13 - 15 July 2027

Change Institute

Bring students, staff and a shared ambition. Develop a practical plan for your next students as partners initiative.

Applications opening soon

What is the Change Institute?

Make space for what comes next

Develop a strategic students as partners initiative in higher education learning and teaching—and return with a practical plan to pitch to senior leaders.

Part of the Global Institute for Students as Partners, the Change Institute provides three days of focused collaboration, structured activities and mentoring. Your team will work towards an initiative you plan to implement in the coming year.

You do not need a finished project plan. Bring an idea with support in principle and important decisions still open to co-design.

Who should apply?

A team with different perspectives

Applications are invited from institutional teams of four to six people, including at least two students and at least two faculty or professional staff members. All team members must participate in person at Wollongong for the three days.

Ideally, your team will include people at different levels of seniority and with a range of experience of students as partners work. You do not all need to be experienced partnership practitioners.

Bring an initiative ready to develop

The strongest projects are strategic initiatives with potential for impact across an institution or through collaboration between institutions. They have been agreed in principle, but their details have yet to be settled.

Your team might plan to pilot an initiative in one area before extending it more widely. The Institute is best suited to an emerging initiative rather than a project that is already fully operational.

How the three days work

Think together. Test ideas. Build your plan.

Each team is supported by an experienced faculty or staff mentor and a student or recent student mentor.

  1. Facilitated activities: Work through structured change exercises led by the facilitators to develop your thinking and approach.
  2. Mentoring: Discuss your ideas, questions and challenges with mentors and other team members who bring complementary perspectives.
  3. Teamwork time: Translate your discussions into a practical project plan, learning alongside other institutional teams.

The wider Institute

You will also join other Institute delegates for the two shared keynotes, the International Journal for Students as Partners (IJSaP) 10th Anniversary Reception and the Poster Exhibition.

Optional pre-Institute workshops (12 July) and the optional social event offer additional ways to extend your experience.

The Change Institute combines dedicated team development with opportunities to connect with the wider international students as partners community.

Examples of Change Institute projects

Previous Change Institute teams have explored curriculum, assessment, student consultancy, educational research and institutional change. These examples illustrate the breadth of possibilities. Bring an initiative shaped by your own institutional context, priorities and partnership aspirations.

  • Students as Change Agents in Learning & Teaching (SCALT), Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.
  • Imperial StudentShapers, Imperial College London, UK.
  • Create an Office of Science Education: A student-faculty collaboration, Faculty of Science at McGill University, Canada.
  • Including Undergraduates in SoTL teams, University of Wyoming, US.
  • Engaging Students in Assessment Design and Implementation, T.A. Marryshow Community College (TAMCC), Grenada.
  • Developing Curriculum and a Common Learning Environment: A SaP approach, HAN (Hogeschool Arnhem and Nijmegen) University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands.
  • Working with Students in Curriculum Partnership: An online 21C Curiosity Pod for Western staff, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
  • Engaging Students in Promoting Excellence in Teaching Mathematics throughout Norwegian HE Institutions, Centre for Research, Innovation and Coordination of Mathematics Teaching, University of Agder, Norway.
  • Curriculum-embedded Civic Engagement Opportunities for Students: A SaP approach, Victoria University, New Zealand.
  • Enhancing, Adapting, Sustaining and Extending the Student Consultant Program, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

One Global Institute. Two pathways.

The Global Institute for Students as Partners brings together two distinct programs running concurrently from 13–15 July 2027: the Institute Conference and the Change Institute (viewing now). Because the two programs take place at the same time, participants cannot register for both. However, shared keynotes, social events and selected Institute activities will bring both groups together.

Prefer to join the Institute Conference?

If you would prefer a varied conference program rather than focused development of a team initiative, the Institute Conference offers research and practice-oriented presentations, panels, workshops, campfire conversations and place-based explorations. Join in person in Wollongong or explore the curated virtual program if you are unable to travel.

Explore the Institute Conference