Closing the loop: co-designing with students for greater market orientation

Changing factors in the higher education context such as expansion and increased marketization have sparked interest in how universities can co-create and partner with students. However, while numerous articles discuss the importance or benefits of collaboration between students and staff, less attention has been placed on the explicit approaches to support partnership. This paper will outline an approach and discuss the benefits of integrating co-design into university service practice. Using a student-staff design thinking workshop model called ‘CoLabs', we will outline how co-creation with students can help university staff generate new ideas and solve ongoing issues. Activities to assist co-design with students, including storyboarding, are also summarized as well as authentic case studies of where co-design practices have helped drive change. The aim of this work is to provide the sector with an example of usable techniques to support co-design practices with students and reinforce the benefits of implementation of co-design in higher education.