<p>In light of the political dynamics in and around universities, there is growing interest in making student participation in university governance more deliberative. Amongst the various innovations of student governance emerging globally, student mini-publics are increasingly prominent within higher education research and practice. While there has been some promising research to date, our knowledge of the actual impacts—or“consequentiality”—of student mini-publics, and the factors that contribute to this impact, is in its infancy. Drawing on interviews, observations, and archival documents, this article addresses this gap, adopting a case study of a student mini-public in which students were tasked with assessing and reforming their student union’s internal democracy. In doing so, it assesses in particular the initiative’s consequentiality beyond the confines of the process itself, finding that the deliberative process gave rise to policy, institutional, and personal impacts, though little by way of wider impacts on deliberation across the student body. This article contributes to research on student mini-publics by advancing a broader understanding of their potential impacts and elaborating various factors, particularly those related to the mini-public’s internal qualities, that engender this impact.</p>

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Deliberative impact and governance: toward a wider evaluation of student mini-publics and their consequences

  • Simon Pek,
  • Jeffrey Kennedy

摘要

In light of the political dynamics in and around universities, there is growing interest in making student participation in university governance more deliberative. Amongst the various innovations of student governance emerging globally, student mini-publics are increasingly prominent within higher education research and practice. While there has been some promising research to date, our knowledge of the actual impacts—or“consequentiality”—of student mini-publics, and the factors that contribute to this impact, is in its infancy. Drawing on interviews, observations, and archival documents, this article addresses this gap, adopting a case study of a student mini-public in which students were tasked with assessing and reforming their student union’s internal democracy. In doing so, it assesses in particular the initiative’s consequentiality beyond the confines of the process itself, finding that the deliberative process gave rise to policy, institutional, and personal impacts, though little by way of wider impacts on deliberation across the student body. This article contributes to research on student mini-publics by advancing a broader understanding of their potential impacts and elaborating various factors, particularly those related to the mini-public’s internal qualities, that engender this impact.