Get Involved

The Student Partnership Team offer practical support and guidance for staff looking to work in partnership with students at the University of Manchester.‌

We co-ordinate partnership at a variety of levels:

Focus Groups

A one-off discussion where a group of students provides staff with feedback. Previous focus groups have looked at timetabling policy, assessment feedback, and the experience of student nurses on placement.

Participation is rewarded with vouchers.

Consultation

An ongoing process of discussion. This may involve recurring focus groups with additional research tasks. Previous consultation groups have looked at student attitudes toward the Stellify award.

Participation may be rewarded in vouchers or wages, depending on the length of consultation.

Student Internships

Paid, flexible roles for current students to work on service delivery within a University department. In these roles, students may work regular shift patterns and have dedicated tasks they are responsible for delivering. The roles will involve some level of collaboration but less partnership working than Student Partner roles.

These roles are not linked to the Graduate Talent Internships or Student Experience Internships coordinated by the Careers Team. 

Student Partners

These roles sit at the top-level of partnership, where students and staff work equally and collaboratively on a project. There is no set time length for projects, they can range from a couple of months long to a full academic year. Some typical Student Partner tasks include:

• Literature reviews
• Designing and conducting social research (including surveys, focus groups, and interviews)
• Liaising with staff & students
• Project planning
• Creation of resources and marketing materials
  
  

How can we help?

‌The team provides support to University staff looking to recruit students to deliver focus groups, student internships, and student partnerships.

If you have a project with funding for student staffing and would like students to collaborate, the Student Partnership team can help you to recruit students for your project. The team will coordinate the recruitment, training, and provide ongoing support for students involved in partnership working.

The team also have a pool of trained Student Partners that University staff can recruit on a one-off basis to deliver focus group and consultation activities.

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