Students' Engagement in Industry Projects

This project describes how enterprise and employability are conceived among students in different disciplines and how they engage with industry projects. The brief report of this study is intended as a discussion paper for tutors who wish to reflect on their design and support of industry projects.

University of the Arts London 2013
Duna Sabri

Tutors and students are often negotiating a series of tensions that come to the fore in the setting up and running of industry projects. The first revolved around the possibility of conflict between optimum conditions for formative assessment and the imperatives of high-risk competition between students. The second tension is that which tutors face between promoting their course through its association with a high-profile brand on the one hand, and negotiating an involvement from the industry partner which takes into account the students’ educational needs. The third tension is one that students sometime experience as they seek to balance the development of their own artistic endeavour or signature style with the demands of industry-led briefs.

The findings are presented as tensions intentionally to provoke debate. The issues that these tensions embrace were not experienced as being in conflict for all students, for all tutors, or in equal measure in all the industry projects. A draft student feedback tool has been developed at UAL to addresses the issues raised.

Student Feedback Tool: Engaging in Industry Projects

As part of the research project, SEE has developed a tool for evaluating students’ engagement in industry projects that can be used for courses to bring that experience back into curriculum.  The feedback tool intends to fill a gap in the curriculum around student experience in industry projects and the impact on enterprise and employability.  The student feedback tool can also inform curriculum design and learning and teaching strategy on how to measure student experience and evaluate industry projects.  

Students answer questions with respect to a specific industry project after its completion.Students will feedback on their experience of the industry project; the role of the industry partner; how the industry project fits into their course; how the industry project has influenced thinking about future practice. Students feedback on their experience and  in no way identifies the student individually. 

To get involved in using the tool on your course or for more information on the Student Feedback Tool, please contact
Cara Lee Roth, Educational Developer SEE
University of the Arts London
c.roth@arts.ac.uk