Curriculum

How to approach the integration of student research and public engagement into course unit design?

Abbie is aware of the relevance of academic theory to work outside academia that she might want to do in the future.Many course units have an inherent connection between the curriculum and public engagement. This can be activated by bringing student research products and activities into the public domain. The identification of these opportunities and partner organisations is organic, e.g. a course unit in museum studies suggests exhibition-related outputs, a course unit in business studies might involve a live consultancy project for a client. There are obvious links to employability skills which can be built into the learning outcomes and assessment strategy.

Inherent connections between curriculum and public engagement are apparent in the following two examples. Students develop practical skills in the context of cultural event production and exhibition making through the combination of theory and practice in SALC61061 Managing Collections & Exhibitions with SALC60232 Professional Practice Project. The project allows students to create a small exhibition and related public programme in collaboration with a local cultural organisation. Similarly, BIOL31230 Science Media project is intentionally set up for students to produce a portfolio of communication materials about a bioscience topic aimed at a range of audiences, including the general public.

Further examples

Other course units do not have an inherent connection between curriculum and public engagement, but this does not mean that the connection cannot be made. The challenge is to identify possible user communities for students’ research products and activities.

For example, in this clip Hannah talks about gathering data at a Muslim festival in Manchester in order to design a Museum exhibit on a course unit about religion and diaspora communities.Many public sector organisations and industries are dependent on external research input for their core activities and for staff development, e.g. teachers, local government bodies, the police and the NHS as well as media production companies. Public engagement products and activities offer an excellent opportunity to highlight potential employment sectors that students might not have considered as relevant to their degree.

Further examples