WPeople : Jade Hunter

Job title: Senior Access Officer (Research)
UCL Department: Access and Widening Participation

What does your job involve?

I work in the Access and Widening Participation team, putting research at the heart of what we do. That means understanding things from the national picture, communicating that to our team and tailoring what we learn to the things that each individual team focuses on. For example, that might be autism and higher education, or it might be looking at pre-16 widening participation activity and looking at which initiatives are working really well or not so well. It can also mean working on our own research. I’m currently working on a project evaluating financial support at UCL and the impacts that has on graduate outcomes and retention.

We also work quite collaboratively with other organisations, we like to think of ourselves as quite outward facing. In that respect, we’re looking at ways to promote widening participation research and contribute to the national picture. At the minute for example, we’re running a series of seminars with The Brilliant Club focussing on topics relevant to widening participation and social mobility.

What kinds of things are doing day to day?

It’s all really exciting things. Sometimes I’m sourcing a data set from student data and analysing that data set. Some of the time I am working on the research briefing, a fortnightly summary we put together for the rest of the Access and Widening Participation team giving them the low down on what’s new in widening participation research.

A lot of my work is based around analysing data so I’m often knee deep in data, working out how best to code that and how best to communicate certain findings to the rest of the team and the wider community. We’ve recently set up a Twitter account that we use to shout about interesting bits of research we find and share it with our followers from UCL and beyond.

"Adults can't choose between 6 major energy providers, and we expect students to choose between more than 50,000 courses" #TBCxUCLseminars pic.twitter.com/lr7x8nuFAf

— UCL WP Research Team (@WPResearchUCL) November 1, 2017

How did you get involved with WP?

I used to be a teacher and then I left for a while to go travelling. When I came back I got involved in educational research in learning technology but I was always more interested in social mobility and widening participation. That meant that in that job I was always trying to find ways of talking about social mobility and it wasn’t really what I was supposed to be doing!

When that job came to an end I decided it was time to really focus on my interests in social mobility and so I started to look at jobs in widening participation. I was lucky enough to find a job at the Institute of Education that involved working with teachers and education professionals so it was pretty perfect for me given my background in research and teaching.

Why do you think research in WP is important?

I think there has to be an important connection between the widening participation work that goes on it and the theoretical understanding that drives it. It’s really important that the work the Access and Widening Participation team do is meaningful and relevant to those who it is aimed at. Research helps us to understand what we need to do in order to make it so. That’s particularly important when we’re thinking about students who are facing particular barriers, we really need to have an evidence-based understanding of what those barriers are and the ways in which we can design activities to help those student overcome them.

Applications for the new Research Initiatives Funding open on 4/12. Can you tell us a little bit more about what the scheme is about?

We are very aware that there is research going on at UCL that covers areas relevant to widening participation. We really want to capture the research that’s taking place and make sure that we are showcasing it and making the most of it.

We want to make sure that we are capitalising on the expertise that we have at UCL to work on those themes and produce valuable evidence based findings that will be useful for our team but will also provide a great source of knowledge across the board.

We’re hoping to develop some really strong links with researchers. The research seminars that we have been running for a while have enabled us to develop some really strong partnerships with certain academics and we’re hoping that this programme will help us to expand our network so that we can make the most out of being part of the same institution as some of the best minds in education research!

What are you offering to researchers who want to get involved and how can they do that?

We are offering funding of up to £5000 for research projects research projects that focus on a set of given themes and will eventually inform our widening participation policy and practice. To be considered, researchers will have to submit their proposals before 8 January 2018.

What are the research themes the programme is focussing on and how were they decided upon?

There are 5 themes that we can to focus on:

• Raising academic attainment
• Developing soft skills (e.g. oracy, resilience, time management)
• Engaging and supporting parents of carers with their child’s HE/careers decision making
• Supporting students from widening participation backgrounds once they arrive at university
• Support the transition of widening participation students out of university and into careers or further study

We decided to focus on these areas because we feel that research on these themes is what will have the biggest impact on the widening participation work going on at UCL and elsewhere. That’s really where the motivation to start this programme has come from, we want to help fund research that will be able to make our work more effective.

Let’s finish with a couple of questions about you. Where are you from?

I’m from Ockendon, in Thurrock in Essex.

Where and what did you study?

I went to Canterbury Christ Church and right up until two weeks before I started studying I was going to study English. However, I decided to do Media at the last minute. I was quite nervous when I started because I didn’t know much about university and felt a bit lost. In the end I had a really good experience, I felt like I was in a really supportive environment and I had really brilliant mentors there.

After that I did a Master’s a Goldsmiths and then trained to teach at the Institute of Education after a bit of time working.

Word on the street is that you’re working towards a PhD, can you tell us a little bit about that?

It’s in Geography. I find it hilarious to be honest because all I can really remember of my Geography classes at school is watching the film Volcano. Do you remember that film?

Anyway, I’m doing my PhD in Cultural Geography and I’m looking at a suburban estate in Essex. It’s the first estate to have a right to buy council house. I’m mapping migration to that area and trying to understand how that impacts identity and peoples’ sense of belonging. There’s a few different aspects to it really. I’m also exploring home as a construct, as in the idea that “home” is not just the dwelling that you live in but something that impacts on your life.

It’s very early days, I’ve only written one essay so far.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYrHcxVl2Qq/?hl=en&taken-by=goodgirl_penny

In our last 15 minutes with blog we were lucky enough to meet big dog on campus Indy Jones. I’ve heard that you have your own famous pup?

My dog is called Penny. I guess you could says she’s famous. Her Instagram page has more followers than mine! She’s 11 months old and she was born on Christmas day. We didn’t really plan to get her. My friend’s dog accidentally got pregnant last year and Penny is the result of that.

She’s really lovely, if a little strange. She likes to pretend to bury things even when there’s no soil around to bury it in. Sometimes I give her a treat and she’ll try and find the best place to hide it as if someone might steal it from her. Obviously in her head she’s surrounded by soil since she makes movements like she’s moving it around. Yeah, she’s definitely pretty odd. I’ve had dogs all my life but she’s definitely the weirdest one we’ve ever had. I do love her though, she’s a good egg.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcQMBPvFp3X/?hl=en&taken-by=goodgirl_penny

You can find out more about the Research Initiatives funding on the UCL Widening Participation website