LEAPSE

Kenny Lynch & Lindsey McEwenUniversity of Gloucestershire

RGS-IBG Annual Conference2nd September 2010

Student community engagement and employability at the University of

Gloucestershire: exploring the territory

LEAPSE

Acknowledgements

• HE Academy NTFS

• Institute for Volunteering Research

• V-inspired

• National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement

• University of Gloucestershire and UoG Students Union

• Student researchers Sophie, Hannah, Ben

LEAPSE

‘The academy must become a more vigorous partner in the search for answers to our most pressing social, civic, economic and moral problems, and must reaffirm its historic commitment to what I call the scholarship of engagement.’

(Boyer, 1996; emphasis added)

LEAPSE

‘it is time to go beyond outreach and service to.....’engagement’. By engagement, we refer to institutions that have redesigned their teaching, research, and extension and service functions to become even more sympathetically and productively involved in their communities.’ (Kellogg Commission, 1999)

US context

LEAPSE

CIC features of engagement:

1. It is ‘scholarly’ involving both the act of engaging and the product of engagement;

2.It ‘cuts across the mission of teaching, research, and service’; and

3.It is ‘reciprocal and mutually beneficial.’

(Committee on Institutional Cooperation CIC, 2005)

LEAPSE

Community University Partnership Project, Brighton

definitions in each university may vary:

‘[community engagement] takes a particular form and is context-dependent – arising for institutions from their individual histories and locations, and from their view about their strategic positioning.’

(Maddison and Laing, 2007)

UK example

LEAPSE

LEAPSE Project

• HE Academy NTFS funding

• UoG institutional focus

• Gathering the evidence and coordinating the activities

• Celebrating the achievements

• Learning from success

LEAPSE

LEAPSE - aims

• to enhance the student experience through active community and public engagement activities

• to evaluate existing models of public engagement activities

• to build capacity in both the University and communities

• to gain greater benefit from the potential such co-generative relationships can provide

LEAPSE

Reflections on UoG experience

Why do

community

engagement?

Agendas for

Geography?

How can community

engagement deliver

on employability?

What does

good

community

engagement

look like?

LEAPSE

LEAPSE

HE staff, employers, community groups, as well as students - are all potentially learners

LEAPSE

Forms of activity

Currently CE initiated:• By committed academics/ champions• By committed students who find their own CE• Linked to research project or KTP• Work-based learning modules• Through course, esp. Sport & Exercise (450 students working

in the community)• Through ‘Volunteering’ module run by Careers• Volunteer Shop run by Student Union• Facilitated by Sustainability Team• Facilitated by Outreach or PR Team

LEAPSE

Learning from LEAPSE?

• Formal versus informal

• Credited versus non-credited

• Extent to which mapped against graduate attributes

• Extent to which it is recorded

• Extent to which students can articulate their learning

• Employer recognition

LEAPSE

A shared vision about the aims of university-community collaborations in general and individual projects in particular.

A shared vision about the aims of university-community collaborations in general and individual projects in particular.

Mutual benefit and learningMutual benefit and learning

Good personal relationships and ‘openness’ to new ideas and ways of doing things

Good personal relationships and ‘openness’ to new ideas and ways of doing things

Senior staff commitmentSenior staff commitment

Individual and organisational flexibility

Individual and organisational flexibility

Commitment and enthusiasm from universities and communities

Commitment and enthusiasm from universities and communities

Organisational infrastructure and support

Organisational infrastructure and support

LEAPSE

“Although there are other valuable ways for students to acquire employability skills, a student who undertakes a placement or internship is immersed in the experience of being in a real workplace, finding out what it’s like working at graduate level. This can help them understand more quickly what skills they need and how to apply their learning.”

CBI & UUK (2009) Future Fit

Volunteering at the University of Gloucestershire

At UoG there are a number of different routes into volunteering:

• ‘Volunteering and Employability’ module offered by the Careers Service to all students at Level 2

• The Students Union through clubs/societies and the Volunteer Shop

• The Sustainability Team's volunteering for sustainability project

• Work-based learning modules and placements operated by schools and departments (e.g. Sport, Geography)

• Students volunteering on their own initiative

LEAPSE

• Student-led mapping and focus group discussions on volunteering

• Part of IVR and v-inspired project on student activity and volunteering project

• Training provided by IVR

LEAPSE

References

Boyer, Ernest. (1996). The scholarship of engagement. Journal of Public Outreach 1,1,11-20

Dearing (1997) Higher Education in the Learning Society.  Report by the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education. (Chair: Lord Dearing)  http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/ncihe/ accessed: 10/2/10]Maddison, E. And Laing, S. (2007) ‘The CUPP model in context’ in A.Hart, E. Maddison, and D. Wolff (eds) Community-University Partnerships in Practice. Leicester: National Institute of Continuing Education.Kellogg Commission (1999) Returning to Our Roots; The Engaged Institution.  Third Report of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land Grant Universities.  http://www.aplu.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=183 [accessed: 15/2/10]

.

LEAPSE

‘The student body can (also) make a significant contribution to the local community. There are over 100 Student Community Action groups across the country, often organized by student unions, providing volunteers who work with existing organisations in the voluntary sector, as well as providing invaluable experience for students.’

(Dearing Commission, 1997)

UK context

LEAPSE

Careers Survey

• 64% of students surveyed had undertaken work experience placements as a compulsory part of their course

• 28% either had it as an optional part of their course or had had it recommended by their lecturers.

• 86% of those surveyed felt that it was ‘very important’ that employability was learned about and actively developed as part of their course.

LEAPSE

Graduate Attributes

Barrie (2009) identifies four characteristics of graduate attributes:

• The important things students learn;• As learning outcomes they are the hallmarks

of an university education;• They shape the way graduates will contribute

to society – as citizens as well as workers• They are the qualities that prepare graduates

as agents of social good in an unknown future

LEAPSE

• Why do community engagement?

• What would community engagement look like if we do it well?

• How can community engagement deliver on employability?

• What are the agendas for your own organisation?