The London Arts & Humanities Project (LAHP) was created in 2014 as an Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) and now includes eight London-based universities.
The LAHP provides PhD students with an extensive program of training in practical research skills and offers opportunities to experience first-hand the workings of some of London’s greatest cultural institutions.
The LAHP offers a wide range of training and cohort development opportunities to all students working across the consortium and its member institutions. The aim of LAHP training is to complement existing training provided by individual HEIs through an integrated structure comprising skills training, networking and events. As a result, the training offered is constantly changing and evolving, and LAHP were looking for a solution that provided all the information students need to locate and attend their training, in one accessible and intuitive system.
The LAHP team were also looking to rationalise the events management process, specifically to tackle the issue of students failing to attend sessions without notifying the events team, and available spaces then being unallocated.
Improving the administration process
With an implementation period of just two weeks, the LAHP and Inkpath teams worked together to install the unified training and skills development portal for students.
Before Inkpath, the LAHP’s events booking system was fragmented. Information was often spread across multiple platforms; from Google forms to web page and email, making handling booking details a time consuming, manual process. Automated waiting lists and reminder notifications, and a no-show management system now better support event engagement and attendance.
Inkpath’s in-app booking has further made life easier for the LAHP administrators who can now set up activities with just a few clicks. Users simply click ‘book a place’ in the Inkpath app.
A user-centred platform
The LAHP team were looking for a platform that put the user front and centre; facilitating an easy and efficient way for students to access training, and to further develop their skills.
Students can now create a portfolio of their training activities and experiences through the app. The LAHP team believe this will incentivise them to think about their CV in a way they couldn’t do before, as it allows them to take ownership of their training and, as all activities are mapped to the Researcher Development Framework, provides a tracked catalogue of the skills they still need to acquire.
“DTPs tend to be run on very small teams, so we have quite a lot of work to do when it comes to developing and administering training. Inkpath has really helped to ease this, as well as enable us to deliver more high-quality training.” –Lewis Knapp, LAHP Support Officer.
“With Inkpath, we can brief students comprehensively on how they can complete a training needs analysis by connecting the Researcher Development Framework planner to the training we offer. Now students can join the dots, and they can see which skills they have picked up and those they still need to acquire – through Inkpath students develop a sense of what we mean by training self-analysis and skills.” – Prof. Tony Fisher, LAHP Deputy Director/Head of Training and Cohort Development.
“Inkpath has helped us streamline our processes and made it much easier for students to see what’s on offer, reflect on their own needs and select the training that can meet those needs. It also gives us useful insights into how students are engaging with our training. The Inkpath team got us up and running with the platform quickly and have been very responsive and supportive to work with.” – Professor Johanna Malt, LAHP Director.