Student-led Knowledge Exchange

Introduction

The project (SLKE) builds on Marjon’s success in promoting knowledge exchange through student involvement in health and wellbeing clinics. As UK health policy moves increasingly toward a preventative model focusing on health behaviour modification such as increased physical activity, dietary change, and patient self-care, these types of clinics are becoming central to the work of healthcare professionals.

Marjon has been running activities, which promote health and well-being in the workplace and in complex multi-morbid communities for many years. We are recognised as offering an exemplary service for the local community, working alongside local partners, as well as providing opportunities for enhancing student development and employability.

Approach

This project will use a transformative evaluation to help us understand and further enhance the opportunities of student involvement in these clinics. It will investigate the ways and extent to which these initiatives contribute to student learning, in addition to the positive impacts on partners and patients. Equally, it will assess the barriers and potential for wider utilisation of student-led knowledge exchange activities in higher education.

Aims

This project aims to explore the conditions, which allow a SLKE culture to flourish in undergraduate teaching and learning, and to develop a model for wider use. It aims to enhance student reflection and learning through transformative evaluation, to explore the drivers and barriers for SLKE from the perspective of students, academics and partners, and to promote scaling up of SLKE activities across the institution, region and nationally.

Funding

Marjon is one of only 20 Higher Education providers which have been awarded funding from the Office for Students and Research England’s funding competition, designed to explore the impact of student involvement in knowledge exchange. The aim of the funding is to provide better evidence of the student benefits of knowledge exchange, to share good practice across the sector and to improve future knowledge exchange activities.

Further guidance and resources

Further information, resources and the SLKE Model can be found on the SLKE resources and guidance page.

Objectives

The objectives of the project include the following:

• Exploring the drivers and barriers to engagement in student-led knowledge exchange activities for students, academic staff and external partners.
• Using a transformative evaluation approach (Cooper, 2017) to identify the key characteristics of successful student-led knowledge exchange activities and to enhance student learning through reflection.
• Undertaking a stakeholder analysis and piloting a train-the-trainers approach to explore how SLKE can be scaled up, and rolled out across the sector, giving larger numbers of people access to student-led interventions.
• Developing a model of student-led knowledge exchange, together with recommendations for institutions, academics and external partners to enhance both take-up of and learning from SLKE activities.

Partners

Our partners on the project include:

• Livewell Southwest
• Sentinel Health & Wellbeing
• University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
• MacMillan Cancer Support charity
• Devon & Cornwall Police
• Environment Agency

Our team

The project involves an interdisciplinary team consisting of Professor Debby Cotton, Professor Saul Bloxham, Dr Sue Cooper, Mr John Downey and Dr Mauro Fornasiero. The project will also recruit a number of student researchers, who will assist in generating stories as part of the transformative evaluation.