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What’s in it for them? Examining the bi-directional advantages of student/alumni participation in university
course advisory committees, Emerging Initiative.
What’s in it for them? Examining the bi-directional advantages of
student/alumni participation in university course advisory committees.
Katherine Attree, Faculty of Business, Justice & Behavioural Science,
Charles Sturt University
Abstract
Student as Partnerships (SaP) initiatives represent an emerging approach to
enhancing student engagement, improving learning and teaching design and
delivery, and fostering genuine collaborative learning communities. Inclusion of
students in course advisory committees(CAC)s offers one opportunity to engage
students as partners in the design, development and review of course curriculum.
This research reports on the reciprocal benefits flowing to both students and
academic staff of the engagement of students (and students who later become
alumni) as members in CACs. The findings will be shared in this presentation.
Background/context
Course advisory committees (CACs) are vital bodies that enable universities to obtain
information on the relevance and effectiveness of curriculum content in the professional
context. Members of CACs are drawn from industry, alumni, internal and external academics,
and current students. In the case of postgraduate courses, alumni and students may also be
senior industry professionals. Examination of the extant literature reveals a paucity of papers
on CACs. Of those that exist, most address the issue from the US community college
perspective and focus on processes or guidelines for establishing the committee together with
its functions and purpose (e.g. Mello 2019, Neal 2018, Felsen & Nastanski 2016). Only a few
studies focus on including students as part of the advisory process of course review (Pack &
Peek, 2021, Tolli & Dollinger 2021).
Drawing on the “students as partners” (SaP) literature this research investigates the reciprocal
benefits to postgraduate students and postgraduate students who become alumni of
participation in course advisory committees. Mercer-Mapstone et al. (2017) suggest that SaP
practices are under-explored at postgraduate level and prevalence in business disciplines is
low.
The initiative
Semi-structured, in-depth, qualitative interviews with members of two postgraduate business
CACs were conducted to investigate the benefits for students and alumni of participation in
CACs. Academic staff were also interviewed to examine the benefits flowing to the
institution from their inclusion. Preliminary findings indicate that students and alumni felt
honoured and excited to be included in the committee. Advantages of participation included
networking, keeping up to date with industry trends, professional and career benefits in terms
of inclusion of membership on resumes. Perceptions towards the currency and relevance of
their degree were enhanced by participation in the CAC as were positive feelings toward the
institution. Academic staff found participation in the committee enabled them to keep up to
date with industry trends and any potential gaps in the curriculum, gain direct feedback from
current and former students on the relevance and validity of content to the workplace, on the
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What’s in it for them? Examining the bi-directional advantages of student/alumni participation in university
course advisory committees, Emerging Initiative.
effectiveness of assessment tasks, and the impact of learning on student personal
development and careers. Additionally, students/alumni were able to offer suggestions on
how to improve the operational effectiveness of the CACs. This bi-directional flow of
advantages suggests that the initiative conforms with the description of SaP as a relational
process underpinned by reciprocity where participants are all actively engaged and benefit
(Healey, Fint, & Harrington, 2014; Matthews, Cook-Sather, & Healey, 2018).
Audience discussion
Subject to availability student/alumni members of these CACs will be invited to participate in
the conference presentation and share their experiences. Possible areas for audience
discussion:
1. Does your institution/school organise similar CACs which include students, alumni
and students who become alumni? What benefits flow from participation of these
stakeholders in the CACs?
2. What strategies do you employ to ensure diversity of the CAC and to diminish the
impact of inherent power inequities?
References
Felsen, D., & Nastanski, M. (2016). The process of stakeholder engagement: the case of
establishing advisory councils at a school of business. International Journal of Arts &
Sciences, 9(4), 655-667.
Healey, M., Fint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Students as partners in Learning and
Teaching in Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.advance-
he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/engagement-through-partnership-students-partners-learning-
and-teaching-higher
Matthews, K. E., Cook-Sather, A., & Healey, M. (2018). Connecting learning, teaching, and
research through student–staff partnerships: Toward universities as egalitarian learning
communities. In V. C. H. Tong, A. Standen, & M. Sotiriou (Eds.), Shaping higher
education with students: Ways to connect research and teaching. London: UCL Press.
Mello, J. A. (2019). Creating and developing effective business and professional school
advisory boards. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 19(2), 88-97.
Neal, J. (2018). The Roles and Characteristics of Advisory Committees. The Role of
Advisory Committees in Biomedical Education and Workforce Development:
Emerging Research and Opportunities, 28-43.
Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S. L., Matthews, K. E., Abbot, S., Cheng, B., Felten, P., . .
. Swaim, K. (2017). A systematic literature review of students as partners in higher
education. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1).
Pack, S. M., & Peek, S. C. (2020). Engaging Students as Stakeholders through a Student
Advisory Board. Journal of Physical Education, 7, 74-81.
Tolli, J., & Dollinger, M. (2021) Redefining student representation: From tokens to change-
makers, [Paper presentation]. UniSTARS [Virtual] Conference 2021, Australia
