Student FAQs
- What is the Community Research Initiative?
The Community Research Initiative works to create ways for you to collaborate with voluntary, community and non-profit organisations. We believe that there are ways of knowing beside academic knowledge and embrace multiple perspectives to produce positive social change from research.
- What support do you provide?
We support you to create a partnership with a non-profit organisation so that your dissertation can have a real-world impact. This is different from a normal master's dissertation, where you work on your research topic without input from community members or participants.
- How is this different to what my course offers?
Your course provides support with academic content, writing and discipline specific requirements. Our support is complementary to what your programme provides.
- What are my commitments?
You will be expected to attend the following events: induction session with partner organisation in February or March, cohort events in term 3, showcase in September to celebrate the completion of the project. You will be expected to have regular contact with your organisation throughout the project (at least monthly).
- What's the timeline?
We fit around your programme. It's generally good to allot 1-2 months to explore ideas with collaborators before submitting your proposal.
- What organisations could I work with?
The organisation must be one of the below to qualify for collaboration:
constituted voluntary or community organisation
registered charity
charitable incorporated organisation (CIO or SCIO)
not-for-profit company limited by guarantee – they must be a registered charity or have a not-for-profit ‘asset lock’ clause in their articles of association
community interest company (CIC)
school, college, university
statutory body (including local authorities, town, parish or community councils)
community benefit society
co-operative society – they must have a not-for-profit ‘asset lock’ clause in their society rules and also be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
- Can you help me with writing my dissertation?
No. For this, you should get support from your course, academic supervisor, and the Academic Communication Centre.
- Can you help me find participants?
Our programme focusses on collaboration and co-production. We match students with organisations so that their research can be useful and usable to the community involved, we don't just help students find participants. So, while you collect data with or from community participants through partnering with an organisation, this should not be your motivation for collaborating. And we can't guarantee that partnering will result in participants.
- What next?
Book in a 1:1 meeting with our team at this link.
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