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Over the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of working in partnership with two undergraduate student interns to explore how students respond to their first academic feedback in higher education (HE) and how we can develop their feedback literacy. Both students and lecturers navigate a landscape of ‘complexity’, ‘uncertainty’ and ‘precarity’ (UNESCO, 2020). Students grapple with making sense of feedback, while lecturers face mounting pressures to deliver meaningful feedback within constrained timeframes. These tensions often leave both groups feeling exposed, misunderstood and unsure of how to enact change within rigid institutional structures. The main focus of my research was to develop student assessment feedback literacy through carefully considered assignment feedback and signposting. In the fellowship we held student focus groups led by students, staff workshops led by students and me, and with support from a digital team developed site-wide resources for markers.

Letting go to hear more

Developing effective feedback is complex; feedback isn’t just cognitive – it’s emotional and institutional. My undergraduate (UG) Psychology interns wanted to investigate emotional response, so we agreed on a dual focus. Students are often still forming their academic identity, and their reactions to feedback can be intense, especially when it’s unclear or overly critical (Shields, 2015). I deliberately stepped back and gave the interns full autonomy to lead focus group discussions with year 1 UG students who had just received their first feedback from assignments in HE. By removing myself from the room, I hoped to break down the hierarchical barrier. It worked: the conversations were honest, rich and, at times, brutally insightful!

Challenging the system … gently

From those conversations came a co-delivered staff workshop. One intern and I led it together to share student perspectives on feedback. Here’s where the uncertainty crept in: Would staff be defensive? Would they take a student-led session seriously? As it turns out, hearing difficult messages from a student voice was powerful – it opened space for constructive dialogue without confrontation. We looked at examples of redacted feedback and our use of language: does it complement the rubric? Can we guess the grade from the language we use? Is it encouraging to support emotional response? Do we clearly guide them where to go next to get further support?

Staff workshop on assessment feedback. Staff checked the marking rubric against the language used in feedback to guess the grade. (Copyright: University of Manchester)

Facing uncertainty, building support

One recurring issue, as often mentioned in staff meetings around assessment, was the vague, often confusing, phrase: ‘develop your criticality’. Other regular advice from markers included structure, proofreading, referencing, broadening the literature. That gap revealed a real form of precarity – a lack of clear, accessible pathways to support students.

‘Whether a student prefers to work independently, join workshops or seek one-to-one support, our one-page resource meets them where they are.’

So, together with some help from a digital team, we created a that markers could embed into feedback. Whether a student prefers to work independently, join workshops or seek one-to-one support, the resource meets them where they are. It also lightened the load for markers – one simple link instead of a long explanation.

Figure 1: Stage One: Student intern developing a table of all the academic writing sources (site wide) available to students (Copyright: University of Manchester)

Not just interns: Co-creators

Perhaps most meaningfully, the student interns and I co-presented at four academic conferences, including the International Assessment in Higher Education Conference. They weren’t just learning – they were shaping knowledge. That’s the true power of students-as-partners work: it lifts student voices, challenges staff to share power and creates space for transformation. They did an amazing job at presenting and answering some challenging questions. I could not have felt more proud of our students!

From left to right. Nghi Lam (student intern), Tanya Chandi (student intern) and Karen Beswick, presenting at the International Assessment in Higher Education Conference. (Copyright: University of Manchester)

Final reflections

This experience reshaped how I think about partnership. Yes, it’s messy. Yes, it comes with complexity, uncertainty and precarity. But that’s exactly why it matters. We didn’t just navigate these conditions – we grew because of them.

References

Shields, S. (2015). ‘My work is bleeding’: Exploring students’ emotional responses to first-year assignment feedback. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(6), 614–624.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO]. (2020). Humanistic futures of learning: Perspectives from UNESCO chairs and UNITWIN networks.