Co-creating a student charter

At the University of Portsmouth the co-created student charter, approved by Academic Council in June 2018, was developed using a co-creation workshop process which brought together a range of students (international, undergraduate, postgraduate research, postgraduate taught, part-time, distance, mature) deliberately drawing upon those who do not engage with the students’ union, academic staff (covering a range of roles including personal tutors, undergraduate, postgraduate, distance learning, collaborative) and professional services staff, to develop a concise and memorable charter which staff and students feel they can ‘sign up to’.

We co-created a set of five core principles which summarise what students and staff should expect from each other during their time at university, and to help students achieve the ‘Hallmarks of the Portsmouth Graduate’ (a set of graduate attributes, henceforth ‘Hallmarks’). The student charter is a tangible outcome of the sense of belonging which we achieve as a community at Portsmouth, and the authentic partnership between students and staff.

The case study describes the collaborative development process, undertaken in the 2017/18 academic year, and presents the student charter as a specific outcome of working together as partners. It also provides some highlights and lessons learnt for those considering the creation of empowered partnership-working in HE.