Who We Are
The Student Partnership team, situated within the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) offers tools and runs programmes through which students and staff can begin their partnerships and collaborations.
Our team oversees the Students as Co-Creators programme, the Pedagogies for Social Justice project, and the Student Partnership Ambassadors programme. We co-create opportunities, events and resources for collaboration between students and staff at the University of Westminster. We believe that the process of partnership and co-creation can transform the learning and teaching experience.
Kyra Araneta (she/her) is a Lecturer in Student Partnership and Social Justice in the Centre for Education (CETI) and Teaching Innovation at the University of Westminster. Prior to her role in the CETI, she completed an MA in International Relations whilst working as the Student Partnership Coordinator on the Pedagogies for Social Justice Project (PSJ). As a continuation of this work in her new appointment, Kyra hosts the PSJ podcast, co-creates with students, and contributes to the field through publications and keynote addresses. Her research foci and interests include critical race and decolonial pedagogies, social justice education, intersectionality, and the role of student-staff partnerships in fostering ethical learning environments. She has been successful in several funding applications including for Quintin Hogg Trust and the Centre for Social Justice Research. She will co-chair the first international Students as Partners Roundtable conference in the UK in 2025. As a mixed woman of African-Asian descent, Kyra dedicates her praxis to challenging contemporary forms of coloniality in academia, centring underrepresented and marginalised voices, and engaging with inclusive educational practices that empower diverse communities.
Dr Jennifer Fraser (they/them) holds a joint appointment as Principal Lecturer in Sociology and University Director of Student Partnership in the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation at the University of Westminster. They are an education leader specialising in critical pedagogies, particularly feminist, anti-racist, decolonial and queer pedagogies and teaching methods. Their work builds on a background in narrative and cultural theory and is shaped by a commitment to inclusive practices and social justice. Jennifer leads Westminster’s institution-wide student partnership programme, as well as leading and teaching on interdisciplinary modules and supervising doctoral researchers in the School of Social Sciences. They are a research active, engaged and productive scholar who leads inter-generational, multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research teams. They co-lead the Gender and Sexuality stream of work in the Centre for Social Justice Research at Westminster. Their most recent research on non-binary student and staff experiences in higher education is sector-leading and has appeared in Journal of Gender Studies, feminists@law and is forthcoming in the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Research. They are often invited to keynote national and international conferences related to student partnership and social justice. They are a National Teaching Fellow and a founding member of the Critical Pedagogies Group and the Pedagogies for Social Justice project.
Dr Fatima Maatwk (she/her) is an early-career researcher and Lecturer in Student Partnership at the Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) at the University of Westminster, as well as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Prior to her role at CETI, she was a Lecturer and Researcher at Westminster Business School, where she also completed her doctoral research on diversity and inclusion in the technology industry across Egypt, Germany and the UK. In her current role, Fatima leads on the Students as Co-Creators programme, the Student Partnership Ambassadors programme, and is part of the Pedagogies for Social Justice project (PSJ). She has published in the areas of labour and employment relations, diversity and inclusion in the legal field, gender and work, and student-staff partnership. Her work on fostering student-staff partnership communities is centred on social justice, anti-racism and decolonisation. Her research foci and interests include social psychology, decolonisation, social justice, intersectionality, and cross-cultural research. Fatima is an Egyptian-German Muslim woman. She spent her life between Egypt and Germany and has been living in the UK for the past nine years, where she is continuing her academic path.
Sangya Tyagi (she/her) is a doctoral researcher at the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) and an Administrative Assistant on the Student Partnership Team at the University of Westminster. Her prior experience of conducting multidisciplinary research projects with international student and staff researchers aligns seamlessly with her role in facilitating student-centered programs that emphasize collaboration and co-creation. In her administrative capacity, she works diligently behind the scenes to manage the logistics, communications, and daily operations for the Students as Co-Creators programme. She also oversees the coordination of various other Student Partnership Projects and events, ensuring a commitment to student support.