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\nUniversity is a big investment. Students want value for money because a future of debt is scary. But there is also a danger when we talk about higher education only in financial terms. It shifts the conversation away from how universities develop students as learners, thinkers, and future leaders. It turns students into customers.<\/p>\n
When lecturers think of students as customers, it influences how they teach. Pushing students out of their comfort zones, challenging the logic of their thinking, or giving critical feedback on assignments are all important for learning. Fear of\u00a0bad teaching evaluations<\/a>\u00a0from students influences the extent to which lecturers challenge them.<\/p>\n Likewise for students, when they act like customers,\u00a0it affects how they learn<\/a>. The idea of being a customer shifts the responsibility of learning onto the lecturers, leaving students with a passive role to play. Yet, we know students need to take\u00a0active ownership of their own learning<\/a>. Numerous\u00a0studies<\/a>\u00a0demonstrate grades suffer \u2013 and students learn less \u2013 when they are passive learners.<\/p>\n When universities talk about students as customers, they are contributing to the us-versus-them divide. This influences the quality of learning in higher education by reducing its measure to customer satisfaction. Students who say they had a good quality university experience\u00a0report<\/a>deeper, more meaningful interactions with lecturers in contrast to transactional relationships. They\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0having lecturers who care about them – who\u00a0treat them as people<\/a>.<\/p>\n Universities that care about learning value an educational culture in which the student-lecturer relationship is at the heart of teaching and learning. Staff at these universities tend to do more than talk at, about, or survey students, they\u00a0talk with<\/em> them<\/a>. Students and staff talking at the annual Australian Students as Partners Roundtable event. Author provided\/public domain<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n Recently, students and staff worked together on\u00a0year-long projects<\/a>\u00a0at UQ to re-imagine Australian university education as a partnership. Students and staff from 11 Australian universities\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0the values-based idea of partnership – students as partners – offered a counter-narrative to the all-too-common narrative of students as customers. Working in partnership was a chance for cultural change and a new way of \u201cdoing\u201d higher education, they argued.<\/p>\n Engaging students as partners is first and foremost about the values and principles of partnership:<\/p>\n Core values of students as partners<\/a>\u00a0are grounded in principles that highlight how students and staff can work together as co-researchers, co-teachers, and co-creators.\u00a0Practical case studies<\/a>\u00a0show the creative ways partnership values are being translated into practice. Here are five examples:<\/p>\n The focus on partnership signals the importance of dialogue between students and university staff in learning and teaching.Change the conversation by including students<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Learning and teaching partnership<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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