Join our team: paid student internships
Project: Led by Students, Built for Change – A Co‑Creation Approach to Increasing Black Student Enrolment on OU Access Modules
Project leads: Sanjay Gandhi (Project Lead) and Dr Renu Bhandari (Co‑Lead) | Unit: AOCCI WELS | Delivery: Online (Microsoft Teams)
We expect the project to run from January to June 2027, subject to approvals and scheduling.
Overview
We’re looking for 2 paid student interns to join OU staff and Black student partners on an Access and Participation Plan (APP) project. Black students’ lived experiences are at the heart of this work. Together, we’ll explore how students find out about OU Access modules and decide whether to enrol. We’ll use what we learn to develop recruitment materials together and improve how students connect with the OU. Students will be partners throughout, helping to shape what we explore, what we create and how we assess the changes.
You’ll have support from the research team every step of the way. We’ll guide you through each task, make time for your questions and help you build your confidence as you go. You won’t be expected to work everything out on your own.
What you’ll do
You’ll help us explore students’ experiences, develop ideas together and review what we’ve achieved. Depending on the stage of the project, you might:
- Help invite participants and keep in touch, including sending emails, arranging sessions, sharing reminders and providing accessible joining information.
- Help plan and run online sessions, including semi‑structured interviews and co‑creation workshops, alongside the team leading the sessions.
- Co‑create discussion guides, questions and workshop activities that respect different cultural experiences and are accessible.
- Help keep project information organised and secure, including handling files, organising transcripts and checking that identifying details have been removed.
- Help identify themes in students’ experiences, bring the findings together and prepare summaries for participants to check through member‑checking.
- Help write and review summaries, recommendations, draft recruitment wording, briefs for visuals and a guide to putting the changes into practice.
- Help reflect on the co‑creation process: what worked well, what got in the way and what we could do differently next time.
Time commitment and format
The work will be flexible, with busier periods when we’re recruiting participants, running workshops and writing up findings. During those periods, you might work around 4–6 hours a week, with quieter periods in between, within the total limit of 33 hours. Most work will be online. Meetings will usually be in the late afternoon or early evening to help students fit them around work and caring responsibilities.
We’ll agree your working pattern with you in advance and make sure you have clear tasks, deadlines and support. We welcome requests for reasonable adjustments.
Who we are looking for
If you’re a current OU student, we’d love to hear from you. This includes Access, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and you don’t need any previous research experience. We’re keen to hear your ideas about reaching students, widening participation, helping students feel they belong and making communications fair and inclusive.
We want to create spaces where people feel safer sharing their experiences, and we’ll provide support and supervision. If you identify as Black, African, Caribbean or Black British, we especially encourage you to apply. This reflects the group the project focuses on within the APP and our approach to co‑creation.
Experience that could help (but isn’t required)
You might have experience of leading discussions, supporting other students, representing students, working with communities, marketing or communications, qualitative research, or using Microsoft Teams and shared working tools. You don’t need these experiences to apply, but you do need to be curious, reliable and respectful of confidentiality.
What you’ll gain
You’ll gain paid project experience and mentoring from OU staff. You’ll also have opportunities to build skills in research with students as partners, leading discussions, exploring themes in people’s experiences and creating inclusive communications. Where possible, we’ll support you to contribute to internal reports, presentations and practical guidance.
Payment
You’ll be paid £15 an hour, for up to 33 hours in total across the project.
Data protection, confidentiality and ethics
We’ll follow OU research ethics and GDPR requirements. As part of the team, you may work with sensitive information, such as people’s experiences of race, trust and belonging. We’ll guide you on storing information securely, keeping only what’s needed and removing identifying details. You must not share any participant information outside the project team.
Taking part in the internship is voluntary, and you can leave the role at any point. If you do, we’ll talk with you about handing over your work and keeping project information secure.
Ethics review: HREC reference 2026-1466-3.
Key dates
Expressions of interest: 2–16 November 2026.
Shortlisting and informal online conversations: 16–27 November 2026.
We’ll let applicants know the outcome by 30 November 2026.
We expect the internships to start in January 2027, subject to approvals and completion of appointment arrangements.
Internship ends: June 2027.
Interested? Here’s how to get in touch
Email renu.bhandari@open.ac.uk with the subject line: “EOI – Student Intern (Access Co‑Creation)”. Tell us:
- Your name, OU PI number (if applicable), and programme of study.
- Why you’re interested and what you’d bring to the role—a short paragraph is enough.
- Which days and times you’re available between January and June 2027.
- Any access needs or reasonable adjustments you’d like us to consider.
We may invite you to a short, informal online chat to talk about the role and answer your questions.
Contact
Dr Renu Bhandari – renu.bhandari@open.ac.uk
Sanjay Gandhi – sanjay.gandhi@open.ac.uk
