Developing Strategic Research Jen Colley, Union Researcher Leah Derham, Research Assistant

What we are covering Development of a research strategy Triumphs and tribulations along the way Lessons learnt and next steps

Background Delivering research on an ad hoc basis pre-Summer 2013 NUS Documents such as “Surfing the Wave” stressed the importance of evidence based research Made contributions to NUS research and working groups when time allowed Research presented and published in NUS reports and presented at national conferences Link to NUS project submission

Background Lack of consistency in support and information shared with officers and student activists but when delivered was to a good quality Organisation opted to create dedicated resource for Research staff role and shortly after a student staff role within new Student Engagement department Focus on meaningful research that helps us deliver our mission of ‘Making life better for Students’ Link to NUS project submission

Our Vision “To create high quality, ethically sound research that informs the accurate representation of students and our relationships with stakeholders, whilst supporting the Union priorities.” Link to NUS project submission

Our Strategy Research brief before any project is commissioned Set levels of research projects both in priorities and skill linked to stakeholders and importance to organisation Ensure sabbatical officers and staff are actively kept up to date with relevant research and presented with good quality research All High & Medium level research to meet several thresholds: High quality Sound ethics Representative Links back to the Union Strategic plan

Triumphs Research Strategy Day “Brains trust” across the organisation to establish priorities and perimeters of strategy Clear enthusiasm and understanding of why we undertake research from a number of colleagues within the organisation Consensus reached on overarching strategy identifying the types of research and clear plan for a Research strategy

Triumphs Research Assistant Leah joined our team in January 2014 for 6 hours a week which soon increased with ‘leasing’ out to other departments A second Research Assistant will join us in September 2014 Huge benefit of current students at UCLan working on Research with different background and expertise

Triumphs Green Ladder Project Dedicated support for our NUS Green Fund project for an exhaustive research project on students behavior and attitudes towards sustainability and the environment Clear research milestones in bid and throughout the project which strengthened original bid and have been beneficial to measure success so far Interim report presented to students and the Vice-Chancellor as part of Green Week and headline results shared at an on campus Union event with Green Party leader Natalie Bennett

Triumphs Research Round up A monthly newsletter Commitment to keeping elected full and part time officers and staff up to date Election candidates had round up shared in the lead up to elections Officers acted on information shared

Triumphs Intervening Challenged ethically unsound projects which could have put potential subjects at risk Working with the University to get our research through an ethics panel to ensure participant safety and good practice

Tribulations Ethics Panel A lack of ethics procedure has resulted in some research not being passable for academic publication Lacking good practice and need this to ensure safety of our students Although our research has never gone through an ethics panel it has always been kept in mind, and a brief and debrief is always included on any questionnaire

Tribulations Survey Monkey culture 13 surveys out in a 2 week period to the same students Blanket ban on Survey Monkey All research and surveys have to be approved by Union Researcher

Tribulations New Role and Time Challenging to have people to embrace a research culture that had not previously been at UCLan Staff unaware of how long data collection, analysis and write-up actually takes to do Part time role so have been determining what is prioritised and has most value

Next Steps Research brief form tightened up and mandatory for any research that takes place Embed culture that any research taking place goes through a qualified expert Biennial Survey to be commissioned to all students about the Union Additional student staff starting in September 2014 Advance certificate in Social and Market Research to be completed in January 2015

Next Steps Strategy day gave clear steer in April of where we go next and the strategy is being finalised with a vision to deliver high quality research Sabbatical officers and key staff to approve final Research strategy Research goes to Ethics Panel to ensure it can be published Share research findings at conferences and ensure publication in journals

Questions?