Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 9 | Page 40

HIGHLIGHT #5 | 41 40 | JADE NATALIE BROWN, CHLOE HOWE, GRAEME R. JONES, & TESS R. PHILLIPSÖZEN Author Contact Details Natalie Brown [email protected] Chemistry and Forensic Science Teaching Fellow, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University Chloe Howe [email protected] Chemistry Teaching Fellow, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University Graeme R. Jones, corresponding author [email protected] Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University Tess R. Phillips [email protected] Lecturer in Chemistry, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University HIGHLIGHT #5 Title Reflections: what are the mutualistic benefits of university–nature reserve collaborations? Author Dr Sarah L. Taylor DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.21252/ KEELE-0000026 Contact [email protected] Keele University The outcomes of a six-year collaboration between Keele University and Silverdale Country Park were reported on in the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management special issue on “Nature conservation on a shoestring” (Taylor et al. 2017). The article, authored by Sarah Taylor (Keele University lecturer), Andrew Hunt (Groundwork West Midlands ranger) and Khaled de Jesus (Keele graduate), examined the pros and cons of collaborations from the perspectives of the respective institutions and the student. This short reflective piece highlights the key findings and expounds what it all means for me as a lecturer. At just three miles from the Keele campus, the Land Trust owned former colliery was opened in 2011 and awarded a Site of Biological Importance in 2015 for its mosaic of early successional habitats and associated species. Local schools, universities and community groups (e.g., scouts, youth offenders) utilise the park for educational activities and engage in conservation work parties. The first Keele University project was carried out on the park in 2012, and since then 1–2 projects have been run most years. In 2013 a guest lecture by the ranger was embedded into a third year conservation biology module, and in 2015 a field excursion was introduced as part of a first year ecology module to provide a working example of sustainable development as well as promoting the final year projects and conservation volunteering opportunities on the park. In 2017, I contributed a sustainable development case study on the £13.6 million Silverdale Vision regeneration project in a first year biology undergraduate text (Campbell et al., 2017), providing course materials for the ecology module course materials as well as raising the profile of the park. An audit in 2017 valued the educational services at £700,000 a year (Land Trust 2017), but this figure did not take into account the worth of the undergraduate research projects. Since 2011, 20 students from across four academic institutions have completed final year, independent research projects at the park. Eight of these students failed to supply reports and data to the ranger, so while the student benefitted from the collaboration, the ranger did not. One way to put an economic value on student projects is to compare them to the cost of an equivalent ecological survey. For the twelve projects in which reports/data were supplied to the ranger, a combined value of nearly £30,000 was estimated, of which Keele University accounted for 76%. Running projects with an outside organisation adds an extra layer of bureaucracy and pressure. There is a raft of paperwork and logistics (health and safety, insurance, etc) and months of preparation may come to nothing if the