Introduction

[Devaditya]

Hi everyone! My name is Devaditya Agnihotri. I am currently based in India after recently finishing my masters at LSE in Conflict Studies. For me, the most important thing that I want out of this course is to further my understanding of partnership around the world. My knowledge of SDG 17 is quite limited and I want to expand it. Taking this course helps me to improve on it and use it in the future to assist others.

The one partnership that made an impact on me was the partnership between Newcastle University’s Politics Department and different organisations such as the Key. The partnership was to give students an experience of working in areas around the field of political science with the organisations, learning skills which they can’t in the classroom. For the organisations, it was using skills from undergraduate students to improve their own operations with research work etc.

I worked with the Key as part of my work placement due to this partnership between them. I took a one-year module which allowed me to study the practical side of working in NGOs. At the same time, I could bring the knowledge that I have learned from the university to assist the organisation as well as give access to university resources such as academics to the organisation. The Department hopes to expand it to include more organisations so more students can participate in the course, connecting with new organisations as well as assist organisations in the region with different research projects to improve their own operations. This is one partnership which I truly like and hope to see it expand as, due to being a part of it, I know first hand the benefits all parties gain from it.