Kenny Lynch & Lindsey McEwen University of Gloucestershire RGS-IBG Annual Conference

1. Student community engagement and employability at the University of Gloucestershire: exploring the territory Kenny Lynch & Lindsey McEwen University of Gloucestershire RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2nd September 2010

2. 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

3. ‘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)

4. US context ‘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)

5. CIC features of engagement: It is ‘scholarly’ involving both the act of engaging and the product of engagement; It ‘cuts across the mission of teaching, research, and service’; and It is ‘reciprocal and mutuallybeneficial.’ (Committee on Institutional Cooperation CIC, 2005)

6. UK example 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) Community University Partnership Project, Brighton

7. LEAPSE Project • HE Academy NTFS funding • UoG institutional focus • Gathering the evidence and coordinating the activities • Celebrating the achievements • Learning from success

8. 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

9. Reflections on UoG experience Why do community engagement? How can community engagement deliver on employability? What does good community engagement look like? Agendas for Geography?

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. A shared vision about the aims of university-community collaborations in general and individual projects in particular. Mutual benefit and learning Individual and organisational flexibility Organisational infrastructure and support Good personal relationships and ‘openness’ to new ideas and ways of doing things Commitment and enthusiasm from universities and communities Senior staff commitment

14. “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

15. 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

17. 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

18. 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].

19. UK context ‘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)

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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?