Xiaohongshu
What is the Community Research Initiative?
Based within UCL Students’ Union, our programme brings students and community organisations together to explore how research can be co-designed and used beyond the university.
Our Community Engaged Masters Dissertation programme supports Master's students to partner with a community organisation to write a co-produced dissertation. Students write their dissertation to fulfil the requirements of their academic department, but after submission, they also create a community product.
Designed in partnership with the organisation, the community product is a practical, accessible output where students translate their findings into something their organisation can use on the ground. It could be a briefing, toolkit, or workshop plan.
How exactly do you do this?
There are two ways we bring Master's students and organisations together:
- Every year, community organisations approach us with ideas for research projects which we advertise on our community noticeboard. We then help each student connect with these organisations to explore how they might work together.
- Students come to us with research ideas they’re passionate about exploring with a community partner. Through our connection request service, we help the student connect with an organisation they’d like to work with. We then set up a knowledge exchange meeting. (All organisations must meet our eligibility criteria).
Whatever route our students take, we support them as they explore how to collaborate with a community partner. We help them lay the foundations for a thriving partnership by facilitating meetings and offering tools to help students engage meaningfully with their community organisation
What do you do?
Here at the Community Research Initiative, we:
- Offer 1:1 online or in-person meetings with our team. Writing a co-produced dissertation can be a challenge when working with a community organisation, so we are there to support students during all stages of their community partnership.
- Host events, tailored each year to support students to develop the skills and approaches needed for navigating their community partnership. Some of our workshops focus on developing skills in collaborative working, while others offer a space for students to share their work in progress, or receive peer-to-peer support.
- Bring a wealth of experience with community working. As an established programme (for nearly ten years), our team has extensive expertise in co‑designed projects, participatory methods, and working with community partners. We are well equipped to support students as they navigate the opportunities and challenges of community engaged research.
What don’t you do?
Our support complements what students receive from their academic programme, so we don’t:
- Provide academic support; all intellectual supervision resides with the academic supervisor.
- Get involved with any academic decisions, such as those relating to ethics, field data, or any other matter.
- Offer students advice on writing the dissertation itself. We point students towards their academic supervisor or the Academic Communication Centre
What drives your programme?
At the heart of our work is the belief that there are ways of knowing beside academic knowledge. We work with students to take a more participatory approach to research throughout their research journey. In practice this looks like meaningfully involving the people at the centre of the research topic in the decision-making, design, or methods of a student’s research project. For our Master's students, we are encouraging an aspiration towards this, beginning with conversations and active listening to community perspectives in partnership with a community organisation.
What do your students say?
I felt so much prouder of my dissertation which felt like it had positively contributed to the organisation I partnered with - it felt like it actually had an impact.
I would say my dissertation experience was made because of CRIS, rather than CRIS enhancing it.
Find out more
- Book a meeting with Molly McCabe, CRIS Manger to discuss your questions, ideas, and thoughts. Whether you’ll be supervising a student, or keen to integrate us into your programme, we’re always looking to work more closely with academic departments. Or, if you prefer, you can email us at [email protected].
- Explore our dedicated page for academic staff keen to learn more about how you can support students with a co-produced dissertation. We can offer induction and seminars talks, dissertation Q&A sessions, and provide resources for your Moodle pages.
- Get inspired by collaborative dissertation projects produced by students in 2025 .
- Read an introduction to community engagement in research written by CRIS Manger Molly McCabe .