About the internship placements
The Graduate School are funding 10 Research Internships. Sustainability is central to the RIMES programme, and this is reflected in the research projects advertised below. All projects are linked to one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the RIMES internship scheme is supported by SustainNET. Projects can run from July to September and each intern will receive £2,000.
Internships will be open to students who fit any of the following demographics:
- Minoritized ethnic groups
- Disabled students
- LGBQ+ students
- Students designated as having other legally protected characteristics
- Students returning to education
- Students who are the first in their family to attend university
- Students who were in receipt of pupil premium funding at school
- Students who were brought up in care
Available projects
Students must contact the named person for each project by 1 July 2024.
Recent data shows that that there has been an increase in the numbers of non-EU students studying in the UK, and a similar percentage reduction in EU students in the same period. The major countries contributing towards this non-EU increase are China, Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. Previous research has described various ‘push and pull’ factors that dictate why international students choose to study at their chosen non-home institutions, including developing independence, and future career aspirations.
This study aims to establish why international students studying for a MSc in Public Health Nutrition (PHN) are coming to the UK, more specifically Edge Hill University and their reasons for studying PHN.
Face-to-face or online interviews will take place with approximately 20 international students (n=50). They will be conducted in a semi-structured way and themes will be identified from the data.
This will allow us to objectively understand the students’ motivations and drivers to study in the UK.
Findings will help the programme team by providing information to assist with the planning and marketing for the future of the programme and ensure its prosperity. We also intend to capture data regarding students’ expectations and aspirations for employment, particularly in population health and/or nutrition once graduates from PHN return home.
Potential activities
This investigation will be a qualitative study, using a convenience sample of post-graduate students. Data collection will be one-to-one semi structured interviews either face-to-face in a private room on EHU campus or completed over telephone/ Microsoft Teams.
Project management
The Intern will have responsibility for recruiting and interviewing the participants, transcribing the interviews, and some analysis.
Recruitment
Participants will be recruited from the existing MSc. Public Health Nutrition (PHN) cohort at EHU (n = 50). Students will be informed about the study from a participant information sheet (PIS) posted via email and notices on Blackboard to provide information about what they will be expected to do.
The aim is to recruit 10-20 participants before the end of their programme (September 2024). Students who are interested in taking part, will be asked to contact the Intern to make an appointment for the interview to take place. Interviews will be arranged at mutually convenient times and locations (either on campus or online).
Informed consent
The Intern will send a consent form by email to those students who express an interest and ask them to sign and return the form back to the Intern by email, prior to the interview. This will be confirmed prior to the start of the interview.
Inclusion criteria – international students currently enrolled at EHU on MSc. PHN (2023-24).
Exclusion criteria – any UK/EU student, students currently enrolled on programmes other than MSc. PHN, students studying at other universities.
Procedure
Following informed consent, the interviews will commence and will be audio recorded for the duration of the session, using either a digital audio recorder (in-person) or via MS Teams (online). All interviews will be transcribed verbatim by the Intern.
Analysis
Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) will be used as a framework for the interview schedules and qualitative analyses. Transcribed interviews will be scrutinised by the Intern and latterly by project staff, so that themes can be identified through inductive analysis, using a constant comparative method.
Outcomes
We expect to achieve useful insights regarding the motivations and experiences of international students regarding their decisions to study PNH at EHU. This will inform the future planning, delivery, and marketing of our MSc PHN. We also intend to capture data regarding the impact of students from low-middle income countries studying this programme and their expectations and aspirations when returning to their country of origin.
United Nations Sustainability Goals
This study aims to particularly meet goals 4 and 8 of the United Nations Sustainability Goals:
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Enquiries
For initial enquiries, please contact:
Dr Genevieve Stone [email protected]
Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine
This internship will be connected to Imagining Climate Futures Narratives through Speculative Fiction: An Experiment in Collective Immersive Listening research project, currently funded by British Academy small grant, which, explores speculative fiction’s potential to initiate climate action.
Imagining Climate Futures Narratives aims to engage diverse audiences in immersive listening sessions, followed by discussions, in local arts and community settings across the UK, with a focus on Scotland. The project centres on the audio play “Three Sisters: A Story from the Climate Future” (2023), set in a climate-altered Britain. It seeks to understand whether collective immersive listening to climate future narratives can influence social and political action. By analysing emotional and intellectual responses of the audiences, the study will foster new listener communities, spark discussions, and inspire innovative thinking on the climate crisis and coexistence in future worlds. Audio plays, an under-explored medium in climate storytelling, offer a new direction for this work. The project will contribute to the understanding of the potential impact of audio plays and facilitate the development of new artistic strategies for climate advocacy.
For RIMES project, we would seek a creative researcher who would be attached to the project and support the project’s literature review, researching audio plays in particular.
The research project is aligned with UN sustainability development goals 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 13 (Climate Action).
Potential activities
Dependent on their interest, the intern could concentrate on researching creative outputs about climate change (audio plays, podcasts, fiction, poetry, artwork etc). Eventually they would make their own creative output (audio play, podcast, short story, poem, artwork), supported by the research they have undertaken.
Whilst, there’s emphasis on audio plays and podcasts for the Climate Futures Narratives project, and this is of primary interest to the researchers, the intern will be encouraged to work in an arts medium of their choice.
Enquiries
For initial enquiries, please contact Dr Lena Simic, [email protected]
Critical Studies in Television is a leading international, academic journal in the area of television studies. The Television Studies Research Group at Edge Hill University, we host its annual conference which this year has the theme of sustainability and runs between 24 June and 5 July. This year, this conference runs online. The conference is a wonderful opportunity to find out about the most up-to-date scholarship in the area of Sustainability and Television, and find out how academics network, learn from each other and develop their research. In addition, we disseminate some of the discussions via CSTOnline, which hosts the weekly CST Blog, which is read by approximately 6,000 readers. The successful intern would support the organisation and running of the conference and write at least one blog about it to help them hone and reflect on their academic skillset.
The intern would be mentored by Kim Akass (Rowan University, New Jersey, USA) who runs the CSTOnline webpage.
Potential activities
- Respond to emails from delegates.
- Contact delegates with updates.
- Monitor the chat in Teams during sessions.
- Support the organisation team with social aspects of the conference.
- Write up to two academic blogs that reflect on aspects of the conference.
Enquiries
For initial enquiries, please contact Elke Weissmann – [email protected]
Organisations, both private and public can influence up to a maximum of 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions. The remainder is down to individuals, their homes, their lifestyles and their motor vehicles. Local authorities are in the vanguard when it comes to managing emission reductions. This is good because they understand the local situation. Unfortunately, they are resource and funding light. As a result, they have set their priorities. Firstly, they need to get their own emissions to net zero. Their next priority is industry and other big emitters like government bodies. Last are their citizens. This is where Climate Communities are so important.
Individuals live in and belong to communities. These communities include resident’s associations, clubs, climate action groups, not for profit companies, parishes, faith groups, schools to name but a few. In isolation these communities can make a difference. However, communities of communities, or Climate Action Networks, can make a difference that is bigger than the sum of its individual parts. Regrettably, as far as we are aware, these bodies are few and far between. Examples include the Scottish Community Climate Action Network, our own LancsCAN, and one in Wiltshire.
- Do the relevant local authorities know their local community groups and who are they?
- Are there any Climate Action Networks (CAN) that pull these communities together in their area, and who are they? If Yes, move to question 6.
- Do they know the benefits and/or value of CANs
- Would they be willing to facilitate the establishment of a CAN?
- Would they be willing to fund the establishment of CAN?
- Would they be willing to give the contact details of 3 – 4 local communities?
Contact the communities with a view to understanding:
- In their geographic area, how do they communicate?
- Do they communicate with communities outside of their geography?
- Are they equipped with sufficient information including best practice, case studies etc?
- Do they have access to learning materials?
If you have a strong interest in or are an advocate for the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions, this is an ideal project for you.
Enquiries
For further information please contact Steve Rowe on 07903 121916 or email him at [email protected]
Part of the Visualising Opportunities: Inclusion for Children, Education and Society’(VOICES) Impact Case Study
Outline of project
Building on the successful application in 2023, this internship will focus on developing a new set of materials for dissemination to schools that draws on research conducted in a pupil referral unit exploring the links between behaviour and anxiety.
The VOICES project was initially designed to reinterpret concepts, ideas and practices relevant to educational and social inclusion. In the study children and young people from schools in Northwest England were invited to take photographs during their everyday school activities that they felt represented inclusion or exclusion. Each photographer was asked to comment on why they had taken the photograph and what it meant to them. These annotated photographs then became the basis for school-based workshops within which other children and young people were able to engage with the annotated photographs, discuss issues of relevance to them and create further materials to facilitate the exploring of issues that affected them. This material has formed the basis of a physical resource toolkit for use in schools and used for continuing professional development as part of an Impact Knowledge Exchange Funded project.
In the current ongoing phase we are working with Lorraine Chester the Inclusion Lead for Sefton local authority and the schools in Sefton to explore practice, change school policy and ultimately develop more toolkits relating to specific topics that the schools have raised concerns around. Current work is related to several topics – support for disability / transition between primary and secondary school / outdoor education / anxiety, mental health and wellbeing / bullying.
The materials created by the intern would join the existing packages housed on figshare:
Activities and output
The existing figshare repository includes guidance for schools on how to facilitate a workshop around specific topics and they can select the online materials and download and/or print them for use in a bespoke workshop in their own setting.
If we were to secure a RIMES intern, they would be tasked with collating the materials we have from a Pupil Referral Unit in Sefton and developing an accessible online resource pack around behaviour and anxiety. The role of the intern would be the construction of the teacher resource pack and its population with the data from the project (photographs and the comments relating to them, scenarios, activities etc).
The intern would have the opportunity to see first hand the work of Lorraine Chester and the inclusion team at Sefton and join the VOICES team working with schools and at an event day organised in July for SENCos (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators).
The intern role would also include liasing with Learning Services and IT at Edge Hill University (EHU) to ensure all appropriate EHU guidance is followed. So, as well as having suitable IT skills, the VOICES team are looking for an intern that has knowledge of the legislation, policy and practice relating to the topic of inclusive education. Ideally it would be a student who also understands and values the need for pupil voice to be central to improvements enacted in education settings.
United Nations Sustainability Goals
This project aligns with three of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/page/sustainable-development-goals
3: Good Health and Well-Being – this is a key topic that is being explored by the researchers and the school partners they are working with in the VOICES project
4: Quality Education – the outcomes of the VOICES project are to improve policy and practice relating to the enhancement of inclusive education.
10: Reduced Inequalities – by involving children and young people in the identification of educational inequalities that they and their peers experience and the development of materials for the toolkits and repository, the VOICES project intends to change policy and practice; reduce inequalities and enhance children and young people’s ability to have the voices, experiences and concerns really listened to.
Enquiries
The Edge Hill University mentor would be Dr Clare Woolhouse, Reader in Inclusive Education, FoE, [email protected]
The community partner mentor would be Ms Lorraine Chester, SEN Inclusion Consultant / Sefton SEN & Inclusion Service (North West England),
Project
Current food production processes and food consumption patterns are negatively impacting both planetary (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss) and human (e.g. malnutrition and non-communicable diseases) health. Localised, diverse food systems offer the opportunity to reduce the negative impact on the planet and also provide positive influences on human health through good nutrition. Working with FoodFutures, North Lancashire’s sustainable food network (https://foodfutures.org.uk/), this research project will support the design of nutritionally balanced menus consisting of recipes based on ingredients sourced in the North of England, whilst reflecting the diversity of food cultures in North Lancashire. Although this is a stand-alone project, we envisage it developing into a Masters by Research project that evaluates the recipes against the ‘Tastes of North Lancashire’ framework values: healthy, planetary friendly, affordable, fair, and culturally acceptable.
The research intern will:
- Identify a list of foods and ingredients already available in the North of England using online resources e.g. local farm shop websites and FoodFutures local directory
- Map where the identified foods and ingredients are being produced.
- Identify (develop or adapt) a range of plant and meat-based recipes that utilise local produce (identified during task 2) and evaluate their nutritional value.
This work will support SDG target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
Enquiries
For initial enquiries, please contact:
- Dr Claire Blennerhassett (Senior Lecturer) or Dr Jane Bradbury (Senior Lecturer)
- Rachel Marshall (Closing Loops Project Coordinator) / Silvia Rossi (Closing Loops Food & Chefs network Coordinator)
This is an international collaboration between Edge Hill University Psychology Department and the Hong Kong Baptist University.
The threat of climate change and how it is reported in the media is an international issue affecting the current and future well-being of young people across the globe. How this crisis is framed and presented in the world media is not necessarily supporting constructive responses and could potentially lead to climate anxiety and behavioural inaction.
This project is investigating the impact of emotional framing of health-related climate change news on both cognition (memory and recall), wellbeing, and ultimately the likelihood of adopting pro-environmental behaviour in young people in the UK, and China.
The internship will involve:
- Collecting, editing, and curating stimuli sets from world English language media reporting on health issues related to climate change
- Helping to design and set up on-line experiments in Qualtrics (or similar) for an international sample
- Potentially curating and analysing pilot data
This is an exciting opportunity be part of an international team, on a project with potential for impact on a real world issue. This project would suit a student looking to apply for a MRes, or GTA position, seeking research experience.
Enquiries
For initial enquiries, please contact Dr Nicola van Rijsbergen: [email protected]
Mentorship and supervisory team at EHU: Dr Dorothy Tse,Dr Laura McGuire, and Dr Nicola van Rijsbergen
Mentor at BUHK: Dr Sam SS Lau
Pointon-Haas et al. (2024) highlight that Universities’ student services are seeking ways to address increasing demand regarding mental health and well-being. Malagodi et al. (2024) state that over a quarter of UK students report a mental health issue and reactive support services cannot cope with demand, however there are opportunities to innovate on such service with gaps in current provision. Broglia and Barkham’s (2024) findings about campus well-being and greenspace shows a positive correlation between both, however, they state that university campuses’ natural environments and greenspace are underutilised across programmes and sites for student’ restorative therapies and relief. Bai et al. (2024) explore impacts of greenspace on mental well-being of University students showing that greenery significantly mitigates the level of mental health issues. Thompson et al. (2023) found that students surveyed in green spaces reported significantly more positive sense of belonging compared to those in non-green campus spaces. Ribeiro et al. (2024) promote dynamic service ecosystems in enhancing health and well-being outcomes and student experiences. Innovation on greenspace offer opportunities to meet SDGs, in particular SDG3 (Catahan, Hopwood and Suraweera, 2024). Many University students suffer with mental health and well-being challenges, and it is a significant public and social health concern (Elsden et al., 2023). This Transformative Service Research (Anderson, et al., 2013; Anderson and Xue, 2022; Russell-Bennett et al., 2024) considers opportunities for Edge Hill University to further develop as a potential exemplar model for others regarding campus well-being, value-cocreation, and green social prescribing innovation (Howarth et al., 2020).
Potential Activities & Outcomes
Main aim of the project would be to synthesise available evidence related to campus well-being, social value, and related green social prescribing. Main outcome for the project could be an illustrated, accessible and engaging report for a broad audience, which includes:
- Systematic literature review: campus well-being, social value & green social prescribing
- Case study: Edge Hill University campus well-being, social value & green social prescribing
- Action plan: Edge Hill University campus well-being, social value, & green social prescribing
All of the above is negotiable and forming part of or a proposal in full for MRes Level 7 studies, and opportunities for co-authored papers, but more so a proposal and development of a strategic model to be tested here at EHU and elsewhere.
Equiries
Nick Catahan, [email protected] Edge Hill University Business School
References
Anderson, L., Ostrom, A.L., Corus, C., Fisk, R.P., Gallan, A.S., Giraldo, M., Mende, M., Mulder, M., Rayburn, S.W., Rosenbaum, M.S. and Shira hada, K., 2013. Transformative service research: An agenda for the future. Journal of Business Research, 66(8), pp.1203-1210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.08.013
Anderson, L. and Xue, Y., 2022. Transformative service research: where we are and moving forward at the collective level. The Palgrave Handbook of Service Management, pp.437-455. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91828-6_23
Bai, Y., Wang, R., Yang, L., Ling, Y. and Cao, M., 2024. The Impacts of Visible Green Spaces on the Mental well-being of University Students. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, pp.1-23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-024-09578-7
Broglia, E. and Barkham, M., 2024. Adopting the principles and practices of learning health systems in universities and colleges: recommendations for delivering actionable data to improve student mental health. Cogent Mental Health, 3(1), pp.1-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/28324765.2023.2301339
Catahan, N., Hopwood, M. and Suraweera, P., 2024. Botanic Garden Tourism, Social Value, Health, and Well-Being. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens, 5(2), pp.187-199. https://doi.org/10.3390/jzbg5020013
Elsden, E., Kador, T., Sercombe, H., Piper, K., Barkan, M., Webster, E. and Smyth Zahra, F., 2023. Experiential learning spaces and student well- being: a mixed-methods study of students at three research intensive UK universities. International Review of Psychiatry, pp.1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2023.2268720
Howarth, M., Brettle, A., Hardman, M. and Maden, M. 2020. What Is the Evidence for the Impact of Gardens and Gardening on Health and Well- Being: A Scoping Review and Evidence-Based Logic Model to Guide Healthcare Strategy Decision Making on the Use of Gardening Approaches As a Social Prescription. BMJ open, 10(7), 1-16. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/7/e036923
Malagodi, F., Dommett, E.J., Findon, J.L. and Gardner, B., 2024. Physical activity interventions to improve mental health and wellbeing in university students in the UK: A service mapping study. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 26, p.100563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2023.100563
Ribeiro, H., Santana, K.V.D.S. and Oliver, S.L., 2024. Natural Environments in University Campuses and Students’ Well-Being. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(4), p.413. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21040413
Russell-Bennett, R., Rosenbaum, M.S., Fisk, R.P. and Raciti, M.M., 2024. SDG editorial: improving life on planet earth–a call to action for service research to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Journal of Services Marketing, 38(2), pp.145-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-11-2023-0425
Pointon-Haas, J., Waqar, L., Upsher, R., Foster, J., Byrom, N. and Oates, J., 2024. A systematic review of peer support interventions for student mental health and well-being in higher education. BJPsych Open, 10(1), p.e12. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.603
Thompson, C.A., Pownall, M., Harris, R. and Blundell-Birtill, P., 2023. Is the grass always greener? Access to campus green spaces can boost students’ sense of belonging. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 24(8), pp.1841-1857. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-11-2022-0349
A recent report showed that 1/3 of baby food is ultra-processed. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are associated with poor health outcomes and obesity, and approximately 61% of 2-5year old’s calories come from these UPFs. There are many reasons why people choose to give their children these foods, for example, branding and marketing, and convenience. Our project aims to quantify the current landscape of baby and toddler food marketing and nutritional quality. Furthermore, we would like to understand the ways in which parents/guardians interact with this information when making food decisions for their children. We have a particular interest in the role that inequality may play when choosing and accessing baby foods. This project is a collaboration with researchers at De Montfort University and the University of Liverpool, and as part of the internship you will have an external mentor, Dr Maxine Sharps (De Montfort University).
Potential activities
During this internship, you will contribute to our baby food database, by collecting relevant information from websites that relates to the branding and nutritional content of the baby food products. Dependent on your progress with this, there may also be opportunities for you to be involved in creating online surveys to ask parents about their opinions and consumption of these products. You will gain experience of online data collection, data entry and possibly survey design and analysis, depending on how the project progresses within the allocated timeframe. If you have any particular research-skills which you would like support in developing, we can discuss potential ways to support this as part of the internship.
Enquiries
For initial enquiries, please contact Dr Lauren McGale [email protected], Psychology Department, Edge Hill University.
In alignment with the United Nations’ goal to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, our project, “Virtual Learning Landscapes,” proposes an innovative approach to cognitive health research. By utilizing Minecraft as a virtual learning environment, this project aims to explore the impact of prior knowledge on new learning and memory, specifically targeting younger populations frequently engaging with digital platforms. This research will extend our understanding of cognitive processes and explore interventions to enhance mental health and cognitive resilience.
Cognitive skills like learning and memory are fundamental to daily life and overall well-being, influencing everything from performing simple tasks to making complex decisions. Virtual environments, particularly those as engaging and universally adopted as Minecraft, offer unparalleled opportunities to investigate these capabilities within both familiar and precisely controlled contexts. Furthermore, this initiative lays the foundation for incorporating more sophisticated techniques, such as virtual reality, enhancing future research avenues. This project is anticipated to yield actionable insights that could substantially improve cognitive health and well-being. Through the integration of gamified learning with advanced technological tools, the project aims to develop effective mental health and educational strategies, thereby promoting enhanced cognitive development and resilience.
Objectives
- Assess how prior gaming and educational experiences influence new learning outcomes within Minecraft.
- Investigate the integration of gamified learning into broader educational and mental health strategies to support cognitive development.
- Optimize protocols and integrate efficient AI technology to enhance cognitive health interventions.
Enquiries
For initial enquiries, please contact [email protected]
Mentors EHU: Dr Dorothy Tse (Department of Psychology) and Dr Peter Matthew (Department of Computer Science)
Mentor outside EHU: Dr Richard Fitzpatrick (University of Edinburgh)
The United Nations’ goal: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.