‘For students, by Students’: Translating pedagogic research into co-produced student initiatives to benefit student wellbeing, By Sahana Shankar and Natasha Baxter
On the 11th of June 2025, Royal Holloway, University of London, hosted the first of thre seminars titled “Student’s wellbeing at the centre of their academic journey: Translating pedagogy research into practise” funded by the British Psychological Society, coordinated and hosted by Dr Sahana Shankar and Dr Natasha Baxter. Organised by the collaboration of THESIS, a pedagogic research group within the Psychology Department at Royal Holloway, with educators from the Universities of Reading and Warwick. The event showcased talks on applying pedagogic research to student-led initiatives and included a workshop designed to foster cross institutional collaboration.
The opening keynote was delivered by Dr Beatrice Hayes, who highlighted the value in involving students in co-created and co-produced events. Dr Vanita Chamdal followed with a discussion on a THESES-led, ‘Wellbeing Day’, an event developed by Dr Beatrice Hayes. This student and student society led event, consists of a range of activities which aims to support student wellbeing. The event has been run for multiple years within the Psychology department at Royal Holloway, and due to its success was run as an inter-department event this year.
Dr Natasha Baxter and Dr Sahana Shankar continued the discussion on THESIS co-created initiatives, highlighting ‘To Academia and Beyond’, an annual event developed by Dr Adnan Levent. The event is co-created with undergraduate and postgraduate students and supports the development of academic skills and employability. Student organisers gain valuable experience and confidence that supports their employability skills, while attendees benefit from addressing knowledge gaps.
Dr Juliet Holdstock outlined the recent transformation in the personal tutoring system within the department of Psychology. Personal tutoring in the department now consists of a combination of lectures and complementary individual personal tutoring meetings. This approach provides greater structure to these meeting whilst also allowing for the meetings to be more tailored to individual students providing support for wellbeing and career planning.
Dr James Ravenhill presented pilot work on ways to incorporate student experiences into lectures to give them a stronger voice. He outlined an innovative approach to lecturing whereby the lived experiences of students are collected with consent before specific lectures. The lectures are then structured around the lived experiences of students, which can help students relate more to the lecture and understand how lecture content is relevant to their everyday lives.
During the workshop which focused on “Co-creation in action: designing student led wellbeing initiatives” the seminar participants worked in groups to design wellbeing initiatives inspired by the earlier talks. These initiates were intended for implementation at their own universities and potentially in collaboration with the institutions of the other group members.
Overall, the seminar created a positive and engaging atmosphere, providing participants from various institutions with valuable opportunities to connect, share insights, and learn about the pedagogic initiatives underway at Royal Holloway. The event successfully laid the foundation for potential future collaborations between universities across the UK, further strengthening the collective efforts to enhance student learning and wellbeing.