Developing a collaborative undergraduate dissertation with a community partner: Enhancing learning for students, academics and communities.

Inline with the USW 2030 principle of collaborative working, in June 2021, a partnership was developed between the School of Psychology and Therapeutic Studies, Linc Cymru Housing Association and Children in Wales, an umbrella charity that aims to support children and young people. Through this partnership, an opportunity emerged to evaluate a community hub in a primary school in Newport, which aimed to reduce the financial barriers experienced by families in accessing education. Ruby Jones and Sandra Fergusson (final year BSc Childhood Development students) completed the evaluation as a group dissertation project, under the supervision of Dr Alexis Jones and Dr Klara Price.

This presentation will focus on reflecting on the outcomes of this project using the framework of the 2030 Curriculum Principles. It will consider the impact from student, academic and community perspectives. Finally, the presentation will describe proposed changes to the BSc Childhood Development dissertation module for 2022/23, which will aim to provide collaborative, group based, partnership driven research experiences for all BSc Childhood Development students, enhancing the links with the 2030 Curriculum Principles through changes to the assessment structure.