Why and How to Engage External Partners in the Curriculum?  

Recent case studies focusing on new forms of employer engagement in the curriculum have demonstrated that student employability is more effectively enhanced when it is co-produced by “a community of […] internal and external stakeholders” (Norton and Dalrymple, 2020, 4). If the benefits of co-production between students and staff has convincingly been made, employer, and more generally external partner (EP) engagement in the curriculum raises challenges which are different from work-based learning or research and innovation collaboration. This is particularly true for degree programmes which are non-vocational, or do not require accreditation, as is often the case in Humanities and Social sciences. This presentation focuses on different ways SASHPL engages EPs within the UG curriculum and highlights the organisational difficulties, and pedagogical benefits, of doing so.