At the Community Research Initiative, we are always looking for ways to celebrate! Especially when it comes to our students and local Community Partners who have spent the summer collaborating on a research project.
Why especially? Well, it’s sometimes a little bit of a leap of faith, working at the boundaries of what feels comfortable for our students because this cross-sector collaboration is not necessarily what we teach at a university, so our students don’t necessarily see it. An added pressure is what’s at stake - the collaborative research project can form the student’s dissertation.
Indeed, our Community Partners may be facing their own leap of faith, working in a really different way, against their own sector pressures.
However, for the intrepid student and Community Partner, there is much to gain. And we wanted to celebrate and inspire others with our Dissertation Showcase 2022. The film has been time-stamped which means you can see the time in the film where each speaker starts. Use this to navigate the film.
The student experience
In the gorgeous central London setting of the Friends House, a hop, skip and a jump from campus, we gathered on Thursday 29 September to listen to Sem (MSc Health, Wellbeing & Sustainable Buildings), Markus (MSc Business Analytics), Ismat (MSc Global Prosperity), Ratima “Cake” (MA Applied Linguistics), Nyma (MSc Global Prosperity), and Sara (MSc Social Policy & Social Research) some of our outstanding 21-22 student cohort as they shared their student experiences of working with their Community Partners and UCL supervisors. Key themes centred on how, through partnership working, they gained confidence, made friends, had a safe and independent space to discuss ideas, and – crucially – enjoyed themselves and had fun. Markus even announced he had just been successful in applying for a job with his Community Partner thanks in part to the experience he gained during his dissertation collaboration. These are themes echoed by previous students since the beginning, in 2018. A strong underlying theme was how proud students felt of what they had tried and achieved – and we agree with them!
Working with Community Partners enables you to see your topic from different angles and different perspectives… this added such a depth and richness to my research that just wouldn’t have been there it had just been me working by myself with my own thoughts.
Nyma Haqqani, MSc Global Prosperity
My ultimate dream goal occurred – to get a full-time job I’m so passionate about, directly related to my degree, my research!
Markus Tralla, MSc Business Analytics
The Voluntary Sector perspective
We were so privileged to be joined by Keith Morgan, CEO of Voluntary Action Camden which is an infrastructure organisation providing practical support, skills and guidance, networks, and advocacy for the local voluntary & community sector. A key element to this work is enabling equitable and sustainable forms of community participation in research – so Keith expressed his excitement about the Community Research Initiative because merging of different fields – and knowledges – can make the seemingly impossible achievable. Keith made the point that through initiatives like the Community Research Initiative, there is a recognition of the Voluntary & Community sector can exchange ideas, adopt new perspectives, and achieve radical benefits. He emphasised that the sector offers a wealth of local intelligence, experience of policy and system design, and a bold and experimental outlook.
The community sector is the frontline, but it is also true that we have a wealth of local intelligence, experience of policy and system design, and a propensity for boldness and experimentation.
Keith Morgan, Voluntary Action Camden
A long-time friend of the Community Research Initiative, Bohdana Dock, Head of Data, Research & Evaluation at The Mix, a charity for young people. Bohdana described what has been achieved after a series of student collaborators from the Community Research Initiative since 2019. One of the key motivators for Bohdana to take part is that there are always so many ideas and so much that needs doing at The Mix but there is never enough resource. Also, it is a charity which believe in young people and empowering young people so the student experience and develop aspect of the Community Research Initiative really appeals. Central to The Mix is ensuring their services are evidence-based so connecting with research students is ideal. Interestingly, Bohdana met a couple of lecturers at UCL through one of our matching events, uncovered lots of common interests and now works directly with two master’s programmes, MSc Business Analytics and MSc Behaviour Change.
London Nightline joined us during the Showcase as well, Sara’s Community Partner, and Nightline collaborators were Meg Haskins and Veronika Dvorakova. As part of a panel conversation, Meg, Veronika, Sara, and Anne presented their shared experiences of the collaborative process. Working together on this co-created research project stood out at a recent organisation-wide conference to such an extent that other branches of Nightline want to do this! Like Markus, who described the useful Community Product he delivered for his Community Partner, Sara told us about the joint presentation they are all putting together for a conference later in the year.
Finally, the incomparable Hafid Ali, co-founder of Camden United FC, gave a moving account of the circumstances that led to founding the organisation – the experiences he and his friends share of the violent deaths of close friends and members of their community – as well as his experience of university before sharing what it meant to have had the opportunity to work in collaboration with Emily Petch (MSc Social Policy & Social Research). This is the first time the club has been able to record their young player’s views and feedback and now they will be able to truly be a player-led organisation.
"This is the future!"
Rounding things off, it was a real pleasure to hear from UCL’s President & Provost, Michael Spence. Making some closing remarks, Michael spoke of change afoot in academia where no longer is it good enough to research on people, to tell people what we’ve found. The future is in collaboration with our local communities, to produce useful and useable knowledge with social impact.
Thank Yous!
We are so grateful to our event photographer, Christopher Tilley from Drive Photo & Resto, for capturing the perfect images from our first in-person Showcase. Thanks so much, Christopher!
UCL Video Productions supported the live streaming of the event as well as producing the edited film of the event. Thank you so much, Diana and Patrick.
The experiences of all our presenters were captured by Jenny Leonard, a fantastic live illustrator. Absolutely part of proceedings, the audience could watch as Jenny’s canvas filled up with key words and illustrations while listening to the stories being told. Thank you, Jenny!
