Keele’s innovative Elective Pathways project was recently presented at the Change Agents’ Network (CAN) annual conference, hosted by the Open University and supported by JISC.

Elliott Lancaster, Education Officer for Keele Students Union, presented the staff-student partnership work which has contributed to the Elective Pathways project at Keele University.

The focus of this year’s CAN conference was the evolving landscape of staff-student partnerships at universities and colleges. The key themes of the two-day event offered participants the opportunity to critically reflect on collective progress to date, and to begin to envision the future of staff-student partnership in a rapidly changing education sector.

Elliott’s presentation was entitled ‘Elective Pathways: Student leaders in a co-designed curriculum’. Elliott commented:

“Presenting at the CAN Conference was a fascinating experience, where I was able to discuss the Students as Partners initiative and the upcoming Elective Pathways programme. The presentation focused on three topic areas: Interdisciplinary Study, Student Voice and the process of Co-design and Employability. This was framed in the guise of the challenges of the skills gap and student opportunities. It was insightful to gain a wider understanding of the approaches other institutions take around assessment relevance.”

‘Elective Pathways’ is a current project that is being led by the Keele Institute of Innovation and Teaching Excellence (KIITE) to re-design the electives provision that is available to Keele students, in conjunction with the Students Union and other partners from across the University.

Elliott continued:

“As a flagship project between the SU, KIITE and wider institution, I will be aiming to follow up this presentation by submitting an article to the Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change.”

For more information on the Elective Pathways project, visit the KIITE Elective Pathways project website.