Date of the Workshop: Monday 6 July 2026
Location: University of Manchester
Number of participants: 29 registered, 26 attended on the day
Number of distinct organisations represented: 16
Introduction
The increasing importance of the student voice in shaping higher education is evidenced by the inclusion of student voice questions in the NSS, the student submission to TEF 2023 and Principle 2 ‘Engaging with students as partners’ of the QAA Quality Code 2024. Working with students as partners (SaP) to develop teaching, learning and assessment and improve the student experience has proved highly effective (see Student Engagement through Partnership Framework,
Advance HE 2024 ).
This workshop will bring together colleagues in the mathematical sciences who have successfully worked with student partners and those who are interested in developing SaP activities in their institution. As well as sharing examples of good practice, the workshop will provide time for attendees to explore opportunities to expand SaP activities in their institutions and potential collaborations across the mathematics community.
Workshop Overview
The workshop was in-person. There were 29 participants from 16 UK HEIs, including 2 student partners. The workshop included 3 keynote talks, 11 lightning talks and time for networking and discussion. The programme is below.
| Time | Session | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00–10:30 | Registration, coffee and tea | |
| 10:30–10:45 | Introduction | |
| 10:45–11:30 | Reflections on SaP at Manchester | Louise Walker and Sonia Balan |
| 11:30–12:50 | Lightning talks: 5 minutes plus 2 minutes for questions | 11 speakers |
| 12:50–13:45 | Lunch | |
| 13:45–14:30 | Students as Partners at Imperial: Lessons Learned | Ioanna Papatsouma |
| 14:30–15:15 | Including the student voice at national, programme and classroom level | Chris Brignell |
| 15:15–15:30 | Break and refreshments | |
| 15:30–16:30 | Common themes and next steps: group discussions |
Lightning talks
- Rehan Shah, ‘Beyond the Formula’: Embedding ethics and sustainability in mathematics through co-creation
- Ruth Reynolds, Changemakers – staff-student partnerships at UCL
- Tom Wicks, Working with students to co-create a new mathematics curriculum
- Neil Morrison, By students, for students – reflections on five years of the MIMUC undergraduate mathematics conference
- Mark MacDonald, Peer mentoring sessions designed and organised by students
- Jamie Mason, Working with students to analyse STACK data
- Rose Wagstaffe and Holly Barker, Invested: A Student Partnership in Actuarial Science Assessment Design
- Vesna Perisic, Supporting Group Work in Partnership with Students
- William Carey, How a series of Happy Accidents in student-staff partnerships changed a career trajectory
- Ewan Russell, Students as partners at Liverpool
- Jenny Sexton, Co-creating assessment rubrics
Main Themes and Ideas
Different projects in maths departments and nationally involving students as partners, opportunities for funding and collaborations (see list of talks above and details on the Padlet.
Emerging Implications and Recommendations
There is an increasing interest in the student voice and collaborating with student partners on curriculum design, assessment and feedback and student support. This workshop brought together people with various levels of experience in this area to raise awareness. Hopefully this will lead to future networking opportunities and collaboration between institutions.
Resources and Links
A Padlet was created to share presentation slides and to share relevant resources: SaP Workshop 6th July 2026
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the IMA/LMS/RSS and the University of Manchester for funding the workshop. Thanks to all the participants, especially the keynote speakers and lightning talk presenters.
Conclusion
We asked participants to complete a feedback questionnaire. 17 people responded.
- The quality of the presentations scored 4.65 out of 5.
- All respondents thought that the workshop was well organised and that the length was ok.
- 14 of the respondents had attended a previous IMA/LMS/RSS HE T&L workshop.
- What people liked about the event – it was in person, the talks, opportunities for networking and discussion, hearing about what others are doing and good practice in SaP.
- Other topics to explore at future workshops – peer support for students, collaborating with students on impact of GenAI on education, support for marginalised groups of students, situated learning in mathematics.
Next steps: All participants have been sent details of the Padlet with resources from the workshop and asked if they want their contact details to be shared with other participants. There is a new network for staff involved in student peer support schemes and we will continue to share and promote SaP work through other networks eg. NUMPEN.
