Student-Staff Partnership Grants

Improving inclusivity in clinical skills teaching: Recognition of clinical signs on black and brown skin

Team leads: Peter Tamony, Margot Turner, Malone Mukwende

This project aims to address and rectify the white skin bias prevalent in teaching clinical examinations and procedural skills. By default, nearly all the descriptions of clinical signs are for Caucasian patients. In addition to this, pictures of clinical signs found in textbooks and recommended resources are also mainly of white skin patients. As a result, BAME students may feel “othered” and all students may be ill prepared for addressing the needs of a diverse patient group.

Find out more: Mind the Gap: A handbook of clinical signs in Black and Brown Skin

Evaluation of MBBS Career Profiling Project

Team leads: Emma Metters, Arabella Watkin

This project enhances careers resources by producing and evaluating video profiles of doctors and healthcare professionals in different specialities and at different stages in their careers.

Students and staff broadening communication skills by learning British Sign Language together: A pilot project

Team leads: Mary Jane Cole, Oluchi Zelic

This project seeks to improve the understanding of BSL among SGUL student and staff in order to enhance inclusion and communication with students in our cohorts who are deaf.

George’s Talks Mental Health (GTMH)

Team leads: Jane Cronin-Davis, Hamzah Niaz

With this project, the aim is to increase awareness about the various resources and services that can offer help and support students dealing with mental health issues.

Click here to read the project report produced by the team.

The Art of Pathology: the co-creation of an art exhibition inspired by the Pathology Museum collection

Team leads: Carol Shiels, Olga Ihirwe

A recent survey of St George’s students has demonstrated that there is an interest in providing more opportunities for art and humanities-based activities (Health Humanities Intercalated BSc survey 2018). In this project, the aim is to give students and staff this opportunity by holding a series of art and creativity workshops in the Museum to co-create a collection of artworks inspired by the Pathology Museum collection. The project promotes inclusivity by encouraging participation from students and staff, regardless of their perceived art abilities or medical knowledge, through peer-support and instructor-facilitated workshops.

The Proud Teachers initiative

Team leads: Jane Cronin-Davis, Anna Searle

The Proud Teachers initiative aims to help students from all clinical courses identify clinicians who are willing to teach in busy, unfamiliar clinical environments. By funding the creation of Identification Card Reels with an identifiable symbol on them, students would be able to identify at a glance clinical staff who are interested in facilitating student teaching & development.

MBBS Career Profiling Project - Creating video and online resources profiling doctors' career insights for MBBS students

Team leads: Emma Metters, Arabella Watkins

The project aims to produce video profiles of doctors in different specialities and at different stages of their careers. The videos are accompanied with resources around teh speciality to create a 'go to' guide to specialities and aims to assist students in exploring career paths and opportunities.

The Use of Office 365 Teams & tools to support collaboration and enhance students' learning

Team leads: Fiona Graham

The project investigates how online collaboration using Microsoft Teams can support group projects by using 'Microsoft Teams learning hub' to hold team meetings, share files, give opinions or delegate tasks from within one single online space.

Reviewing leadership teaching for SGUL undergraduates

Team leads: Judith Ibison, Corey Briffa

This project proposes to map curricula for leadership across courses, with the aim of identifying good practice, which may be shared between Course teams.

Empowering Black Students

Team leads: Margot Turner, Adrian Crawford

The project aims to address the BME attainment gap through a series of events that create a welcoming environment for Black staff and students and showcase that work of Black students. The event include a Black History Month Exhibition, a Mentorship Evening Event, and a Diversity Conference.

Projects must:

• align with the mission and values of St George’s, University of London, and with its strategic plan for education and students

• aim to enrich and enhance the university experience for students

• benefit the majority of students and be open to, and inclusive of, all students at St George’s

• be designed by, and directly involve joint working with, both students and staff

• have a defined project outcome and legacy planned

• be good value for money

• include project evaluation

• be shared and disseminated across the St George’s community *

*after being awarded you will be contacted to arrange a suitable date for presenting work in progress or project findings at the Education Ideas Hub.

Projects should not:

• involve estate or facilities improvement (e.g. refurbishment)

• relate to Students’ Union (SU) society-specific funding (unless it makes a compelling case for student-staff partnership)

Projects aligning with the following areas would be particularly welcome for the 2020-21 grants:

• Assessment and feedback, organisation and management, and academic support

• Equality, diversity, and inclusivity

• Belonging to university community in times of social distancing

• Student-staff communication, including communication of actions in response to student feedback (closing the loop)

• Postgraduate experience, especially during COVID19

In view of current circumstances, we encourage applicants to consider developing projects that can be delivered remotely.

Grants of up to £1200 will be awarded; if you consider your project will extend beyond this amount, please contact Alina Apostu, Student Experience Officer, experience@sgul.ac.uk.

• A progress report and a final evaluation report will be required by the Student Experience Action Group, highlighting the impact and legacy of the work, and the ways it benefitted from student-staff collaboration.

• The project team and project information/outcomes may feature in newsletters and website features for internal and external visibility.

• Project teams will be expected to present at the Education Ideas Hub, and project leaders may be invited to report on their progress to the Student Experience Action Group at regular intervals.

• All expenditure on an award must be made by 31 July of the year in which the project is scheduled to end, and good records of expenditure must be kept.

• The designated budget-holding staff leader has financial responsibility for the project, ensuring correct use of the budget for the purposes intended, and keeping good records of expenditure. They may also be required to complete a short training in Agresso, St George’s finance system, for recording their expenditure.

Who can apply?

• All members of St George's, University of London staff and enrolled students are eligible to apply for projects (projects should be undertaken before students graduate or complete their course).

• Applications are invited from collaborative student-staff groups. The form asks for a designated student lead, a staff lead (who takes responsibility for the budget), and names of students and staff in the project team.

• Projects may arise in different ways, from staff or student originators who find collaborative partners and develop an application, or from collaborative student-staff groupings identifying enhancement needs.*

Please note that projects benefiting all, or most, students will be given the highest priority.

*Exceptionally, where a student or staff originator has a strong project but has not been able to find collaborators to develop it, they can flag this on the application form and the grant award panel will help them find collaborative partners.

How to apply for the academic year 2020/21

• Read all the guidance above before applying

• Download and complete an application form (Word)

• Send your completed application form to the awarding panel by Thursday 10 December 2020

When will I hear about my application?

You will hear approximately two weeks after the deadline date of one of the following outcomes:

• your application meets criteria and can be awarded subject to changes requested

• your application is accepted and funds will be awarded

• your application does not meet the criteria and is rejected