'It depends': Exploring the context-dependent nature of students as partners practices and policies

In running workshops and presenting keynotes on students as partners (SaP), one of the most common answers we give to questions is, ‘It depends’. The breadth and complexity of practices and policies surrounding SaP mean that it is often difficult to make generalisations. This difficulty is intensified by the newness of the field, at least as it relates to learning and teaching in higher education, where the term has only become extensively used in the last decade and particularly the last five years, and then only in selected countries. Unsurprisingly, the term is used in a variety of different ways (Cliffe et al., 2017).