Introductions to the research area of the academics. Students on arrival are generally unaware of the research and practice areas of the academics. Spending a short amount of time when students first meet the staff to engage with them around the research and practice being conducted.

“When you first get to meet a lecturer and they're first coming in to like teach you something on a module and they have like a little introductory slide.”

Research outputs and skills were seen as abstract entities and concepts by the students. The link to application and the students' own learning and developing skillset was not clear to the participants. Teaching research skills in a context whereby they are embedded as part of assessments, or the learning content was seen to be good practice and enabled students to see the direct application to their learning and career.

Linking teaching content to current research. Students being able to “see” directly where the teaching content is applied in research and practice helps bridge the gap between theory and research.

“A few examples but in the real world we didn't really know the true application of how it's being used”

Co-creation of research ideas and projects. When students are involved in the creation of a research question or the direction of the research, they feel more involved and engaged. This can take the form of determining their own essay titles to complete design of the research project.

“I've already had like a little taste of like working on like a publication and it's really cool and so it's something I definitely want to continue doing.”

“In terms of skills, I think its confidence of being involved in projects and gaining transferable teamwork and communication skills.”

Short time limited experiences (hours, days), summer studentships and placements can all be used to enable students to experience research. Setting tasks that allow the students to address a research question as part of the planned delivery. Students would also like opportunities for face to face or scheduled lessons explaining how to get into research and ways to develop career aspects.

“During my first year we had a fieldtrip to Aintree Racecourse where we had to design a survey and collect data from local businesses to understand what the impact of an event at Aintree is on these local businesses.”

Pitching the content at the level of the student and presenting the research in a way that is accessible to their current level of understanding. Lay descriptions are good examples of this and can be used to make research accessible. These could be written, verbal or video and presented to the students on the blackboard site, newsletters, or seminars.

“It's all right having the fancy words but if someone could just talk about your research you say this is the science version and this is the basic kind of gist of what I'm doing and you can understand it a bit better”

“If there was some form newsletter or something like that you could go and have like an extra zoom lecture just something that we can get involved and understand what's actually going, that would definitely make it more accessible.”