A good practice guide for student business placements

Universities as anchor institutions do a lot to support their local regions and beyond. The UK Knowledge Exchange Framework showcases much of this remarkable work, often carried out in partnership with external collaborators. But capacity can be a barrier. Academics are already under immense pressure with teaching, assessments, scholarly and research commitments. 

So, at the University of Staffordshire, we piloted several student-led innovation projects in partnership with local government, funders and regional businesses. Through the initiative, students enhanced their career prospects, supported businesses with innovation-led growth and demonstrated applied learning to academics. 

From 2020 to 2023, the undergraduate and postgraduate students worked part-time (around 15 hours per week) with a local small to medium-sized enterprise (SME), for 12 to 24 weeks, to help them develop or improve a new product, service or process. Each student was supervised by an academic, with whom they had about 1.5 hours per week, and had access to wider support from a technical specialist and a project manager.

An evaluation of the pilot showed that students supported companies in projects including developing and implementing new software and IT systems, creating physical prototypes like a female ballistic vest and embedding robotic arms in materials handling. A massive 86 per cent of SMEs surveyed confirmed that students had enhanced innovation and R&D capacity, while 80 per cent reported that students had helped to convert ideas into new products or services. Participating businesses reported increased sales and new contracts from the projects as well as a positive impact on company culture. 

Students benefited from a valuable experience, with 80 per cent agreeing that “The internship helped me with my work readiness after graduation.”

The projects provided valuable insight, which the university now applies to new projects, run in partnership with our local councils through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Here are some good practice points for anyone considering setting up projects in which students work directly with external partners, including: 

Set business partners’ expectations: students are not professional consultants, yet companies often describe students as technical specialists in evaluation interviews. The business engagement team and academics should communicate project limitations and realistic deliverables to the business and have this agreed upon in writing as part of the project approval process. 

Project work plan: students benefit from a clear work plan developed by the academics, where it is relevant in partnership with business.

Collaborative recruitment: participating companies benefit from being part of the student recruitment process and interview panel. This, in turn, helps with the buy-in and in-company supervision and support of students. 

Business supervisor: students benefit if allocated a specific in-business supervisor as well as an academic supervisor. Having a go-to person within the business helps students navigate the unknowns or uncertainties and challenges they may face when completing their placement. This was part of the application that each company had to submit to the university. 

Student in-business onboarding: SMEs varied in the level of onboarding. Different projects called for different levels, and where product design would benefit from direct access, SMEs allowed students to interact with suppliers, customers or contractors.

Kick-off meeting: this is an opportunity to reconfirm and agree the project scope, limitations and expectations. Clarify the boundaries for the business. An example is when a company could try to divert a student to a different project that is out of the project scope without agreement from the university. 

Progress reviews: ideally, a weekly meeting is held in the presence of a company representative, the student, and the academic supervisor. These meetings benefit from a standardised agenda to ensure a degree of scrutiny of progress, quality of outputs, issues and risks. Academic commitment is critical to support the review meetings. 

Software of equipment selection: the university should always consult a business before academics select any software for the project. This ensures the options are evaluated in the context of the business needs, its supply chain and sector and are not viewed as “academic toys”. 

Student training: pre-project training on workplace skills such as project management, commercial understanding or consulting skills can help prepare students for the new challenges they may face. Enabling peer network connections among students on projects is also worth exploring, so they can share experiences, advice and insight.

When set up and run effectively, these student-led projects have potential to be a low-cost contributor to the UK’s productivity agenda, expand SME innovation, and support students’ graduate outcomes. Triple helix relationship between the government, universities and businesses is vital to the development of effective regional innovation ecosystems. We therefore highlighted the importance of policies, funding and interventions in driving firm-level innovation and productivity. 

Marek Hornak is an associate professor of knowledge exchange and enterprise at the University of Staffordshire and an incoming pro vice-chancellor for commercial and academic partnerships at the University of Suffolk.