Mapping-of-Volunteering-Opportunities-for-BCU-Students-and-Measuring-its-Social-Impact

OpportUNIty offers a unique chance for paid employment to enable students to work in partnership with university staff upon a range of projects to strengthen the University and enhance s

Do you want to improve the learning experience? Here

is an OpportUNIty to access funding for staff and students to work in partnership to do just that.

OpportUNIty offers a unique chance for paid employment

to enable students to work in partnership with university staff upon a range of projects

to strengthen the University and enhance student attributes

OpportUNIty is the umbrella term encompassing all initiatives aimed at student engagement including Student Academic Partners, Student Jobs on Campus, Student Academic Mentoring, Student Entrepreneurship and Collaborative Projects

OpportUNIty will embrace projects that provide opportunities for student and staff partnerships and inter-disciplinary collaboration in an attempt to transform the way that students learn It will encourage projects that reinforce theoretical knowledge by developing and applying student skills in practical real world situations By participating actively students will have the chance to shape their education to their personal requirements and develop a unique range of skills and experiences

We invite staff and students to identify educational development projects in which a student(s) has the opportunity to contribute in an active role This will provide students with the opportunity to enhance their skills in an academic employment

setting in a paid post at the University Funding is available to support projects that fall under the three streams of:

 Student Academic Partners

 Student Academic Mentors

 Collaborative Projects

The closing date for all applications is midnight on Sunday 14 th July 2013.

OpportUNIty: Student Academic Partners (SAP)

Student Academic Partners (SAP) is run in partnership with the Students’ Union and provides an opportunity to integrate students into the academic community of

the University It generates a sense of ownership and pride in the institution and its programmes through a scheme that provides students and staff with a direct

opportunity to work collaboratively to strengthen learning and teaching at the

University for the benefit of all Over the past four years SAPs have delivered over

200 projects and employed over 500 students and has dramatically improved the learning experience across the University in wide variety of areas

Funding will provide each project with up to 100 hours of student employment In a change to previous years, students will now be employed through the University’s own OpportUNIty: Student Jobs on Campus office within the University’s HR dept However, aside from that change the SAP scheme will operate in its normal manner

In 2013 we will be particularly interested in projects that incorporate initiatives around student transition into university and retention within that first year experience However, this is not prescriptive and we would welcome any partnership bids that offer an opportunity to improve the learning experience

Applications will need to show the benefits of partnership with students and the potential for significant impact on the student learning experience

Please go to this link for further information and guidance on the type of projects previously

http://www.bcusu.com/learning/academicpartnerships/saps/previousprojects/

The closing date for all applications is midnight on 14 th July 2013.

Opportunity: Student Academic Mentoring Partnership (StAMP)

The Student Academic Mentoring Partnership (StAMP) was designed through a collaboration with our colleagues at Northwest Missouri State University It has the intention of creating student led interventions that would better support programme teams seeking to improve the progression and achievement of their students It provides up to 100 hours of student employment to develop mentoring initiatives

The programme now enters its third year of operation and has supported over 40 projects in that time Mentoring encourages students to take advantage of peer to peer support by offering them the opportunity to gain academic support from more experienced students, under the guidance of academic staff We have supported many types of mentoring initiatives that offer opportunities for success and would expect funding bids to comment on the mentoring model(s) they will employ:

Discussion Group Mentoring: associated to a specific module and provides extra

assistance with disseminating module content

Workshop Mentoring: an opportunity for students to apply theory from lectures in a

practical environment

One on One Academic Assistance Mentoring/Coaching: follows a more

traditional “tuition” model of academic assistance for modules on a drop-in or

appointment basis

Teaching Assistant Mentoring: provides assistance to academic staff in a specific

module in the form of supplemental instruction for students, demonstrations, course development and lesson implementation

Course Induction Mentoring: provides an introduction into how to succeed and

outlines the expectations of the university along with giving a student perspective of the course, the University and Birmingham at appropriate points in the year

Employability Mentoring: assists students in building their CVs, portfolios, covering

letters, job searching and interview practice

Placement Mentoring: provides student perspectives of placements; offers advice

for success and assists students whilst on placement

Please go to this link, StAMP, for further information and guidance on the type of projects previously supported

The closing date for all applications is midnight on 14 th July 2013.

OpportUNIty: Collaborative Projects

OpportUNIty: Collaborative Projects encourages large-scale, cross-disciplinary projects that provide opportunities for student and staff partnerships to improve the learning experience through a process of collaboration, mentoring, and

inter-disciplinary knowledge sharing

For us, the process is just as important as product as we get students and staff engaging with each other across departmental and faculty boundaries, perhaps for the first time

OpportUNIty: Collaborative Projects should demonstrate the following

characteristics:

 Inter-disciplinary collaborations

 A clear impact on the student learning experience and alignment with the University learning and teaching strategy

 An ability to improve retention, progression and achievement of our students through stimulating student engagement in all aspects of academic

programmes

 Mentoring opportunities for senior students working with less experienced students

 A working partnership between staff and students where staff guide and facilitate developments

Funding of up to £10,000 is available to support these high profile projects and we would expect to see the majority of that funding being expended upon student employment that supports the development and implementation of the project 23 projects were supported in the pilot year and these involved every faculty and most central services

We look forward to hearing of your innovative projects and would be particularly interested in those that bring students and staff together across the new campus development at Parkside and Millennium point

Please go to this link, Collaborative, for further information and guidance on the type

of projects previously supported

The closing date for all applications is midnight on 14 th July 2013.

Contacts and advice

For further information on any of these project calls please feel free to contact any of the following:

Paul.Chapman@bcu.ac.uk Student Academic Partners

Thomas.Cotton@bcu.ac.uk Collaborative Projects

Luke.Nagle@bcu.ac.uk Student Academic Mentoring

Luke.Millard@bcu.ac.uk Any of the project streams

OpportUNIty student

engagement application form

2013/14

About this application form:

Please indicate to which funding stream your application relates

SAP

Those project bids that are obviously designed collaboratively by students and staff will be

treated favourably

Student partner name(s) and

<Nicole.Hutchinson2@mail.bcu.ac.uk>

Staff partner name(s) and

Project Title: Mapping of Volunteering Opportunities for BCU Students and Measuring its Social Impact

Project abstract to be used for a web summary (250 words maximum):

Currently Birmingham City Students’ Union provides a volunteering service for Birmingham City University students offering students to participate in short term one off projects, student led volunteering projects and external volunteering opportunities with organisations throughout Birmingham and the West Midlands

This SAP project is about further extending this service by mapping out all volunteering opportunities for students that are available to them throughout the University (via activities supported by schools and faculties) and in the wider West Midlands region so that they can

be signposted through the Students’ Union to the University at large Another aspect of this would involve engaging with current students to see where they are currently volunteering

in order to better understand what levels of volunteering already exist

However this is to be done alongside the engagement of BCU faculties and departments in order to ensure that opportunities are ideally suited to the skills needed to enhance

students’ prospects for careers related to students degrees and work experience needs, as well as sharing contacts and opportunities which staff may have already to organisations

The overall aim is to enhance the level of volunteering opportunities held by the SU, forging stronger community partnerships between staff and students Enhancing student’s employability skills and work experience, building on the good name of BCU University & BCUSU in the West Midlands community and with potential third sector employers, with obvious benefits from all of these Working out the social impact for the University to assist with its SCR commitments

This project was born from discussions from the workshop on Extra-Curricular activity at the ELSS Faculty Conference

How does you project demonstrate real partnership between staff and students in the design and delivery of the project (350 words maximum):

Students will be engaging in work with Development & Opportunity staff in the Students’ Union, BCUSU Volunteering committee in order to fully shape the project brief, scope, delivery and impact

 Investigating a series of student perceptions of extra-curricular activity in terms of benefits and challenges of engaging in volunteer projects

 An audit of activity for voluntary opportunities that BCU directly or indirectly supports already yet is not well known to all the student community

 Research into extracurricular voluntary activities that academic staff think is beneficial for course students career prospects and with Birmingham City University students in to what they may be interested in becoming involved in

 Forging partnerships with third sector organisations to promote their opportunities and strengthen the name of BCU and BCUSU in the local community

 Working out the social impact of volunteering within the University through the number of hours volunteers and the social monetary value of the volunteering

The student partners will be at the very forefront of the research, discussions and execution

of this SAP project in partnership with a variety of stakeholders such as University and Students’ Union staff, students and employers of the voluntary and third sector organisations in developing a student-led, student-friendly and student-focused volunteering programme that is relevant to our students, academic study, personal interests and career aspirations

How does your project impact on the student learning experience or service delivery? (350 words maximum):

Part of the ideal student learning experience and student journey is to engage in extracurricular activities for a variety of reasons; enjoyment, work experience, development

of employability attributes and the enhancement of personal and professional development Volunteering is known to work on all of these and is seen as great way of developing

students and is highly valued by employers according to the Timebank website, 73 percent

of employers would prefer to hire someone who has served as a volunteer.

A knock on effect to involvement in good extracurricular activities is an increased student experience, a greater community feel and sense of belonging, particularly around the notion of being a Birmingham City University student and citizen of Birmingham It also has

a great impact on student retention rates

According to Which? Prospective student survey, August 2012, 42% of student decide on what University to choose on the basis of the extracurricular offer and 47% on the link between the university and its employers, which volunteering plays a key part in

How will you evaluate your project and disseminate it further, both internally and externally? (350 words maximum):

This exciting project will be measured by the increased number of students taking part in volunteering and the number being recognised for their voluntary extracurricular activities, through the hours recorded and certificates of recognition given out to students These could be presented at an award ceremony such as the Extra Mile to promote volunteers work or at a new celebratory volunteer awards presentation

In addition to this the students involved in the project will have worked out a monetary social impact value which can be spread through various platforms and included in the annual Corporate Social Responsibility report for the Students’ Union and the University

An extra impact measurement will be the number of additional voluntary and third sector organisations signed up to promoting their voluntary opportunities for our students though the Students’ Union website

Specific Targets

 Development and creation of a volunteering statement of intent

 Over 1000 hours of volunteering activity recorded

 30 new partnerships with voluntary organisations with a breakdown of 5 specific

volunteering opportunities to each faculty

 4 volunteering summits with academic staff and students throughout the year

 100 hits measured on a specific area of the SU website

 10% increase in the number of volunteers through BCUSU

Please indicate number of hours required for a SAP or STAMP project (maximum 100 hours) or the funding required to support a Collaborative Project (maximum £10,000, please detail proposed expenditure):

Five students will be employed by this Student Academic Partnership, each responsible for different aspects of the projects Each student will be employed for a maximum of 20 hours each, but with some flexibility if required between partners Ideally at least one student will

be employed from the ‘main’ campuses (City North, City South and City Centre) in order to engage with all campus students and faculties

Total number of hours 100

Number of hours per partner 20

Number of student partners 5

Total £944.00

Summary: Explain the distinctiveness of your project and tell us why it should be funded (maximum 50 words)

Volunteering is one of the SU’s key areas for growth of involvement in extracurricular activities for students with ambitious targets of 1000+ students involved It is a key ingredient in improving the student experience, enabling them to grow as individuals and increase their graduate prospects, an opportunity not to be missed

Please send your completed application electronically to

Mercedes.chambers@bcu.ac.uk

The deadline for submissions is midnight on Sunday 14 th July 2013

Applicants will be notified by 31 July 2013

All successful projects and participants will be expected to attend an induction

session in September 2013