student, these skills are directly relevant to my future studies and career. Clear communication, critical thinking, and professionalism are essential in law, whether that’s in legal practice, advocacy, or any client-focused role. The experience of working in partnership, giving structured feedback, and contributing to decision-making will help me in group-work assessments and future professional environments. If I were to be speaking to a student who’s thinking about becoming a student partner, I would definitely encourage them to go for it. It’s a great opportunity to develop transferable skills, boost your confidence, and make a real impact during your time at university. You also meet new people, gain valuable experience for your CV, and feel more connected to the Solent community. Overall, being a student partner is a rewarding experience that helps you grow both academically and personally.

Hello, my name is Zipporah Akello and I’m a student partner here at Southampton Solent University. I’m also an MRes student, that’s a masters in research within the social sciences department, psychology to be exact. I’m looking at equity and equality within the psychology curriculum with the hopes that we can use the same analysis system to analyze the other disciplines and varied schools to increase their equitability and equality. So the most recent project that the student partners have been working on is the Sprint redesign with the Warsash team, which focused on us asking the academics questions that allowed them to step back and view the course from the learner’s perspective. By doing this, we supported the team to reflect on how different students experience the course in various ways, and how unintentional barriers such as cognitive overload and increased academic marking could be reduced.

So we assisted with cognitive overload by examining the possibility of using AI-assisted exams that would give instant feedback and would mark the exam straight away, henceforth reducing the marking that the academics have to undergo. With that, the students then have the time to be able to go back over their exam and really see the areas in which they need to work on additionally, because they are able then to receive their feedback straight away, they can also then communicate with their teachers, lecturers, and academic staff in order to adjust their learning challenges so that they can best complete the main exam that is run by the HMI.

So on that note, I’d like to make this video short and sweet. I hope that is a little bit of an insight into the student partners here at Solent Southampton University. If you are interested in working with student partners or creating an initiative yourself within your institution, I highly suggest that you do find yourself a group of passionate students that really wanna see a change in the institution and make their voices be heard. It’s a really valuable, valuable tool within any industry. If you have a challenge within your industry, you would call in experts that know how to analyze that particular area. And it’s the same with student partners. Student partners are and should be the experts within the student realm and should be able to give you back the feedback and close the feedback loops of what it is to balance out academic and student staff holistic wellbeing, not just for the students, but for the staff as well, so that the process of the learning journey can be smooth with the least amount of challenges.

Hi, my name is Sophiia de Faia and I’m studying for a PhD at Southern University. The project I’d like to talk about is during the COVID pandemic, when the student partners worked with colleagues across the university to make sure that Moodle sites were as accessible as they possibly could be. The difficulty was back then where everything was moving online much, much more than it had done before, it was quite hard to ensure accessibility across the board, so that’s where we came in.

My role was to go through the Moodle sites and check, see what was accessible, what was less accessible, what improvements could be made, and what things we really wanted to celebrate with colleagues. The way I collaborated with staff was to involve them in the conversation, so I focused a lot on praise where praise was due, I think that’s really important when you’re talking about these sort of wide-scale fixes, but I liked to collaborate with staff on a much more of a colleague basis opposed to a staff/student basis. The project achieved a really wide success in the accessibility of Moodle, and I think that’s pulled forward through these several years since the pandemic happened.

I think the work that we did as student partners during the pandemic to make Moodle more accessible has benefited students immensely because the university has kept hold of it and colleagues have kept moving with that project. I would say to a member of staff who wants to work with student partners that it’s really, really important to focus on the student partners as colleagues rather than students. It’s quite easy, like I said, to feel that whole teacher/student boundary, but when you collaborate the students as colleagues and respect the fact that they are experts in their own rights, that’s when you get the really positive, insightful contributions, and that’s when you make real change. I think that’s why the accessibility project that I have talked about has been so beneficial because we were viewed as colleagues at that point, and we were able to implement these changes because there was that mutual respect. Thank you.

Hi there, my name is Aush. I did my LLB Honors at Southampton Solent University, Solent Law School. And projects I did as a student partner are a lot, but I would say a few have stood out for me was the Living CV project, the APP project, the Mental Health Awareness focus groups, and the SIP project. And the many conferences as well were a good opportunity as well. And I would say all these projects that I’ve worked on have given me the confidence and representation to showcase what I can do. And how I can contribute to the team and how I can make it better for, not just in education wise, but community wise within the university and outside the university as well. And collaborating with the staff was during the weeks, whether it was in person or online.

And multiple projects like the Living CV where we’re just brainstorming about different ideas, different ways to like incorporate how skills and experience and knowledge can impact the student partner relationship of not just as a student but also as a student partner within the university itself. And the project achieved a very good recommendation towards being showcased in the University of Portsmouth conference, the CAN Conference and also at the Solent Learning, Teaching, and Research Conference as well last year. So it was a pretty good experience ’cause we showcased what we can do with Living CV and how the student partner relationship can bring a lot of connectivity and confidence and professionalism towards projects like the Living CV, SIP, and mental health focus groups. And kept keeping us motivated towards what was important about learning and the relationship it can bring towards the student partnership within the university. To anyone who’s willing to work in partnership with students.

I would say to create that bond, that relationship, that trust with those students as a student partner because not only they can bring the skills that they have learned, but also they can grow from it. But also the knowledge and experience that they have, not just as a student, but also could be as an international student or from previous job experiences or previous projects that they have worked on that they can bring to the table. Like everyone brainstorming together makes it a better opportunity and experience for everyone to learn from. And that’s what student partners is all about. Like to build and grow and to achieve something as a student partner where you can not just be yourself, but also be someone you would like to be and see yourself in the future, especially in your career.

Hello, my name is Melissa Goss, and I’m a psychology doctoral candidate at Southampton Solent University and a second-year student partner. I found the student partner experience incredibly invaluable, having taken part on multiple significant projects, including the evaluation of the student partner program, evaluation of the sprint program, as well as multiple teaching observations. Over the last semester, I’ve taken part and collaborated on multiple teaching observations as an active observer in supporting academics in attaining their PG certificate in learning and teaching, solidifying knowledge and confidence to deliver student-centered learning in alignment of the 2035 strategy and Solent ethos which puts students at the center of the learning experience to deliver highly active, inclusive, and engaging learning, which is what I observed within the observations.

My role is to act as a lens, putting myself in the students’ shoes within most student partner projects, which serves brilliantly to both academics and myself. The questions I asked during this observation were, how does this brilliant teaching translate to student learning? What techniques were used in order to grasp student learning? How engaged were students in providing the collaborative discussion within a seminar based teaching session? And how did academics engage with the resources in terms of engagement with the blackboards, the Solent online learning page, and various other learning resources like quizzes, which help consolidate student learning? I collaborated with academics in multiple time points.

One was a pre-observation to discuss the context and environment of the teaching observation, what to look out for in terms of engagement and interactivity with students, and resources as well in terms of whiteboard smart boards. We also discussed what we both wanted out of the session in terms of gaining that student insight into how teaching is translating into the student mind. The post feedback session was also incredibly useful, used as a reflective opportunity to provide kind, specific and helpful feedback to support staff in the already brilliant repertoire of teaching tools. In these instances, it was the case of me explaining how brilliant the teaching came across and that I would definitely wanna be partaking in their lectures and seminars due to the high level of teaching that was exhibited. Allowing me to give this feedback was a staple to enhance the toolbox of already brilliant teaching through student input.

Hi, my name is Omar. I’m a master’s student at Solent University studying AI and data science, and I’m also a student partner. And one of my favorite projects that I’ve contributed to as part of being a student partner is the Solent Future Learning Project. So what this project focused on was helping staff and students towards the transition into a block teaching strategy for the next academic year. And as part of being a student partner, I attended the pitching sessions where staff are allowed to pitch their ideas for the new block teaching strategy in a safe environment with staff and students and they’re also able to receive feedback on what they can do to improve their pitch and make sure that this transition is very valuable.

And as part of being a student attending these sessions, I was supposed to give feedback based on the student mindset and really make sure that their new strategy addresses the concerns and also the curriculum is very inclusive of different student demographics. And what I believe this project achieved is that our feedback helped this transition be more seamless and more mindful of the student mindsets and it also addresses the concerns not only of students in terms of teaching, but also in terms of future prospects after university. And what I would say to staff interested in working with students in partnership is that it can really help find out some new stuff from students, but it can also help students understand what it’s like to be working in academia. And it could really help staff with managing anything that has to do with the student experience overall. So I would really recommend staff to be working in partnership with students.

My name is Niverd. Everyone knows me as Niv. I studied music production and performance at Solent University. For me, the biggest benefit was the supportive environment. It wasn’t just a job, it was a place where my voice actually mattered. Every time I gave feedback or share my opinion, it was accepted and valued. But even more important was the team that was incredible understanding. There were times where my mental health was affected, but instead of judging me, they helped me to be better. I don’t know. Having that kind of non-judgmental support system at university is a huge benefit for me.

The two main skills I improve was definitely confidence and leadership. Because I was in a environment where I felt safe to speak up, my confidence naturally grew. I learned that leadership isn’t just about telling people what to do, it’s about resilience. Gaining experience in a role that supported me through personal challenges taught me how to be a leader who is empathetic and strong, even when things are difficult. I’m going to take this new confidence directly into my career. I now know that my opinion is valuable and that I shouldn’t be afraid to give feedback. Also, having experienced that supportive leadership style myself, I want to apply that in my future workplace. I want to be the kind of leader who creates a safe space for others, just like a Student Partner did for me. I would say definitely go for it. Don’t worry if you feel like nervous or if you are going through a hard time. This is a role where you can grow without fear of judgment. You will gain skills that look great on your CV, but you will also find a community that genuinely cares about you.