Student Champions are great! In the resource constrained and time limited world of the university, having an extra-eager student with spare energy, time and knowledge to give is a wonderful thing. In return, being a champion provides the student with rare opportunities to work on design and development projects with experienced people using professional methods. This can lead to well rewarded work opportunities and, for enterprising students, provides a pathway to growing their own digital innovation business.

Perhaps most importantly for the University in the long term, Student Champion schemes develop a more sophisticated understanding of teaching quality - with students better able to assess and feedback on teaching and the student experience. We are working with students and support services to design and implement a Student Champions scheme at Warwick, building upon the pioneering work done by the Arts E-Squad, Social Sciences FLAG Team and the Life Sciences Digichamps. We want to make something that is, in the words of the students...

Between June and August 2015 we completed a project funded by the Higher Education Academy to define a competency framework, process model and developmental approach for engaging students in the enhancement of learning, teaching and the student experience in Higher Education. We believe that Student Champions can be more than just helpful, they can help transform the University, enhancing all aspects of learning, teaching and the student experience.

This is a multi-agency initiative bringing together IT Services, LDC, the Library, Student Careers and Skills, IATL, the Students' Union, the Teaching Quality office and CLL. We are funding two pilot SC teams - in Classics and Life Sciences (continuing the existing Digichamps scheme). 18 students took part in a co-design workshop in July to help us with the project. We have now developed a proposal describing how we would like to develop this into a permanent scheme. We hope to see this incorporated into the work of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy.

• Watch this interview with successful Warwick graduate Catherine Allen, to find out why being a champion can be a life-changing opportunity.
• See the Re-performing Performance Shakespeare teaching resource archive for a project created by Student Champions at Warwick.
• Find out about Student Champion initiatives at other universities.
• Read a summary of the Competency Framework.
• Read the full Competency Framework report (published by the HEA).
• Read and feedback on our proposal for developing a permanent Student Champions scheme linked to the Extended Classroom initiative.
• Contact the project leader Dr. Robert O'Toole r dot b dot o-toole at warwick dot ac dot uk for more information or to get involved.