1. Research opportunities for students: What this means for us vs
Research opportunities for students: What this means for us vs. What it could mean for you
Beth Collinson, Lauren Hall, Olivia Lawton, Victoria Olive & Zeddy Chaudhry

2. What makes consistent and excellent student experiences
Skills obtained by students who engage in research opportunities
Opportunities and impact on both academics and students
Explore any issues
Input from Undergrad, Masters and PhD students

3. What makes a consistent and excellent student experience
Employability Skills (Boud, Cohen & Sampson, 2014)
Courses that develop students in a way that makes them attractive to employers with transferable skills
High-Impact Educational Practices (Kuh, 2008)
Internships
Service Learning, Community – Based Learning
Research
Collaborative Assignments and Projects
Self Efficacy (Bandura, 1977)
Developing self efficacy through ongoing challenges
By coming to University students hope to open the doors for future prospects or follow a particular career path therefore gaining employability skills is absolutely essential. Therefore, it’s important that all courses aim to provide transferrable skills which are attractive to employers.
Some other things that can make a student’s experience excellent include high-impact educational practices and just a few of these are
Internships
…which are a great form of experiential learning. They provide students direct experience in a work setting and allows for benefit of supervision and coaching from a professional. This has been opened up to student within the Criminology department under research roles.
Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
This refers to experiential learning and the idea is to give students direct experience with issues they are studying in the curriculum and with ongoing efforts to analyse and solve problems in the community. Again this is experience by student researchers as we have all at some point throughout our education undertaken research modules and putting in into practice is a really beneficial way to learn.
Research
Undergraduate research has predominantly been used within science disciplines however the goal of engaging in research is to involve students with actively contested questions, empirical observation, technologies and provides a sense of excitement that comes from working to answer important questions therefore is something that could be incorporated by other disciplines within the University
Collaborative Assignments and Projects
Finally, another aspect what makes being a student researchers contribute to consistent and excellent student experiences is the ability work on collaborative assignments and projects. Collaborative learning combines two key goals: learning to work and solve problems in the company of others, and sharpening one’s own insight. These all provide skills that are attractive to employers.

4. SHU Graduate Capabilities
Knowledge Application
Motivation and Engagement
Social Responsibility
Creative and Critical thinking
Integrity and Professionalism
Research and Enquiry
Digital Literacy
Communication
What makes a excellent student experience?
Inline with the SHU Grad attributes, research opps for students help us....
Knowledge application - applying what we learn in class into a professional context. Being capable of understanding and interpreting research findings.
Motivation & engagment- drive, ambition, constantly developing employability skills and leadership
Social responsibility - behaving ethically in a professional environment
Creative and Critical - being able to formulate solutions to problems through reflection and analysis
Research and enquiry - we are able to generate, apply and disseminate knwoledge

5. Undergraduate student research assistants
Develop skills across various methodologies and work autonomously towards achieving project outcomes (Ehiyazaryan & Barraclough, 2009).
e.g. Focus groups; Interviews; Questionnaires; Conducting literature reviews (taxonomy tables)
Develop generic skills
e.g. Teamwork; Communication; Negotiation; Influential skills

6. Influencing Career Choices
Learning community
Influencing future career choices for both UG and PG
Peer mentoring (UG to UG)
Mentoring (PG to UG)
Research Assistants, Interns and PhD Students meetings
Being part of a learning community - UGs, PGs and tutors together
UGs may look at PGs for inspiration - PGs are examples of where UGs could be in a couple of years
Peer mentoring between Vic and Liv
Mentoring between PGs and UGs

7. Increasing employability prospects
Evidence for Hallam Award and basis for own research portfolios (Hinchcliffe & Jolly, 2011; Stevenson & Clegg, 2011).
Increasing employability prospects
Emphasis on Hallam Award within DLC
Peer modelling
Meaningful learning/ reflection
Critical thinking process/ transferable skills
Emphasis in department to increase participation in HA
Workshops run
Meaningful learning/ learning
PDP assessment for dissertation is a presentation, so HA helps stimulate critical thinking/ reflection skills - these skills will help you at L6

8. Academics employing students as research assistants
Increases opportunity for academics to focus on their areas of interest
Provides a stimulating and rejuvenating milieu for academic (Neumann, 1992)
The research / teaching nexus (Tight, 2016)
Learning Community tutors and students collaborating
Research projects on areas such as student experience student input is invaluable
As an academic finding the time to deliver lectures to students, meet the syllabus criteria and spend time on your own areas of interest is difficult to balance however with this opportunity to employ research assistants, academics can both be teaching students valuable skills whilst engaging in research on areas of interest or specialism.
It is there stimulating and rejuvenating for academics
The idea of the research/teaching nexus has become of increasing importance in thinking about higher education over the last three decades. In essence, the idea recognizes the two key functions of higher education – teaching and research- argues they are and should be closely linked. This article explores the derivation and development of this idea, and considers its application and critique through a systematic review of the literature. Concludes that whilst there is clearly a linkage between research and teaching at the global level, it needs nurturing locally.

9. Issues
Make opportunities open to all students (advertised to all students through the careers service)
Projects suited to all students of different abilities (two levels)
Competitive application process interviews/ feedback received
Staff time (pro’s and con’s)
Cultural change share your academic knowledge with us

10. PhD Teaching Experience
Ability to share ideas and experiences of what works in teaching
Influence tutors on how to achieve good student outcomes and experiences by ensuring student voice is offered within the curriculum
Academic community is enhanced
Aspirational leadership
PhD Teaching Experience
We hope that by sharing our experiences of what research opportunities mean for us you may be able to evaluate what research opportunities mean for you, and could lead to other tutors across the board will be encouraged to open up new opportunities for students

11. References
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. Psychological review, 84(2), 191.
Boud, D., Cohen, R., Sampson, J. (2014). Peer learning in higher education: learning from & with each other.
Ehiyazaryan, E., and Barraclough, N. (2009). Enhancing employability: integrating real world experience in the curriculum. Education + Training, 51, 4, doi: /
Hinchliffe, G.W., and Jolly, A. (2011). Graduate identity and employability. British Educational Research Journal, 37, 4, doi: /
Kuh, G. D. (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Association of American Colleges & Universities. Accessed:
Neumann, R. (1992). Perceptions of the teaching-research nexus: A framework for analysi s. Higher Education, 23, doi: /BF
Stevenson, J., and Clegg, S. (2011). Possible selves: Students orientating themselves towards the future through extracurricular activity. British Educational Research Journal, 37, 2, doi: /
Tight, M. (2016). Examining the research/teaching nexus. European Journal of Higher Education, 6, 4, doi: /

12. For more information -
Beth Collinson
PhD student
Tanya Miles-Berry