The student as producer within a productive system

Abstract The nature of student involvement in research project activity in higher education can be influenced by the extent to which student and institutional researchers hold mutual interests in common and the political and socio-cultural characteristics of the environment in which the research project is located. Productive systems models could provide a useful means of identifying different opportunities for students to engage in producing knowledge, particularly when combined with an analysis of the character of knowledge in production within different project contexts and activities.