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Fisher, Katherine R., Balan, Cristina, 0000-0002-3255-4556, Sthefany, Dines, Gabriella, Fairbrother, Una, Fernandes, Vanda, Ghavami, Abdollah, Ignat, Dennis, Kunnathuparambil Ittoop, Niya, Lodge, John K., Shafiq, Maryam, Romano, Francesco, Singh, Paramvir, Tandazo, Johanna and Xuan, Zhiyan (2025) Antioxidant status of culturally diverse foods and beverages: a student partnership project for nourishing innovation. Investigations in university teaching and learning, 14 (Aut25). pp. 47-49. ISSN 1740-5106
This work focuses on student partnership and the importance of authentic collaboration with students in undergraduate research projects. The project specifically investigates the work where research active staff partnered alongside bachelor's degree project students to measure antioxidant status of understudied foods/beverages from culturally diverse backgrounds. Extensive studies have been undertaken on antioxidant/pro-oxidant status of foods/beverages from typical “Western” diets. However, many foods/beverages from culturally diverse backgrounds have not been studied to the same extent. Hence, communities with diverse cultural heritages may be consuming different patterns of bioactive compounds which have not been classified for their oxidant/antioxidant potential. These bioactive compounds influence the antioxidant status of people within communities and therefore the risk of health conditions associated with oxidative stress. A study of the antioxidant and pro-oxidant status of foods and beverages from culturally diverse backgrounds is not only one of equity but could also have a huge benefit for the health and wellbeing of diverse communities. Through student partnership, the students were able to choose the design of the project and what foods and beverages they personally wanted to study. Quite often the foods studied were foods connected to the students’ own personal cultural heritage. Giving students a level of choice and ownership over their research project greatly increased student satisfaction in the module which was indicated through student interviews and written feedback. The project enabled and empowered students to engage far more deeply with academic research. It also enhanced their employability skills through developing high level knowledge and behaviors. It created a sense of belonging and community amongst the staff and students, vital for retention and success, and students were far more motivated. The project also transformed understanding of academic community from the perspective of staff. As proposed by the Advanced HE, student partnership challenges traditional relationships in higher education and it is essential for academic communities to flourish and have long-term accomplishment (Healey & Healey, 2019).
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