Case description Students as Partners (SaP) at Creative Business Haarlem

What happens when an abstract problem turns out to be too big—and you work together to make it smaller? At Creative Business Haarlem, a SaP pilot was launched to explore how Crealabs could become more meaningful. It soon became clear that the issue was too broad and diffuse. By shifting the focus together to the Smart Concepts course, space was created for concrete action. Students and faculty developed interventions that strengthened first-year students’ sense of belonging—from student coaches to informal gatherings. What makes this pilot special is the shift in ownership: students took the initiative, approached faculty, and truly shaped the partnership. “Once we scaled it down, we could finally do something,” is a sentiment that was widely shared. The case study shows how partnership only truly comes to life within one’s own sphere of influence and how vulnerable it remains without structural safeguards.