Project title: Building Research Awareness for a Sustainable Future
Funding awarded: £100,000
Summary:
Teesside University (TU) is a strong recruiter of local students, with 73% of students recruited from the North East, which has significant areas of deprivation and low participation. The Tees Valley is one of the most disadvantaged areas in the country, with . Since 2013, the population of students that TU recruits from areas in the most deprived quartile (according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation) has increase. Similarly, the university is also actively increasing recruitment amount students from areas with lower participation in higher education, for instance, quintile 1 of the POLAR4 classification.
Despite this, only 41% of the current postgraduate research (PGR) population in the Department of Engineering are home students, meaning a significant underrepresentation of students from areas that are economically underserved.
This project will trigger a period of change for students from our target groups to become involved in research. It will provide them with opportunities to enhance their CVs, understand what research involves and raise their awareness of future careers in research.
What need does the project address?
Engagement with the target groups have indicated that there is a lack of awareness about PGR study among those students from the Tees Valley, compared to other groups. Engagement with the existing PGR student community has indicated that international students are more likely to be aware of and consider PGR studies before or during their undergraduate studies.
This project will address this by providing students from the groups highlighted above with opportunities to undertake paid research internships. This will be supported by a targeted programme that develops their skills in the methodologies and digital skills that are needed in applied engineering research. The students will also become Ambassadors, raising awareness among their peers.
What will the students experience?
Students will take part in a summer internship programme to allow undergraduates to work on locally relevant research projects.
Some elements will be developed with in-person workshops to help develop peer support and relationships between the participating students. Other elements will be developed for online delivery during the projects.
Follow-up focus groups and surveys with both staff and students will be used to ascertain the programme’s impact. A second round of internships will then be delivered, including any lessons learned from the first round. The final evaluation of the entire project will then take place alongside the dissemination of the outputs.
What are the expected outcomes?
It is predicted that the programme will have a transformative impact on the university’s research environment agenda for local students. They will be able to develop research skills, become more digitally aware, and engage in new, high-value industries aligned to sustainable engineering – at the heart of the Tees Valley’s economic regeneration.
There will be an added benefit as these students will be easily absorbed in the local economic cycle, thus increasing the prosperity of the region. This will also grow the university’s research in this area by complementing their strong international PGR intake with local students, who will become the local engineering leaders of tomorrow.