Partnership, peer learning and pizza: developing peer support with students as partners

Staff-student partnership is at the heart of Southampton Business School’s Peer Learning scheme. This presentation will outline how staff and students have worked together over the past two years to introduce active and fun peer learning sessions timetabled for all undergraduate first-years. The scheme is based on a Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) model and has achieved good engagement from students through partnership working on various aspects of the project. This presentation will provide examples of how we have worked in partnership with our students and is relevant to the following conference themes:• Student-staff partnerships to support innovation and inclusivity: student interns have helped to develop the scheme and produce materials and resources that can be used by other students• Researching, evaluating and evidencing effective engagement: students have been engaged as co-researchers to collect research data as we measure the impact of peer learning• Ensure the student voice is heard and the feedback loop is completed: peer leaders are trained to provide feedback to academics on the challenges faced by their groupsOur experience has been that mutual benefit is a critical factor in staff-student partnership. This presentation will highlight examples of the benefits that students have gained through engagement with our peer learning scheme from developing employability to making connections with other students on their programme. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to discuss the benefits for staff and the challenges of effective staff-student partnerships.