We attended the National Students as Partners Roundtable 2021

By Varun Gopi

In October 2018, six of the 21C SAPs attended the 4th annual National Students as Partners Roundtable at the University of Queensland. Our work on #WeAreTheUniversity: students co-creating change drew the attention of Roundtable co-curator Kelly Matthews, and we were graciously invited to participate in a 30-minute panel where we could present our story, answer questions, and receive feedback on the unit.

In a day-long program that contained more than a few 3AM starts to fly into Brisbane and get to UQ on time, there were many fantastic and interesting sessions, including a keynote from Catherine Bovill from the University of Edinburgh on her experiences implementing students as partners. Another, titled session “Letters to those who dare to engage in Partnership” offered a variety of perspectives from students and staff about SAP practices - some very difficult ones too! Not only did we receive valuable and reinforcing feedback on our unit but hearing about the experiences of others gave us great insight into what work, in a similar vein to our own, was occurring all around the country, inspiring us to continue pushing boundaries and furthering the SAP cause.