When students participate in oversight of their institutions and education they fulfill different functions.  Kelly Matthews (Uni Queensland) and Mollie Dollinger (Deakin U) describe differences and explain why they matter

 “While both partnership and representation share a commitment to student voice as a participatory process advancing democratic education, they are different and related roles in the ecosystem of student voice efforts,” they argue in a paper newly published in journal Higher Education.

“The role of the student representative is shaped by the power and politics of a rigid and often well-defined system that unpins institutional decision-making at a strategic level,” they suggest.  In contrast, “partners are primarily responsible for engaging in reciprocal learning processes where they co-create the agenda, aims, and activities … their student identities become blurred as they take on new responsibilities with a new sense of agency in a partnership with staff/teachers.”

Both are needed to make meaningful institutional commitments to heeding student voices, both in governance and in shaping, “everyday educational experiences.”