Student Learning in the Community
This CUPP guide explains student learning in the community (SLIC) and gives examples from around the university. SLIC “relates to a practical task or project carried out either for or with a community organisation. Projects are either suggested by local groups or identified by students through established volunteering networks. SLIC aims to benefit both the student and the community and this two-way relationship is the key factor”.
“SLIC provides opportunities for students to:
- Relate theory to practice
- Work on projects with significant local impact
- Implement the skills and concepts they have learned
- Gain valuable practical experience - working to actual deadlines and within the financial/human resource constraints of the partner organisation
- Strengthen their confidence
- Move outside the university and link into local network”
Examples of SLIC include:
- School of Applied Social Sciences (SASS): Personal and Community Development module. Students identify a placement project and complete 50 hours of practical work and five short assignments. Placements have included Lewes prison, shelters for the homeless, church groups, St John’s Ambulance, drop-in centres, care homes and day nurseries.
- Faculty of Arts and Architecture: ‘extension studies’ including community based courses such as Access to Art.
- School of Architecture and Design: ‘live’ architectural design projects under the umbrella title ‘Open Architecture’, e.g. working with children on a Lancing estate to design social and play spaces for them.
- Brighton and Sussex medical school: a menu of options for third-year students “aims to focus on practical or community-based work, design of medical IT software, or research into an area of personal concern. Options available include conducting an evaluation study of an innovative community health scheme.”
- School of Computing, Management and Information Sciences (CMIS): elective community project for level 3 students on information and media or information and library courses. E.g. mapping the history of an organisation for an anniversary celebration; building an information system for a community group.
- School of Engineering: students work on a number of small practical projects. e.g. designing technological aids for disabled people. Some students also opt to spend a year out working for a community project, often in areas relating to children, playgrounds, and the environment.
- School of the Environment: 40 students undertook an evaluation and attendance survey of Brighton’s Pride event.
- Volunteering and mentoring (for students from any course): students are trained to act as personal/academic mentors for year 10 and 11 students with no family history of higher education.