Engaging and educating law students

I am often struck by the diversity of experiences that university students are offered today. Life in our universities has certainly changed since I was 18 years old. It is clear that the job market is at least as competitive for young people now as it was then.

Universities have, however, moved on markedly during that period of time. A far greater proportion of young people have the chance to study for a degree and there is a much clearer link between the workplace and the learning environment for many undergraduates.

In March, I will be heading the new Sylvia Pankhurst Gender Research Centre, a joint venture hosted by a professor from our Business School, Professor Julia Rouse, and myself from Manchester Law School. Undergraduates will be welcome at our launch event, where they can hear Julia talk about the impact of maternity leave on small firms and where I will be paying tribute to Sylvia Pankhurst. Other attendees will include academics and researchers, local community members, and a range of interested parties.

Lasting values

We have chosen to honour Sylvia Pankhurst in the name of our new centre as we believe that her life epitomised a number of values which are still relevant today.

Sylvia was one of the daughters of the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, and she lived with her mother at 62 Nelson Street, Manchester, less than a mile from our university. She studied - and excelled - at Manchester School of Art, now a faculty within Manchester Met.

Sylvia was a suffragette who endured a number of imprisonments and hunger strikes. She went on to became a social activist in England and Ethiopia, where she spent parts of her life and where she was honoured with a state funeral. Concerned with women's poverty and the right to independence of African states, Sylvia had values that were striking for their time. She remains a powerful model for youngsters to reflect on as they consider their own futures.

The group of researchers brought together by the new research centre include legal academics who work on issues around sexuality, caste, equalities, sexual violence, and body autonomy. These academics lecture and lead workshops on the programmes at the university.

For our students, this creates a real impact in terms of the subjects they study, the way they are taught, and the opportunities they have to get involved. To give just one example, the first-year law undergraduate syllabus includes the study of caste and the Equality Act 2010, which is taught by Annapurna Waughray, a reader in human rights law and a specialist in this discipline.

Getting involved

Outside their main curriculum, the students also have opportunities to get involved in a range of projects. During the past year, for example, some of our undergraduates have helped me deliver film screenings, been involved in an exhibition within our museum on advances in equality over the past 150 years, and acted as ushers during a Greater Manchester conference on female genital mutilation, which was hosted at the university.

Each of these has given space for the students to develop new interests, become engaged in ideas around legal reform, and incubate ideas for research projects at undergraduate or postgraduate level. Some students go on to volunteer and work on issues around equality and gender. Others enter into more mainstream legal careers, but I know that many value what they learned from their researcher lecturers, even many years later.

I see this whenever a story about sexual violence is in the news and I am tweeted by someone I taught, perhaps ten or more years ago, who knows that I will be interested because they remember their second-year criminal law lectures on sexual offences.

You can come along to the launch or keep in contact with the new centre via Twitter (#mmusylvia). SJ

Dr Kate Cook is a senior lecturer and researcher at Manchester Law School