Partnerships within the politics department in the School of Social Science
Nick Turnbull, a Senior Lecturer in the politics department in the School of Social Sciences, shares his experience of student-staff partnerships (SSP) with the STEP blog.
Nick’s teamwork with the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) society and student representatives throughout the year. He aims to work in partnership, across teaching practice, and in research, in as many ways as possible. Ongoing partnership work relates to the study programme, student activities, strategy, and budgeting. Nick believes a partnership approach can produce better outcomes for staff and students, and be a learning experience for all parties along the way.
Nick shares his experience of being involved in an SSP project as part of the careers service ‘learning through research’ internship programme, in this short video…
Nick’s example discusses giving students paid opportunities, which can be influential in embedding responsibility, a core value of partnership. Payment combined with a high level of autonomy creates a conducive environment for both student and staff partners to take responsibility and learn from one another. The sharing of skills, time, and energy towards a common goal generates reciprocity, another key facet of partnership.
Reciprocity and responsibility make up two of the nine key values underlying successful partnerships that Healey et al. (2019) identify in the Advance HE Framework. It’s excellent to see Student-Staff Partnerships in action where the theory behind SSP’s is illuminated in practice.
