Tag Archives: Devon

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter Lab Work

Biosciences, Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, Science, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Robert Ellis

Job Title: Senior Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Student Campus Partnership (SCP) | Employer Engagement & Student Employment | University of Exeter

Feedback:

“The intern specifically worked on developing a theoretical model for sex change in hermaphroditic aquatic species. This is highly novel and is contributing to a larger area of work our lab group are developing. This helped the intern familiarise themselves with the project, and set the foundation to develop a possible PhD project proposal together over the coming 12 months.

Their successful integration to the team and contribution to the wider goals of the team. The delivery of a comprehensive protocol to assess the content in the lab

This was a really positive experience, and also provided a highly beneficial development experience for a PhD student within our lab who was able to mentor the intern during their placement.

The internship scheme has been very straightforward and I would certainly use it again.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter, Biosciences

Access to Internships (A2I), Biosciences, Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter, Biosciences

Name of Employer: Chris Thornton

Job Title: Professor of Fungal Immunology

Internship Scheme used:  Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern had completed an undergraduate lab project with me between Sept and Dec 2021. The internship allowed her to return to my lab to carry out further experiments related to her initial project. The outputs from this additional work have allowed completion of key experiments needed for advancement of our research and development activities.

She gained valuable additional experience working in a research laboratory, adding to her skills base and building her confidence as a scientist. She produced results of publishable quality, and she will be included as a co-author on a peer-reviewed paper in a high impact factor journal. This will further strengthen our lead in the development of rapid antigen tests for human pathogenic fungi.

A positive experience, allowing the intern to gain valuable further hands-on experience in a research and development laboratory, and adding valuable data to our R&D programme.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Access to Internships (A2I), Biosciences, Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Barbara Tschirren

Job Title: Senior Lecturer in Biosciences

Internship Scheme used:  Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“The intern participated in the fieldwork for a bird population monitoring project. Besides regular nestbox checks, she was involved in the monitoring of insect abundance in the birds’ territories and in vegetation surveys. The student was actively involved in all these processes and helped to optimise monitoring protocols. She mastered the different new field techniques within a short period of time, showed a lot of enthusiasm for fieldwork and helped to optimise field protocols.

The project greatly benefited from having our intern in the team and her contribution to data collection made a real difference. At the same time, the internship allowed the student to gain valuable new field techniques skills that will be highly valuable for a career in ecological research or consultancy. A win-win overall.”

Employer Case Study: People and Mining: University of Exeter

Access to Internships (A2I), Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, , , ,

Name of Organisation: People and Mining: University of Exeter – SSIS – Politics and International Relations

Name of Employer: Deborah McFarlane

Job Title: Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“Our intern contributed to some of the ongoing activities of our network, helping to organise online workshops, taking minutes from meetings, note taking and writing up blogs from research panels. He has also done a range of development work, for example infographics to use on social media.

Working closely with members of the People and Mining team gave the student experience of a range of tasks and also situated him as a core member of our group. Our intern’s confidence grew and he took on some projects that he was instrumental in creating and planning, such as the infographics.

It’s been great, we have learned a lot working with Jack and I believe the experience has been beneficial for him.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter – TQAE

Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter – TQAE

Name of Employer: Craig McEwan

Job Title: Academic Developer

Internship Scheme used: Student Campus Partnership (SCP) | Employer Engagement & Student Employment | University of Exeter

Feedback:

“The interns worked as a team accross three main university projects:

Assessment Reimagined:
Interns mapped the assessment journeys of students on 16 undergraduate programmes that had been identified as priorities by the project lead; painting a detailed picture of what assessment consists of on these programmes. After gathering data module-by-module, the interns compiled reports summarising the assessment journeys for each programme, before zooming out and looking at any broader trends that could be identified accross HASS and STEM programmes. In addition, they conducted a survey of students about their assessment experiences at Exeter and incorporated their key findings and analysis into a final report. This work forms part of the university’s wider Assessment Reimagined project. The findings from both their mapping and student engagement work will help to influence proposals around potential assessment changes over the coming months.

Learning Landscapes:
The interns produced a report with their analysis of study spaces at Streatham campus. This included their views on what defines a good study space and examples of good practice that we currently have at Exeter. Their recommendations focused primarily on how the university could raise awareness of underutilised study spaces and better communicate them to students at Exeter. They created several mock-ups / prototypes of comms in a variety of mediums that the university could use or expand upon to get these messages accross. One of the interns also conducted a series of short interviews with students to better understand their study preferences and their awareness of the range of study spaces on campus. These findings were included in the final project report.

Development of a new chatbot with the Digital team:
Although the Digital team are working with external consultants to develop the technical elements of the chatbot, the interns played an important role in defining and articulating the chatbot’s ‘personality’ and communications tone. They compiled research on other chatbots, before creating a name for the new chatbot (Robi) and defining its personality traits and backstory (creating storyboards and promo materials to communicate this effectively). They drafted answers to a series of personality/non-support questions that can be used by the chatbot and created a Tone Blueprint, which will act as something of a style guide for the chatbot’s responses when it is up and running. This work has been gratefully recieved by the Digital team and complements the more technical work that they have been doing to develop the chatbot.

I think their biggest achievement was meeting all of their main project goals in what was essentially five weeks of work. Their ability work as a team and support each other was crucial and a big part of their success. I was blown away by their professionalism and their willingness to take on challenges and tasks that were out of their comfort zones.

This was my first involvement with Students as Change Agents, and was my first time managing SCP interns. While I was a little nervous about taking on six at once, it has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I was fortunate enough that they were an absolute dream group. I really couldn’t have asked for a better bunch. Their ability to support each other was so impressive and certainly made my job a lot easier. It was great to watch them develop new skills and interests that they didn’t expect, and to see their confidence build over the course of the internships. Based on the feedback that I’ve received so far, they have been positive about their experiences and some have even applied for other internships at the university. I also want to note the benefit that we had from adopting an agile working framework for the duration of the internships, facilitated and supported by colleagues in the Digital team. The use of agile working methods gave the interns a real sense of structure and was instrumental in them getting off to such a quick and successful start with their projects.”

Employer Case Study: The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum University of Exeter

Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, , ,

 

 

 

 

 

Name of Organisation: The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Phil Wickham

Job Title: Curator, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum

Feedback:

The student researched and curated a permanent exhibition for the museum on Black screen history. As well as a physical display created a digital exhibition , recorded two podcasts and wrote a blog about her process.

Our intern’s work is a big step forward in making the museum more inclusive and her intelligent and rigourous approach has produced a very strong set of outcome for the project.

I found the student to be an excellent intern and we were lucky to have her. It was important that this task was paid and she was exactly the right person to do the job through the combination of her research interests and skills. You can link to her work here

https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/news/black-screen-history-a-tale-of-trailblazing-talent-tribulation-trials-and-triumph-by-chlo%C3%A9-jarrett-bell/

We are delighted that she may continue to help us as a volunteer in her third year.

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Access to Internships (A2I), Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Internship Schemes, , , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Dr Jennifer Lay

Job Title:  Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , Access to Internships (A2I) 

Feedback:

“The student contributed to two research projects. For the first project she assisted with designing a participatory study involving street-attached individuals. She researched potential university and community collaborators and prepared materials for ethical approval (including consent forms and study protocol). Hence, our internwas instrumental in getting this study off the ground and in preparing the necessary documentation. For the second project, she conducted a thorough literature search on the use of spoken language biomarkers for dementia detection. She examined hundreds of articles and compiled summary information on those of interest to our review article on the topic. The GBP suggested useful ways of improving the literature search process and her analysis of the literature provided novel insights that have been useful in this paper project.

Our intern was consistently thoughtful and proactive in her work, and she challenged me to improve the way I conduct research. For example, she identified potential ethical challenges involved in working with street-attached research participants, as well as solutions to these challenges, which I am implementing. She also taught me about software tools and other resources that are instrumental to the experience-sampling work that we do. The student was well-organised and able to analyse complex information in a timely manner. Her capabilities as a research intern far exceed those of most other students at her level. If I had the requisite funding, I would have gladly kept her on as a research team member.”

Employer Case Study: Female Dignity

Advertising, Marketing and PR, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), ,

Name of Organisation: Female Dignity

Description of Organisation: Female Dignity’s vision and mission is to provide machinery to convert raw materials in the respective developing country to convert into sanitary pads using specialist machinery.

Name of Employer: Amanda Alexander

Job Title: Founder & Managing Director

Internship Scheme used: Student Campus Partnership (SCP) | Employer Engagement & Student Employment | University of Exeter

Feedback:

“The student we took on was a dream intern who understood and fulfilled her tasks on time and with excellence. Her pleasant demeanor and pro-activeness was great, she’s welcomed back to Female Dignity anytime. She created and took full responsibility for the e-commerce platform for Female Dignity’s website. It was truly a pleasure working with the SCP. I’ve offered her the opportunity to intern with us during her holidays.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter, Student Comms (Law)

Administration, Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, Law, Student Business Partnership (SBP), , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter, Student Comms (Law)Name of Employer: Student Communications Manager

Job Title: Jo Cole

Internship Scheme used: : Student Business Partnerships (SBPs) | Career Zone | University of Exeter

Feedback:

“Our intern made a real impact in terms of rising engagement rates, particularly through social media and newsletters. I think he navigated quite a complex organisation, really took time to meet people and understand their needs and was focused on improvements

Our intern was a dream. He was passionate about his role, worked hard, got on well with everyone and was always happy to learn new skills and share his own experiences with us. It was a pleasure to work with him.”

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Advertising, Marketing and PR, Employer Feedback, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Internship Schemes, , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Louise Vennells

Job Title: Senior Press and Media Manager

Internship Scheme used: Graduate Business Partnership (GBP) , 

Feedback:

“Our intern hit the ground running through helping to close a feedback loop of improvements that had been made as a result of student feedback, and celebrating student successes stories via our website and social media. She also placed a number of stories in the media successfully. They made a big impact in increasing the visibility of students on our @exetermed social media channels.

The student was a very capable, competent intern. She brought a range of skills to the role and was such a highly valued colleague that she was quickly promoted within the team, ending the internship.”