Overview
As the impact of COVID-19 become apparent in spring 2020, we and our partner organisations were determined that students should not miss out on the benefits of Nuffield Research Placements on top of the other challenges they were facing. Our response was to develop an alternative virtual programme, Nuffield Future Researchers, which was not reliant on in-person placements.
Over the 2020 summer holidays, 797 students took part in Nuffield Future Researchers. Our aim was to provide as many of the opportunities and benefits of face-to-face placements as possible, including the development of essential research skills through collaboration with experts working on projects based on real-life research questions. The research project element of the programme was complemented by online modules designed to enhance students’ data analysis skills through a range of tasks and assignments delivered via a virtual learning environment. In short, the alternative programme combined familiar elements of Nuffield Research Placements with innovative approaches and new activities.
We commissioned CFE Research to undertake an independent evaluation of Nuffield Future Researchers, the findings from which are presented in this report. We wanted to explore the extent to which this alternative delivery model could provide the benefits of Nuffield Research Placements, whether there were any new strengths or advantages to this different approach, and whether there were lessons for enhancing Nuffield Research Placements in the future. This report helps to answer those questions and complements the wider six-year longitudinal evaluation we have been undertaking since 2016 to assess the impact of Nuffield Research Placements and the experiences and outcomes of participating students.
There are important aspects of in-person placements that could never be replicated in an online environment, and it is unlikely that the virtual experience would be as transformative for most students. But during an extremely unusual year we are convinced that developing Nuffield Future Researchers as an alternative was the right thing to do, and it is clear that the benefits for students have been significant.
We are grateful to all those who helped in the development and implementation of Nuffield Future Researchers, including our co-funders, Wellcome and UKRI, our network of regional co-ordinators, and the teachers and employers who provided support and placements. But most of all we would like to thank the students.
Key findings
- Students, supervisors and co-ordinators are broadly satisfied with their overall experience of Nuffield Future Researchers and the majority would recommend the experience to others.
- Students, on the whole, find the pre-project activities enjoyable, but some are perceived to be less relevant and useful for preparing students to undertake their research project.
- The opportunity to complete an authentic STEM research project is the element of the programme that students most value.
- A comparison of the outcomes achieved by Nuffield Future Researchers students with those achieved by last year’s cohort of Nuffield Research Placements students reveals that whilst there are some nuanced differences in the specific effects of the two approaches, the online model is perceived to deliver several similar outcomes to the face-to-face model, including the development of certain generic skills and attributes.
- The comparative analysis suggests that an immersive experience in a physical setting has a greater impact on students’ intentions and decision making than an online approach.
- Nuffield Future Researchers helps students to develop their understanding of the opportunities in STEM and roles available within and outside of research.
- Supervisors, including early career researchers, develop their coaching and mentoring skills through their involvement in Nuffield Future Researchers.
- Although the rapid shift to an online approach presented a number of practical and logistical challenges, co-ordinators perceive that it helped to enhance aspects of delivery by extending the geographical reach of the programme, widening access to a broader range of students and supervisors and facilitating communication between co-ordinators, students and supervisors.
This report identifies aspects of the programme that worked well and areas for improvement as well as scope to integrate elements of the online delivery model into Nuffield Research Placements in the future.