By Jaspreet Kaur Suraj, Marni Ahmed and Jianrong Yang
The School of Education has been running a ‘Students as Partners’ initiative since 2022. Students in the School at all programme levels are invited to apply to one of several, 100-hour, paid ‘Student Partner’ roles. Whilst aligned with the School’s educational priorities - and supervised by the School’s Student Experience Lead (Ryan Bramley) and Recruitment Lead (Camilla Priede) - the Student Partners are encouraged to develop projects in line with their own interests, and given agency to decide on what kind of output(s) they want to produce.
This year, we employed six student partners to work in pairs across three work areas:
- Employability: Jianrong Yang and Thanh Hang Nguyen
- Student Recruitment: Marni Ahmed and Keir Harper
- Student Voice: Jaspreet Kaur Suraj and Amy Nolan
At the 2026 University of Sheffield Education Conference, Jaspreet, Marni, and Jianrong co-facilitated a workshop on ‘Developing Projects with School-Wide Student Partners’, where they shared their own experiences of being Student Partners, as well as learning more about the challenges and opportunities that colleagues across the University encounter when engaging in student-staff partnership work.
In this guest blog post for Elevate, these three Student Partners shared what they gained from taking part in the Education Conference, and how their experiences align with this year’s conference theme: ‘What does it mean to be a student at The University of Sheffield?’
Marni’s Reflections
As part of my Student as partner project with Keir, we have also been exploring the experiences of Care-Experienced Students and considering how universities can better support them throughout their time in higher education. As part of the project, we:
- Created a map showing the journey from applying to university through to arriving at university to identify where Care-experienced Students may face challenges or need extra support.
- Reviewed information on the university website to identify gaps and areas where support information could be clearer and more accessible.
- Spoke to SEDI (Student Experience, Diversity and Inclusion) to gain further insight into student experiences and existing support systems.
- Created a survey to gather feedback from Care-experienced people about their experiences in transitioning into university.
Attending the Education Conference was a valuable experience because it gave me the chance to hear different perspectives on student partnership. I found it particularly interesting to better understand some of the gaps in why certain issues or challenges may occur within university and how these can affect both students and staff. Hearing directly from staff members about their own experiences and opinions on what they believe the university could improve was especially insightful, as it provided a different perspective that students may not always hear.
It was encouraging to listen to open discussions around improving the student experience and communication between staff and students.
Jianrong’s Reflections
My Students as Partners project made me think more about what employability actually means for students.
Before this project, I often thought employability was mainly about things like writing a CV, finding a job, or preparing for interviews. But through the project and the Education Conference, I started to see it in a wider way. For students in the School of Education, employability can also mean understanding our own skills, building confidence, gaining different experiences, and thinking about the kind of future we want after university.
One thing I found useful during the conference workshop was listening to other people’s ideas. Some of the words and topics that came up included international students, language, confidence, interviews, CVs, work-related learning, and student voice. This helped me realise that students may not always know how to connect their university experiences with future opportunities.
For me, this was a useful experience because it made the project feel more real. It was not just about doing a survey or completing a task. It was about hearing different views and thinking about how employability support could be clearer and more helpful for students.
Jaspreet’s Reflections
Working as a Student Partner has broadened my understanding of what Student Voice can mean within higher education. Rather than simply being about feedback collected at the end of a module, it is about creating spaces where students are able to share their experiences, perspectives, and ideas throughout their time at university. Meaningful student voice can help staff better understand student experiences, support ongoing improvement, and encourage students to feel more actively involved in shaping their learning environment.
As a co-facilitator at the Education Conference, I introduced our initiative on exploring ways to create more continuous and accessible opportunities for student voice outside of formal feedback points like Tell Us. Attending the conference provided an opportunity not only to contribute to these conversations, but also to learn from the experiences and perspectives of others.
What I found most valuable was the variety of perspectives participants, students and staff alike, brought into the discussion. Conversations explored ideas around:
- “You Said, We Did” approaches
- Student and staff partnerships
- The role of student representatives
- Informal feedback spaces
- Digital suggestion boxes
- Ways students can feel more actively involved in change
It was also interesting hearing comparisons to approaches used in other departments, different universities, and even within the NHS.
Overall, the session felt genuinely collaborative, and it was encouraging to see how engaged the participants were in conversations around student voice and improving feedback culture. Most importantly, the discussions highlighted how initiatives such as Student Partners can help create more meaningful relationships between students and staff during their time at university.
Interested in running your own ‘Students as Partners’ project but unsure of where to start? Please get in touch with Ryan Bramley (r.bramley@sheffield.ac.uk) for more info!
- Marni Ahmed, BA Business Management w/Foundation Year Student; Student Partner (Recruitment)
- Jaspreet Kaur Suraj, MSc Psychology & Education Student; Student Partner (Student Voice)
- Jianrong Yang, BA Education, Culture and Childhood Student; Student Partner (Employability)
- Dr Ryan Bramley, Lecturer in Education and School Student Experience Lead (School of Education)
- Dr Camilla Priede, Senior University Teacher and School Student Recruitment Lead (School of Education)