Information for staff

The HUM-UROP scheme is designed to offer students the opportunity to gain experience in a research environment. The projects should provide Level 5 students with the chance to work on research activities – anything that Humanities academics would normally work on during their research time. It is anticipated that every project will be unique, but examples might include: the student undertaking research, either at archives or online; indexing; curation (eg preparing a small online ‘exhibition’ from materials provided by the academic); writing academic papers (with or without the Academic having credit as appropriate) – destinations might include Keele’s Journal of Academic Development and Education as well as external publications; writing policy papers (eg for History and Policy). A UROP should include c.10-15 hours’ work (and not be burdensome to the UG student).

UROPs are open to all undergraduate students but they are aimed primarily at Level 5 students who are considering postgraduate study or considering research careers in any sector.

Placements are not funded, but colleagues can apply, if appropriate, for any other source of funding relevant to their discipline (eg internal RSF funding or any relevant external funding).

Benefits of participating

Project should be mutually beneficial but should primarily benefit the student. For staff, they might enable you to run a pilot project, collate a grant application, support an ongoing project, develop future PGT and PGR students for Keele, help to collate competitive PhD funding applications. For the student, the project should develop their personal, professional and research skills. They should not heavily comprise administration or logistical tasks. Any proposed project that is deemed not to benefit the student satisfactorily will be rejected.

Advertising a project

All projects must be openly advertised and available for all students to apply. They are expected to be aimed at Level 5 students, though exceptions to this can be made. You are welcome to set a MRA (module result average threshold) for any project (usually 60% average, though higher thresholds can be set, and lower thresholds may also be appropriate for certain projects and/or where exceptional circumstances have lowered a student’s average).

Proposed projects must: provide the opportunity for the student to develop their personal, professional, and research skills; have an authentic research component (must not be just administration); make a valuable contribution to the supervisor(s) work; have properly considered time commitments and broadly comply with suggested indicative times.

Managing a project

Teams of supervisors are welcome. The default is that projects should take place within term-time (so that students who need to work or have other responsibilities during university holidays are not disadvantaged), though projects can take place within university holidays if both the student and staff member are in full agreement. Projects should comprise c.10-15 hours’ work, though this can vary depending on the nature of the project.

Coordination

The SDE coordinates the scheme. Projects can be proposed by an academic or by a student in conjunction with an academic for a specific project. The SDE will sign off the advertising of projects. The supervisor must write advertisements/coordinate applications. The project team will submit a report to the SDE on completion of the project. The SDE will coordinate with Student Records to ensure that the UROP appears on the student’s HEAR.