Teamwork is an essential aspect of many Higher Education degrees, particularly vocational and accredited courses such as Engineering. A myriad of teamwork pedagogies demonstrate that team activity provides opportunities for students to practice scientific reasoning, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills; whilst developing skills in leadership, communication, cultural competency, and conflict resolution. However, for the purported gains to manifest, the team must work collaboratively, with fairness and no discrimination. Various constructs have been suggested that influence the achievement of teamwork, broadly categorised as motivational, social and cognitive. However, a major issue for most team activities is the perception (or reality) of unequal group contributions e.g. “social loafing” and “free riding”. Amongst other items, literature suggests the effectiveness of teamwork is improved with team contracts, promotion of positive discussion, a framework to navigate conflict, and the expulsion of problematic team members. Four underlying causes of conflict have also been identified with the headings: Status, Relationships, Process, and Task.

Utilising survey and meta-analysis findings, an approach to enhance the overall experience and benefits of the Teamwork process has been developed. Specifically, a Teamwork Contract of required behaviours and practices is defined around the four underlying causes of conflict, and a Conflict Resolution Framework is designed to support a consistent approach. These have been formally implemented across the Swansea University Mechanical Engineering cohort in Academic Year 24/25. A Survey will be run cross cohort, pre- and post- teamwork activity to assess impact/effectiveness (collecting protected characteristics); with the intention to iteratively improve all approaches. Additionally, the Teamwork Contract proposed will evolve from 1st year through to 3rd/4th to better map to the latest Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes standard of the Engineering Council. The Teamwork Contract and Conflict Resolution Framework documents will be presented alongside data and analysis from the currently ongoing surveys.

Keywords: Undergraduate, experience, STEM, engineering, teamwork, conflict, contract, equality.