We are excited to announce Season 2 of our Students as Co-Creators Project at the University of Westminster Business School. Co-creating for impact is an initiative that places students at the core of knowledge construction and enables them to influence outcomes that matter both within and outside the university.
Read all about this teaching project:
This project is also an element of Positive Academia and contributes to our vision of a Positive Academia Collective Transformation (PACT). Co-creating for impact embodies care, collaboration and collectiveness and answers the call to shift from individualism toward partnership, collaboration, inclusivity and growth. By joining our project, students and partners contribute to that transformation – helping to construct academic cultures that value diverse student voices, nurture diversity, and connect learning with real-world challenges.
Co-creation is about partnership. Instead of viewing education as a market-driven service that is merely consumed by students, co-creation for impact reimagines learning as a collaborative process. It recognizes that students are uniquely positioned to offer insights shaped by their diverse experiences, visions, and values. For students, co-creation offers a way to take ownership of their learning and make it personally and professionally meaningful. For us (academics), it opens doors to new ways of experiencing teaching, mentoring, collegiality as well as learning from students and from our colleagues and university partners. We aim to create a community where knowledge is not just shared but actively and sustainably developed. The project also connects collaborations to issues of employability, DEI and social responsibility – by addressing challenges and opportunities that define future workplaces, communities and societies. By doing so, we put the Positive Academia values and principles of our PACT (recently published in Management Learning) in practice and use education as a driver for collective well-being, empowerment, and sustainable transformation.
Employability these days is much more than just securing a job after graduation. It is about developing transferable skills, innovative, reflexive and critical thinking, and adaptability needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Through co-creating for impact students will develop digital, and reflective skills (e.g. through blog posts and Podcasts); enhance teamwork and leadership abilities (e.g. through collaboration and project responsibilities); practice real-world problem solving (e.g. by connecting academic knowledge to recent organizational and societal challenges) and build confidence in professional communication by sharing their voice through various media, digital and traditional channels. Furthermore, by co-creating meaningful content, they are also building a professional portfolio that showcases their initiative, enthusiasm, and skills to future employers. At the same time, they are helping to redefine employability—not just as individual achievements but as the ability to contribute to a collective (e.g., teams, communities, and organizations).
Practicing the commitment to DEI. While our universities bring together people and communities from various backgrounds, identities, and experiences, some voices dominate while others remain unheard, marginalized, and pushed to the periphery. This project challenges this imbalance by actively building a platform where students can voice different perspectives and experiences, question dominant discourse and narratives, and explore alternative ways of seeing and doing things. We emphasize storytelling, challenge biases, and celebrate diversity. In practice, students’ contributions can directly influence how inclusion is perceived and enacted within their own and other environments and communities. The Podcasts, blog posts, and reflections will form a living archive of voices and pluralistically constructed knowledge.
Our project is more than a one-off endeavour but forms a part of a larger shift in how we understand learning and partnership. By positioning students as co-creators, we are actively reimaging what it means to learn, teach, and grow together. We thus continuously learn from our own experience and sustainably adapt the project year after year. By doing so we imagine a university where every student feels that their voice matters. We envision a learning community where academic knowledge is enriched by lived experiences, inclusion is the norm, and employability is more than just a ‘need’—it’s a practical reality. We focus on creating an educational experience that is inclusive, meaningful, and impactful. We recognize each student as a partner in knowledge construction and amplify their voices while enabling them to proactively address global real-world challenges. This is our vision of co-creating for impact and supports a Positive Academia Collective Transformation through teaching and learning.
This year, Gustavo Espinoza-Ramos has joined me as the second project director, and we are actively working together with our Westminster University colleague, Eleanor Roseblade, from the School of Media & Communication and wider partners. Having started this project alone with a lovely student team last year, I am overjoyed to see how it has been growing and am celebrating the strong collegiality, collectiveness, and support of all people involved. We are open for cross-institutional collaborations; please feel free to get in touch with me via mail@christasathish.com