By Catherine Bates, Russell Downing and Ryan Wilkinson
Our research project on mature students’ strengths was co-created with the students themselves and with student research interns. It began with a desire to give students space to reflect on their experiences, recognise their strengths, and voice what matters to them—on their own terms. We are deeply honoured that this work, which means so much to us, has been recognised with the Joanna Renc-Roe Award for pushing the boundaries of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The Lifelong Learning Centre, (LLC) where this work took place, is a multidisciplinary academic school and service within the University of Leeds. Its mission is to widen access to higher education and support part-time and mature students across the university. Addressing educational inequalities is core to the LLC’s work, and this inspired our research, which challenges assumptions about mature students—a marginalised group whose rich life experiences are too often overlooked.
Our project grew out of a Collaborative Writing group initiative, designed to bring together colleagues from across our multidisciplinary centre to engage in scholarship that directly informs and develops our practice. This spirit of collaboration mirrors the ethos of the LLC’s work with mature students: we strive to recognise the unique perspectives and values they bring, rather than expecting them to conform to a pre-existing student identity. Too often, students are not encouraged to recognise their own strengths; our project created a space where mature students could reflect on these strengths together and help us learn from their lived experience.
It means a great deal to have this work recognised at EuroSOTL, especially in our first year attending the conference. We felt welcomed into an international community committed to enhancing student experience and advancing critical, reflective, and inclusive pedagogical practice. Winning the Joanna Renc-Roe Award is particularly meaningful, because our work resonates so strongly with what Joanna herself championed: a SoTL that foregrounds student voice, challenges traditional assumptions, embraces lifelong learning, and expands the scope of inquiry to include those whose perspectives have too often been left out.
The participatory, co-created nature of our research is at the heart of what we do. This was reflected in the responses from our participants when we shared the award news. Jo Huett said: “I am delighted. Meeting regularly to discuss our strengths and the value of our life experiences flipped my feeling of being at a disadvantage as an older student and helped me reframe my attitude. The participatory nature of the research meant it didn’t feel like researchers and then us, but much more equal. It was a very rewarding experience.”
Farah Batool shared: “Thanks to all those lovely people who contributed to this great project…It helped us mature students understand our strengths. So proud to be a part of it!”
The award comes at a critical time. We are now working on how best to share our findings so others can learn from our participants’ insights into what mature students bring to their studies, their communities, and the university. In a higher education landscape increasingly dominated by narrow measures of employability, we need to remember that education is transformational for the whole person. In the UK, the forthcoming lifelong learning entitlement—which will restrict higher education funding for those over 60—makes it more important than ever to question assumptions about who higher education is for.
The Joanna Renc-Roe Award honours boundary-pushing work that opens up new frontiers in SoTL. We hope our project contributes to this legacy—by evidencing the impact of inclusive, participatory teaching practices and reaffirming the transformative power of giving students a voice.