Student Staff Partnership Forums

If you are an undergraduate or taught postgraduate student, Student Staff Partnership Forums are one of the ways that you can make your voice heard in your School or Centre.

Student Staff Partnership Forums are led by students - usually your School Rep or a Course Rep - and attended by both students and staff.

They are a chance for students and staff to work together in partnership to solve problems, make plans, and for students to tell their School what they think about how things are run.

Who goes to the Student Staff Partnership Forum (SSPF)?

• School Reps and Course Reps. The Forum is normally chaired by a student, usually a School Rep;

• Students representing each year of each programme of study, including postgraduate taught programmes;

• Students representing Joint Honours and part-time programmes;

• Staff members like the Head of School, Director of Student Education, and teaching staff;

• A staff member from the Student Education Service.

Any student may attend SSPF, and often Academic Society Presidents, school interns, PASS/PAL mentors, and ambassadors will attend.

There should always be more students present than there are staff. This helps to make sure it is student led, and not dominated by staff.

How do Student Staff Partnership Forums work?

• It meets at least twice per semester.

• Before the Forum, School and Course Reps will gather your feedback. They will use this feedback to decide what needs to be discussed at SSPF.

• Examples of the sorts of thing that might be discussed include:

  • Your School’s Action Plan - this is the plan your School puts in place to improve your experience as a taught student

  • Issues affecting students:

    • The impact of Covid-19 on your university experience

    • How you are taught or receive feedback online or in person

    • Equality and Inclusion

    • Decolonising the Curriculum

    • Timetabling, and access to hardware, software and space

    • Community and a sense of belonging.

• Your Reps will work in partnership with staff to make an agenda, which should be shared before the meeting so that everyone knows what will be discussed. This might include both student feedback and policies from the School or University.

• At the forum, students and staff will discuss the points on the agenda. Often, they will talk about how to make things better, how to fix problems, and what students think about school or university policies.

• The forum will always be minuted (in other words, notes will be made about the forum). These will be discussed at School-level meetings.

• Your Reps or the School should close the feedback loop by explaining what was done with your feedback, and whether any changes, actions and initiatives have resulted from your feedback.

For more information about the Terms of Reference for SSPFs and tips for staff, please see the University of Leeds website here.