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Pimp My Cause puts New College of the Humanities students in business(PR Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) London, UK (PRWEB UK) 14 June 2014 Students at New College of the Humanities have been given live briefs from two organisations - GiveMeTap and International Refugee Trust (IRT) - as part of the unique professional development programme which forms part of their undergraduate experience. The charities were put in touch with NCH through pro bono marketing matching platform Pimp My Cause. During the 12 week long project, students must develop recommendations and test them using primary research with potential donors and customers. They will then present their thoughts in a written memorandum and Dragons' Den style pitch. For both of these projects, any great ideas generated by the students will be adopted and implemented by the organisations. The live project, for first-year students on the College's Professional Programme, which is a three-year course developed by NCH to foster behaviours and develop skills that will give NCH graduates a head start in the graduate employment market. Matthew Batstone, Convenor for the Professional Programme at New College of the Humanities, said: "Although I am expecting some gems, of course, what our students are really getting is vital experience in taking responsibility for a brief, learning how to work together effectively, addressing a real problem, communicating a solution compellingly and becoming comfortable with numbers. These are exactly the skills that industry says it wants." The Professional Programme includes seminars covering key skills and behaviours including writing and presenting, negotiation, financial literacy, working in teams, marketing, research methods, core principles of strategy, planning and decision-making, and statistics. In addition to the Professional Programme, NCH's Director of Professional Development works with each student as an individual to guide and support them towards a career and future that matches their unique ambitions and strengths. Edwin Broni-Mensah, Founder, GiveMeTap, said: "GiveMeTap has a straightforward proposition; for every bottle you buy, GiveMeTap gives clean water access to a person in Africa, and when you're thirsty you can fill up your bottle with tap water in outlets signed on to the programme. Less cost for users not having to keep buying bottled water, more footfall for cafes, more waterholes in Africa. But with so much opportunity for this small organisation the challenge for the students is to help GiveMeTap prioritise." For IRT, the challenge is different. "Over the next five years we want to expand our StepUp programme across northern Uganda, but to do this we need to expand our donor base. We can't just expand on our current donor base so the challenge we face is understanding whom we should target as potential donors and what messages will resonate with them. We are very excited to be working with the students at NCH because they will provide us with invaluable market research that our small charity could never hope to afford. With their research we hope to build a focused fundraising campaign for StepUp," explains Katie Kurilecz, Fundraising and Digital Engagement Executive at IRT. In addition to their 12-module single honours undergraduate degree from the University of London, all NCH students study a further eight modules. These comprise modules from another of the College's degree subjects or Art History, Classical Studies, or Psychology as a contextual course, and core modules in Applied Ethics, Logic & Critical Thinking, and Science Literacy, plus the College's three-year Professional Programme. The College's rolling applications process is independent of UCAS and applications can be made in addition to UCAS choices, and can still be made for entry in 2014. Visit http://www.NCHum.org for all enquiries and applications. Ends For further information, please contact: Desi Lyon T: +44 (0)2072911385 E: desi.lyon(at)NCHum(dot)org Notes to editors: About New College of the Humanities New College of the Humanities (NCH) offers a new model of higher education for the humanities in the UK. NCH students enjoy one of the best staff-to-student ratios in UK higher education and benefit from a high number of quality contact hours including engaging and challenging one-to-one tutorials. Our professors are international experts in their fields and our full- time academic staff members have been selected for their proven ability in teaching as well as for their research interests. NCH welcomed its first intake of students in September 2012 and prepares students for undergraduate degrees in: Economics BSc; English BA; History BA; Law LLB, Philosophy BA and Politics & International Relations BSc. In addition to their 12-module single honours undergraduate degree from the University of London, all NCH students study a further eight modules. These comprise four modules from another degree subject or Art History, Classical Studies, or Psychology as a contextual course, and three core modules in Applied Ethics, Logic & Critical Thinking, and Science Literacy, plus the College's three-year Professional Programme. The College is centrally located in Bloomsbury, London's university district and students, as associate members of the University of London, have access to many of the resources of the University of London: the exceptional library in Senate House, the University of London Union, sports facilities, and many other opportunities to enrich themselves through extra-curricular activity. The College's rolling applications process is independent of UCAS and applications can be made in addition to the five UCAS choices. Visit http://www.NCHum.org or call 020 7637 4550 for all enquiries and applications. https://www.facebook.com/NewCollegeH Recent research In March 2014 NCH commissioned YouthSight, an independent youth research agency, to conduct research into the academic experiences of NCH students. The survey was based on annual research YouthSight conduct for HEPI with c14000 students at public universities in the UK. Using the NCH results and data collected on behalf of HEPI, YouthSight were able to directly compare the academic experience of NCH students with students studying Humanities/Social Sciences at Russell Group universities in 2014. HEPI were informed that this research took place. The statistics show (percentage in brackets reflects HEPI results for those studying humanities and social sciences at Russell Group universities): General: 63 per cent of students at New College of the Humanities say that their university experience has exceeded their expectations. (2014: 28 per cent/ 2013: 32%) Contact time: New College of the Humanities students experience an average of 13.8 hours of contact time per week. (2014: 9.85/ 2013: 9.93) Assignments and feedback: ? Students at New College of the Humanities complete 13.7 assignments per term (6.44) ? 84 per cent of feedback at New College of the Humanities is given in person (2014: 36 per cent/ 2013: 40%) ? 91 per cent of students at New College of the Humanities claim it is easy to schedule time to discuss work, or discuss work on email, outside of scheduled work hours (2014: 69 per cent/ 2013: 76%) ? 88 per cent of students at New College of the Humanities state they have sufficient access to academic staff outside timetabled sessions in order to discuss aspects of their work (2014: 71 per cent/ 2013: 73%) ? 88 per cent of students at New College of the Humanities are satisfied with the amount of timetables sessions (2014: 61%/ 2013: 62%) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/06/prweb11942937.htm (c) 2014 PRWEB.COM Newswire |