Student-Staff collaboration fund – applications open!

Deadline: 12:00 Friday 13 November 2015

At a time when boundaries between the disciplines are fading in favour of more fluid ways of working, the UAL Teaching and Learning Exchange and SUArts are excited to announce a new pot of funding available for student and staff collaborations.

Students and staff are warmly welcomed to come together to submit co-produced applications for funding of up to £2000 to support small-scale projects that will create a positive impact on the student experience within either a course, programme, school, college or resource area setting (e.g. library, printmaking facility etc). Projects must be completed within the 2015/16 academic year and students must be registered for the entire duration of the project.

Projects must be a collaboration between students and staff. We encourage you to consider the word ‘collaboration’ in a wide and innovative sense: you might work together with other students and staff at your college or across UAL, with colleagues at other organisations or with members of the local or international community.

The scheme is open to all full time and part time students, working with either full time or fractional staff (including technicians and support staff) or associate lecturers (minimum 100 contracted hours). Staff should not be enrolled on either the Teaching Development Project or Negotiated Studies Unit of the University’s Academic Practice Provision whilst undertaking the project.

Themes

Projects should address one or more of the following themes:

• UAL without walls – how can you enable meaningful and useful engagement with non-UAL audiences?
• Learning spaces – how might you think differently about the spaces in which you work and learn?
• Creating communities – how can you work towards making an aspect of the UAL community more accessible and welcoming to students?
• Creative, curious, critical curricula – how might you co-design an aspect of your course curriculum?
• Professional futures – how can you develop professional attributes whilst you’re studying? (i.e. networking skills, confidence in presenting, interview skills)
• Sustainable practices – how can you embed principles of sustainability at UAL?
• Collaborative research – how might you develop new knowledge and understanding of student experiences in creative arts education?

Criteria for the awards

Projects should work to embed student engagement in the chosen context. This means that the project work should have an impact beyond its initial duration. For example, if you want to create an exhibition of work that explores the relationship between staff and student research methods, how could the learning from the experience of curating and producing the exhibition be re-applied? Considering the future impact of your work is key to successful funding applications.

The following criteria will be used in selecting successful projects:

• The extent to which the project will result in a positive impact on the student experience.
• The extent to which students and staff will work together during the collaboration.
• The extent to which the project will be of interest to the wider university.
• The extent to which the project is clear and achievable.

Successful projects might involve:

• Projects that build links between students and non-UAL audiences.
• Extra-curricular activities, which are open and accessible to the entire student body.
• Curriculum-based projects.
• Designing events, systems or services that work towards making UAL students feel more deeply connected to the institution.
• Rethinking current and traditional practices.
• Research projects to enhance understanding and create new knowledge.
• Project outputs, or publicity materials describing them, will be published on University of the Arts London web pages.

What costs can be covered by the funding

We appreciate that extra-curricular project work can be time-consuming for all parties. Where a considerable amount of time is to be spent on an aspect of delivery that will not further the project team member’s aspiration (e.g. on an administrative task like transcribing interviews) we can cover student costs at ArtTemps rates (£14 p/h) and staff cover costs at the maximum AL rate (£65 p/h). Items you might outline in your budget are:

Small items of equipment for specific purposes related directly to the project.

• Material costs such as reasonable expenses and travel costs.
• Paying external practitioners or experts for their time.
• Student time for administrative tasks not part of the mainstream project development work (e.g. interview transcribing).
• Replacement hours to cover additional staff time.

Please see the application form for more details and/or contact Ben Atkins on b.atkins@arts.ac.uk if you have questions.

How to apply

Download the Staff and Student Collaboration Fund Application Form (Word 92KB). Email the completed form to Ben Atkins, Student Engagement and Enhancement Projects Officer at b.atkins@arts.ac.uk.

If you want to find out more about this funding opportunity or want advice on writing your bid, just send an email to b.atkins@arts.ac.uk and we will happily come to you to have a chat.

Guidance

For those looking for further guidance, a chance to discuss or just to share their project ideas we will be coming to every college in October and November. Feel free to drop in to any of the following sessions or book a Skype call on Wednesday 8th October for last minute help

Location	Date	Time	Room
Wimbledon	Thursday 1st October	13:00 – 14:00	221
CSM	Wednesday 7th October	13:00 – 14:00	D107
LCC	Wednesday 14th October	13:00 – 14:00	WG14c
Chelsea	Wednesday 21st October	13:00 – 14:00	ALG15a&b
LCF	Wednesday 28th October	13:00 – 14:00	JPS525
Camberwell	Wednesday 4th November	13:00 – 14:00	G04F
Online Discussions	Wednesday 8th November	13:00 – 14:00	Online