Do you have a business task or development opportunity that our students could help you solve? You can access our student talent in the form of a Live Brief.
Join us as a Live Brief partner organisation and let our students help you come up with solutions.
A Live Brief is an opportunity for you to present our students with a real-world task and for them to come up with a fresh and creative solution or ideas that can benefit your organisation.
You specify an activity, project, task or competition based on your needs and expectations, which will form part of our undergraduate students’ compulsory learning. It results in agreed deliverables that students present to you.
A Live Brief gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to a professionally relevant task, and is an integral part of their assessments.
We began running Live Briefs in 2020, and they’re now a core element of around one hundred different undergraduate degree modules.
Live Briefs span a wide range of subjects, from creative arts, law and finance, to computing, construction, psychology and life sciences and many more.
Live Briefs can take many forms - these are just a few examples:
Live Briefs can help:
As an organisation that’s keen to support and help develop our students, your commitment and time is very valuable to us and that’s all we ask from you. There’s no financial cost for a Live Brief.
If you have any questions, or an idea for a Live Brief that you would like to discuss further, please contact us at [email protected]
“It's been really exciting for us as an employer to see the dynamism the students have brought to the Live Brief.”
Peter Job, Intergence CEO and founder and Anthony Osborn, Intergence Product Manager
See Case StudyCambridge University Botanic Garden and ARU Illustration students
See Case StudyCourse Leader Gemma Whittaker and BA Primary Education Studies student Erika Szabo
See Case StudyStudents from the BA Film and Television Production course participated in a Live Brief with communications and PR agency Creative Warehouse
See Case StudyARU BSc Public Health students participated in a Live Brief with UK national charity Diabetes UK.
See Case StudyARU Psychology students participated in a Live Brief with Essex County Council
See Case StudyARU students from the BA Online Journalism course participated in a Live Brief with Slow Theatre Company
See Case StudyA Live Brief gives students insight into how their learning is directly linked to relevant professional practice and tasks and opportunities faced by organisations.
Students develop their skills, confidence, employability and future career prospects by getting invaluable exposure to real-world situations and experience of working with relevant industry professionals.
Read this blog by ARU student Mathuza Senthivel about her Live Brief experience and the positive difference she feels it has made for her.
“The Live Brief Project was a great way to work together within a team. It helped me develop my confidence as well as my presentation skills.”
As students progress through their studies, they can deliver more complex and specific Live Briefs. Our academics will work with you to ensure that the scope of your Live Brief matches our students’ level of study and benefits your organisation.
Undergraduate courses at ARU encompass science, engineering, business, law, health, education, social care, arts, humanities and social sciences. The majority of these subject areas include a Live Brief module, so a wide range of students are available to collaborate on a variety of projects.
We welcome partner organisations from a wide range of sectors and industries. We encourage external partners to be as creative as possible, as long as the brief itself represents real-life professional practice.
We currently have Live Brief partners of all sizes from sectors including non-profit and charity, local government, construction, engineering, law, aerospace, education, arts and culture, fashion, retail, sports, agri-tech, software, recruitment, life sciences, healthcare, finance, and pharmaceuticals.
A Live Brief will need between three and six hours of your time, depending on what year the students are in.
You will be involved in three key stages of designing and delivering a Live Brief:
Live Briefs usually run in either the autumn or spring terms. These are guide timelines for each term:
Co-design: May-August
Introduction: September-October
Professional feedback: November-December
Co-design: May-December
Introduction: January-March
Professional feedback: February-April
“The students’ fresh eyes on the problem provided a valuable different perspective, and will help our Public Health Information team as they contribute to determining priorities in our regional workstream.”
If you have any further questions, or an idea for a Live Brief that you would like to discuss further, please fill in our Live Briefs Expression of Interest form (PDF) and send it to [email protected]
Moh Akhmad, Principal Scientist with BAE Systems
ARU Enterprise and Innovation’s PostHear from Richard Davidson, Director at Willmott Dixon on how he found his live brief experience
ARU Enterprise and Innovation’s PostAllen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre
Allen Packwood's postARU BSc Public Health students participated in a Live Brief with UK national charity Diabetes UK.
Diabetes UK's postARU Associate Professor in Forensic Science Dr Lata Gautam
Sarah Norton’s postARU Associate Professor in Forensic Science Dr Lata Gautam
Dr Lata Gautam's postLive Brief project with ARU and Kear Technology Solutions
Steven Kear's postLive Brief project with ARU and Kear Technology Solutions
Steven Kear's post"The Live Brief was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done during my degree. Having the freedom to investigate my areas of interest while also being able to discuss things that were topical was great."
MathuzaBSc (Hons) Medical Science student
Read Mathuza's blog