Students as decision makers in Midwifery student selection processes

In this presentation we shared our work on fostering staff and student partnership in the processes of student recruitment in Midwifery. In the HE sector, there is a tradition of inviting medical students to be part of the decision making processes for student selection but to date, Midwifery students have only been involved in a non-decision making capacity. We decided to invite our students to join as partners in the process and become involved in the recruitment process as decision makers. In partnership with student action researchers, we have now started formally evaluate the process from the student perspective. Our aim is to get a more accurate picture of whether there are the specific benefits to students as they participate as partners and to understand what informs their specific collaborative decision making processes as recruiters. Our research questions have evolved into the following: What is the nature and quality of student collaborative decision making processes? Do students benefit from the process of collaborative decision making and if so how? What emerging models of 'midwifery students as partners‘ come out of their practice as students recruiters and how what can other disciplines in higher education learn from our experience?