Student compensation and motivation in student–staff partnerships

Within Higher Education (HE), in Norway and internationally, institutions are adopting partnership and co-creation approaches to increase student agency in their own learning. Often, institutions compensate students who engage with partnership approaches. We explore the experiences and motivations of students who have been compensated for partnership work in the Universities of Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø, and Edinburgh, which are all connected to the iEarth network. Through thematic analysis of questionnaires and interviews, we identified three themes: Students’ personal financial situation; Time is an influential factor for students; and Partnership as a motivator. We observed compensation as an enabler, not a primary motivator of partnership, and find time an important currency for students. Additionally, the preference shown by some researchers and practitioners within the partnership community for students to be intrinsically motivated for partnership work, is called into question, as well as the impact these preferences have on who gets to participate.