Valuing student voices: a qualitative study on fair recognition and compensation practices for student partners in mental health research.

BACKGROUND

Post-secondary student mental health research increasingly calls for students to be engaged as equal partners, yet there is a lack of guidance on how to recognize and compensate their contributions. This study examines how student partners' contributions to post-secondary student mental health research should be recognized through qualitative insights from diverse interest groups.

METHODS

We conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 13 participants representing diverse interest groups: faculty researchers, student researchers, students with lived experience, and staff in post-secondary institutions. The data was analyzed using conventional content analysis.

RESULTS

Five themes were identified: (1) lived experience as valued expertise; (2) principles of fair and equitable recognition; (3) current compensation practices; (4) systemic barriers to monetary compensation; and (5) structural solutions and advocacy. Together, themes suggest that lived experience was seen as integral to research design, implementation, and knowledge mobilization. Participants emphasized proportionality, transparency, shared decision-making, and non-coercion as guiding principles. Compensating student partners is not the norm, in part, because there are barriers such as institutional polices and limited funding that are at odds with how we should compensate students. Structural solutions and advocacy to normalize compensation include creating compensation guidelines, reporting compensation practices, and working with grant agencies.

CONCLUSION

Overall, we identified compensation considerations for student partners. Based on our qualitative insights, we recommend underlying principles that should govern recognition practices in this unique research context and potential solutions to normalize the recognition of students' lived experiences.