HEDx Student Experience - EP7

So I'm here with Gemma Lucy Smart, PhD student at University of Sydney, board chair for the Council of Australian Postgrad Associates.

And we're going to be talking today about some questions about the student experience and what you've been seeing at the conferences and your feelings and all that sort of stuff.

So my first question is, is what is the value of having students involved across all parts of the program, not just as a feature panelist, for example, but also just kind of like in the crowd asking questions and getting among academics and that sort of stuff.

Yeah, so every panel I've been to today just as an audience member has had at least one student member and I've really liked the way that it's been integrated by the panel chairs, that the student was a good kind of contrast to the tendency for academics or managerial sort of staff within the academy.

to kind of all speak a kind of joint language that isn't necessarily something that students are fluent in and I really liked the kind of let's bring it down to what students are actually experiencing and what how they speak about these things as well and you know like kind of engaging in that way it's been great yeah That's great.

So now for my second question.

Where do you feel the student voice has had the most impact in conversations today? Obviously, you were on the panel just before.

And so... interested on your views?

Yeah, so I was on a panel that was all students and I wasn't aware until we started that it was in fact the first all student panel at HeadX and I think our conversation was so complimentary to the rest of the workshop it was part of.

It really provided some kind of richness to that.

I also think in that workshop, and I assume this is happening elsewhere too, is we had students who were just there to see the workshop and they were really involved in each table.

the people who, the attendees who were not students, were very generous and inclusive in the way that they dealt with them.

So it's kind of seeing each other as peers rather than kind of engaging in some sort of hierarchical kind of nature of speaking where, you know, I am the expert, I speak to you.

It wasn't that.

It was your experts and your own experience.

Please tell me.

I want to know.

And that's really that curiosity-driven conversation.

Yeah.

That's so good.

So I'm here with Gemma Lucy Smart, PhD student at University of Sydney, board chair for the Council of Australian Postgrad Associates.

And we're going to be talking today about some questions about the student experience and what you've been seeing at the conferences and your feelings and all that sort of stuff.

So my first question is, is what is the value of having students involved across all parts of the program, not just as a feature panelist, for example, but also just kind of like in the crowd asking questions and getting among academics and that sort of stuff.

Yeah, so every panel I've been to today just as an audience member has had at least one student member and I've really liked the way that it's been integrated by the panel chairs, that the student was a good kind of contrast to the tendency for academics or managerial sort of staff within the academy.

to kind of all speak a kind of joint language that isn't necessarily something that students are fluent in and I really liked the kind of let's bring it down to what students are actually experiencing and what how they speak about these things as well and you know like kind of engaging in that way it's been great yeah That's great.

So now for my second question.

Where do you feel the student voice has had the most impact in conversations today? Obviously, you were on the panel just before.

And so... interested on your views?

Yeah, so I was on a panel that was all students and I wasn't aware until we started that it was in fact the first all student panel at HeadX and I think our conversation was so complimentary to the rest of the workshop it was part of.

It really provided some kind of richness to that.

I also think in that workshop, and I assume this is happening elsewhere too, is we had students who were just there to see the workshop and they were really involved in each table.

the people who, the attendees who were not students, were very generous and inclusive in the way that they dealt with them.

So it's kind of seeing each other as peers rather than kind of engaging in some sort of hierarchical kind of nature of speaking where, you know, I am the expert, I speak to you.

It wasn't that.

It was your experts and your own experience.

Please tell me.

I want to know.

And that's really that curiosity-driven conversation.

Yeah.

That's so good.