Elevating Student Influence: The Inaugural Student Design Corps

In the summer of 2023, UDI launched an inaugural Student Design Corps (SDC), charged with designing how student voices could be more present in university teaching and learning. The SDC was a team of four students from diverse academic levels, disciplines, and cultural backgrounds. 

Over the course of 12 weeks, the students designed and led a discovery process to learn more about the current state of student voice in academics, synthesized the information into core challenges to tackle, and designed prototypes that could be implemented to increase student voice. UDI training and guidance was integrated throughout, with sessions on feedback methodology, data analysis, interviewing techniques, applied practice in design processing, and shadowing opportunities with international education leaders. 

SDC outputs

During the program the students developed tight camaraderie, deep thinking, and a prolific portfolio of prototypes to begin testing around the University. Among the prototypes they developed was a robust definition of including student voice that includes “involving active student participation in decision-making, policies, and improvements across all aspects of their educational experience”, “ensuring that students are kept informed about the utilization and outcomes of their input”, and “fostering ongoing, multidimensional, and collaborative feedback loops, cultivating open and transparent communication, and pursuing continuous improvement”.

Their proposed designs included:

• Workshops to foster collaboration between teachers and students in designing the classroom experience, 
• An active feedback portal so students could give constructive feedback in real time, and
• The establishment of a Student Agent Organization to oversee these mechanisms and continue to nurture relationships between students and administration.

Selected Insights from the SDC process

• The UDI position of guiding the students and learning from them was valuable. This ensured the voice and the design of the students was central to SDC’s work. Students acted as both creative designers and active stakeholders in the work of increasing student voice.
• The Student Design Corps is important and replicable. Positioning students as experts in their educational experience widens the circle of voices in university design and builds an active, optimistic mindset about improving the impact of Higher Education.