Jul 2026· Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education· Vol 18· 0 citations
Abstract
Student engagement and ownership are persistent challenges in higher education (HE), particularly in small, vocationally led institutions. This study investigates how curriculum co-creation can address these challenges within a United Kingdom (UK) micro higher education institution (HEI) specialising in live events education. The institution has a diverse student body, comprising a high proportion of neurodivergent and non-traditional learners. Students reported limited influence over curriculum decisions and a sense of tokenism in existing feedback mechanisms.Eleven undergraduate students participated in semi-structured interviews, analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2022) reflexive thematic analysis. Findings revealed a strong interest in co-creation, with students identifying benefits such as increased motivation, confidence and a sense of community. Participants also highlighted the need for clear structures, scaffolding and inclusivity, alongside concerns about academic standards and readiness.The study emphasises the importance of staged implementation, dialogue-based feedback and harnessing relational strengths in small cohorts. It contributes to the literature by providing insights from a vocational micro HEI – an under-represented context – and offers practical recommendations for institutions seeking to move from consultation to genuine partnership in curriculum design.
This paper critically reflects on a student–staff co-creation initiative to enhance employability in the BSc (Hons) Public Health programme at the University of Greenwich. Held once annually in both 2024 and 2025 (and, now, from 2026, twice-yearly), the ‘Employability Gala’ is an extra-curricular event taking the form of an online webinar, with guest speakers from the public health sector. This study deals with the 2024 and 2025 galas, when fourteen undergraduate public health students and six members of staff were involved across both events. The primary purpose of the gala is to broaden students’ perspectives of the range of possible pathways and roles within public health. Implementing a co-creation approach to deliver each gala also seeks to support students’ professional skills development and enhance career readiness. Collaborating with students and industry professionals to co-design and co-deliver aspects of the curriculum supports the University’s strategy to create an inclusive and collaborative learning experience that develops competent and capable professionals.Adopting an autoethnographic approach, this paper reflects the lived experiences of two staff members and two students who participated in the 2024 and 2025 galas.
Lotta Hackett, Natalie Blakely, A. Philip et al.· Compass: Journal of Learning...· 0 citations
This article examines the internationalisation of higher education in a semi-peripheral system through the concept of a minority higher education space, focusing on the implementation of internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) at J. Selye University. Drawing on world-system theory and approaches to global inequalities in knowledge production, the study conceptualises minority higher education space as a structurally constrained, symbolically marginalised, and epistemically subordinated institutional configuration. The concept is operationalised through three dimensions: structural peripherality, epistemic partial subordination, and symbolic limitation. The empirical part uses an instrumental case study combining curriculum and project document analysis, data from a pilot regular course with elements of blended learning, and qualitative feedback from Faculty of Education students (N = 15), complemented by data from an international project consortium. The findings reveal the ambivalent nature of IoC in minority higher education spaces: while it reflects adaptation to dominant European academic norms, it also enables horizontal cooperation among semi-peripheral institutions and the pluralisation of pedagogical perspectives. Student feedback highlights the development of intercultural, civic, and project competences. The article introduces the concept of reflexive internationalisation to explain changing patterns of international engagement in minority academic contexts.
Kinga Horváth, Katalin Sýkora Hernády, Attila Mészáros et al.· Education sciences· 0 citations
INTRODUCTION
First-year undergraduate medical students are rarely positioned as active participants in the design of the curricula through which they are learning. This marginalisation of student voice is particularly consequential when students are simultaneously forming their professional identities and adapting to the norms and structures of medical education. The Change Laboratory (CL) is a structured intervention grounded in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) that creates deliberate conditions for participatory curriculum inquiry. This study investigated how engagement in a CL intervention affected first-year medical students' and educators' experiences of the undergraduate learning environment, with particular attention to how the CL functioned as a mechanism for curriculum diagnosis, the structural contradictions it surfaced, and the changes it produced in participants' relationship to the curriculum.
METHODS
A qualitative study was carried out within a first-year undergraduate medical programme. A total of fourteen participants - comprising first-year students (n = 7), academic educators (n = 5) and programme administrators (n = 2) - took part in seven structured Change Laboratory sessions focused on identifying and collaboratively addressing curriculum tensions in the first year. Semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted to elicit participants' accounts of the CL process and its effects on their relationship to the curriculum. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
RESULTS
Although the themes are constructed from participant accounts, they describe a process of curriculum diagnosis with programme-level consequences: the structural contradictions identified through the CL informed governance discussions and contributed to changes affecting the entire first-year cohort. Three themes were constructed from the data: (1) Reclaiming voice - describing how the CL created conditions in which students' perspectives were legitimised and their contributions actively sought; (2) The diagnostic power of shared dialogue - capturing how structured conversation enabled participants to identify the underlying sources of curriculum tensions that had previously resisted resolution; and (3) Building durable investment - reflecting how co-design processes generated sustained personal and professional commitment to curriculum quality that extended well beyond the sessions themselves.
CONCLUSION
CL participation generated a qualitative shift in how first-year students and educators understood their respective roles in relation to the curriculum. Crucially, the CL functioned not as a student participation event but as a curriculum diagnosis mechanism: it surfaced structural contradictions affecting the entire first-year programme that conventional feedback mechanisms had consistently failed to detect. The findings suggest that the CL can address student marginalisation in undergraduate medical education not only through relational inclusion but through generating actionable curriculum knowledge that neither students nor educators could produce alone - a contribution with implications for any undergraduate programme where student voice is structurally excluded.
Abdulaziz Althewini· BMC Medical Education· 0 citations
Outcome-Based Education (OBE) has increasingly shaped higher education through its emphasis on explicit learning outcomes, aligned teaching, assessment, and demonstrated competencies. This qualitative case study explored the implementation of OBE at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, from the perspectives of postgraduate students and academic staff. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 purposively selected participants, comprising 15 postgraduate students and 15 academic staff. Data were analysed thematically, with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy used as an interpretive lens for examining the cognitive dimensions of learning experiences and assessment. Findings revealed a distinction between formal OBE adoption and substantive classroom enactment. While participants recognized CLOs, PLOs and related documentation, implementation varied across courses and teachers. Application and analysis were more evident in practical, laboratory, field and research activities, whereas evaluation and creation were less consistently embedded. Large classes, workload, resources, assessment culture and faculty preparedness constrained implementation. The study concludes that deeper OBE implementation requires stronger alignment, authentic learning, faculty development and institutional support
Khazra, Shafaqt Rasool· Journal of Language, Literat...· 0 citations
Introduction:
Student well-being is increasingly recognised as a critical determinant of academic engagement, persistence, and success in higher education. However, STEM programmes are characterised by high cognitive demands, intensive assessment, and practical requirements that may increase stress and reduce students' sense of belonging. In South Africa, these challenges are compounded by historical inequalities and uneven access to academic and psychosocial support. Guided by Self-Determination Theory, this study explored how well-being strategies can be embedded within STEM education to support students' psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Methods:
A qualitative, interpretivist research design was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 undergraduate STEM students at a South African public university. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's six-phase thematic analysis, combining inductive coding with deductive interpretation informed by Self-Determination Theory.
Results:
Four interrelated themes emerged. First, students conceptualised academic success beyond grades, emphasising mastery, understanding, and the application of knowledge. Second, motivation and persistence were enhanced through recognition, constructive feedback, and acknowledgement of effort. Third, participants highlighted the importance of psychological well-being, work–life balance, and boundary-setting to prevent burnout. Finally, students described employing personal and relational coping strategies, including planning, leisure activities, and social support networks, to sustain engagement and resilience.
Discussion:
The findings demonstrate that student well-being is embedded within everyday learning experiences rather than existing as a separate support function. Pedagogical practices that foster autonomy, competence, and relatedness can strengthen both well-being and academic engagement. The study highlights the value of mastery-oriented assessment, formative feedback, reflective learning opportunities, and peer learning communities in promoting sustainable student success. Embedding well-being within STEM pedagogy offers a practical pathway for enhancing equity, resilience, and educational outcomes in South African higher education.
A systematic review of feedback research in STEM higher education examines how students engage with feedback, the conditions that shape feedback literacy, and the role of emotional, cultural, and relational factors, contributing an integrated understanding of feedback engagement as a multi-layered and context-dependent process in STEM higher education.
P. Pirzada, Yue Chen, K. Chai· Education sciences· 0 citations
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