What comes after

Collaborating with students can bring fresh perspectives, richer insights, and real impact—but it's important to approach these partnerships with care and clarity. This section answers common questions about when collaboration is (or isn’t) appropriate, what benefits and challenges to expect, and how to support students effectively throughout.

Planning for post-project and ongoing co-creation

Ideally, your project/piece of work will have actions as a result of your co-creation, which could be adopting a new practice or sharing resources. In these cases, it may be useful to include your student co-creators into these stages.

Things to consider

Your co-creator(s)’ graduation dates– will they still be at the University once your project ends and be able to support outcomes?
Funding timelines- if you have a grant or a funded pot of money, be mindful of when your project finishes in line with any funding
- This may impact your ability to pay your student co-creators, so be sure if they’re working on outcomes, this is within your funding timeline, or you have extra budget to continue to compensate them
CPD for students– asking students to co-present at committees or conferences can be a great opportunity for students to gain practical skills
- Still, it can also be a new and overwhelming experience. Be sure to take the time to prepare students (including practising presentations, etc.) so that they feel empowered and supported to share your work
Working space and flexibility– depending on when you finish your project, do you need students to be on campus or can they work from home?
- Be mindful of when students may or may not be around campus, as this could affect how you implement your outcomes
- The same goes for your general project work, but outcomes typically tend to be reached at the end of term 1 or in the summer, when students may not be as available
What value will be added by having students support outcome dissemination– are they helping reach new/hard-to-reach audiences? Are they providing student voice? Do they have their own autonomy to help plan and deliver outcome actions?

Including students in the project wrap up

Student co-creators are part of your project team, and as such, should be included in the wrap up phase where possible. Typically, students want to see a project through, so want to be included
The below list is not exhaustive, but student co-creators may be involved in:
- Writing papers/developing resources
- Creating presentations and delivering them at committees or conferences
- Generating social media content related to your outcomes
- Developing websites and their content
- Consulting with and socialising project outcomes with diverse stakeholder groups, including student groups
- Delivering training or drafting guidance on how to use project outcomes
- Gathering and sharing student feedback and views
- Sitting on working groups (where necessary)
Actions that may benefit from staff involvement only may include:
- Discussions with Head of Department/other senior leadership about adopting project outcomes
- Sitting on working groups or task forces (depending on the nature and context of group)

In general, there are not many outcome actions that exclude students and it’s best to discuss as a project team what actions members would be most comfortable supporting.

Having students present and advocating/supporting outcomes and actions is well-received amongst the University community and will often put more weight behind your recommended changes/actions as we value student voice.

Even in rooms where difficult conversations could happen, having students present and ready to advocate for your work can make a big difference in influencing stakeholders.

If you can't include students in outcomes

It may be the case that students aren’t around or able to support with outcomes and actions. In these instances, be sure to:

Ensure students have been sufficiently fed into action plans for the next steps
Continue to consult students on next steps and keep them updated on progress made. Be open to and let students feed in and out where they want
Ensure students receive appropriate credit for their work, including in resources, papers, and presentations

How to keep outcomes alive

Use them to build on- when forming new projects, processes, etc.
Write academic and research papers
Ensure that outcomes and deliverables are dynamic- allowing them to adapt to changing contexts, rather than remaining static pieces of work. This may require some degree of maintenance
Generate actionable outcomes- e.g. programmes that people engage with post-project
Plan for evaluation and enhancement- an outcome that can be improved and enhanced may need several iterations to fine-tune
Use one of the routes below for wider adoption or dissemination across the University

Routes to consider

Wider adoption

Adopting outcomes within your department may require discussion with your department’s Head of Department, HoAand/or Education Committee. It’s best to consult your department directly to determine appropriate approval routes.

Socialise your work with various stakeholder groups, including within your department (for example, SSLCs) and across the broader University
Run trainings to help people learn how to adopt your work or reach out to other departments to see if you can go along to their next meeting/provide in-house training
Build your work into a code of practice or framework
A code of practice provides practical guidance for embedding your work. For example, the code of practice to support disabled students and staff provides guidance on the ways that we can make teaching, learning and the broader student experience more accessible and inclusive for disabled students
- A framework seeks to support or guide the building of something, such as the student engagement framework which scaffolds several different ways that we engage with students
- Neither a code of practice nor framework are bound to university policy or processes, meaning they are advisory rather than compulsory
If you’re interested in scaling up to full institutional adoption, you should follow the new Academic Governance Structure to find the appropriate decision-making routes
- Typically, you’ll want to bring your work to the Faculty Education Committees for discussion and consultation before proposing to bring it to the University’s wider Education and Student Experience Committee
- From there, it may be recommended to be brought to Senate or other channels for approval

Wider circulation and sharing

Sharing Information with students

Back: Dos and donts

Collaborating with Overview page

Next: Frequently asked questions