Student Change Lab
Welcome to the Student Change Lab!
We imagine a university where students, academics, and professional service teams work in partnership, where empathy and diverse perspectives enable us to co-create meaningful change.
We desire Student Voice Committees (SVCs)/ Student Staff Liaison Committees (SSLCs) meetings that are collaborative and creative, as well as efficient and effective. We want everyone involved to feel like their time and input is valued and creates something valuable. In the Student Change Lab, we are supporting SSLC/SVCs to integrate human-centred design tools into student feedback and partnership to bring about this about.
The Student Change Lab is set up to:
Equip student reps and staff with human-centred design approaches to grow empathy and collaboration;
- Bring creativity and experimentation into student partnership, making space for co-creation and shared ownership;
- Support meaningful change by ensuring the time and effort from students, academics, and professional service teams leads to powerful outcomes;
- Deepen understanding of the root causes and act on student feedback, ensuring it’s valued, visible, and understood by all parties.
Join the conversation
Join our LINKEDIN GROUP if you are interested in learning more. Get involved and get in touch by filling in the FORM if you are interested as a staff member at the University of Manchester.
Find out more
Our progress so far:
Our last academic year 2024/25 was busy:
Work in Progress – Show & Tell blogs
We have been learning loads. We’ve come across many good practices and initiatives across programmes and schools. We have been impressed by the strong commitment to student voice we have witnessed. We have also heard about many frustrations, areas that could benefit from further exploration and dialogue.
We share reflections and insights through our blogs. Let us know what resonates with you or if you would like to get involved on LINKEDIN GROUP or through our FORM.
Our blogs so far:
More blogs are coming soon.
- Exploring the Academic Rep learning doughnut (29th September 2025)
Professor Sarah Dyer introduces us to the concept of a “learning doughnut”: a teaching and learning tool which helps us to define levels of challenge when stepping out of our comfort zone.
- Reflection on participation in the Student Engagement Workshop (20th August 2025)
A student rep participant reflects on their experience of joining the co-creation workshop, exploring reasons and ideas of “why don’t student give feedback” with other reps.
- Making Feedback Collection More Representative: SCL’s Human-Centred Design Tool for Collecting Feedback (19th August 2025)
Student rep Soumya Mati joined a hands-on workshop to test two human-centred design tools Student Needs Statement Cards and Empathy Map that we developed. The workshop was about how these tools could be used widely by reps and students for collecting meaningful and purposeful feedback.
- Walking in students’ shoes: weaving stories where human-centred design meets student voice (20th March 2025)
Ming, as the facilitator, reflects on the human-centred design workshops working with student representatives on how their roles look like and how to apply empathy in their daily work with their peers.
- From Listening to Action: How the Student Change Lab Designs with Student Voice (19th March 2025)
Ming reflects on why does empathy matter in the university setting and how the Student Change Lab has been working towards creating the practice spaces.
- Think Outside the Box: Co-Creating Student-Centered Support Services and User Experience for Canvas (21st October 2024)
The Student Change Lab reflects upon working with the Library Student Team to explore how students can feed-forward in the design of their virtual learning environment.
What Now?
In this academic year, we will be partnering with three degree programmes. Taking a context-sensitive test and learn approach, our hope is for:
- Improved clarity and relevance of student feedback presented at SSLC/SV meetings;
- More focused and productive discussions between student reps and programme teams;
- Enhanced student engagement and agency in the feedback process;
- Time savings through more structured and streamlined meeting preparation;
- Insight into scalable practices that could benefit other programmes across the university.
Our Team
Professor Sarah Dyer (Chair in Digital Education)
Sarah has been working with human-centred design approaches in HE for nearly a decade. She started to explore this way of working when she realized that pedagogy was the easy bit of improving students’ learning experiences. You can read more about her way of working in this Times Higher Campus piece.
Chiachi Ming (Research Associate on Human-centred Design Projects)
Ming is a service designer who has spent the past 5 years working with the public sector, charities, and grassroots communities, focusing on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). She believes in creating inclusive space to hear diverse narratives of needs and shape bridges that bring students and staff together.
Juliana Robyn Montano (Student Partner: Storytelling & Communication)
Robyn is a 2nd year student taking Econ & Politics at the University of Manchester. She loves storytelling through graphic design, building communities that bring people from different backgrounds, and is dedicated to creating space for both students and staff to be heard.
Iria Lopez (Human-centred design specialist)
Iria Lopez is a senior consultant, with +20 years of experience in human centered design. For the past four years Iria has specialized in service design applied to HE, having done projects for Leeds University, Kings College London and most recently Manchester University. You can read one of her points of view here.
Contact
Any questions or ideas? Send us an email or fill in a 2-minute form to get in touch! (form opens in new tab)
Chiachi Ming (Research Associate on Student-centred Design Project)
chiachi.ming@manchester.ac.uk
Professor Sarah Dyer (Chair in Digital Education)
sarah.dyer@manchester.ac.uk