The UK has longstanding problems with psychiatry recruitment. Various initiatives aim to improve psychiatry's image among medical students, but involve research and none are student-led. Providing opportunities to take part in psychiatry research and quality improvement could increase the number of students who choose to enter the speciality.

We have developed the student psychiatry audit and research collaborative (SPARC), a student-led initiative for nationwide collaboration in high-quality research and audits.

Our model is inspired by the success of the UK Student audit and research in surgery (STARSurg). Area teams, located in medical schools, take part in multi-centre projects. The area teams consist of medical students, who have the main responsibility for collecting data; a junior doctor, to supervise the process; and a consultant, with overall responsibility for patient care. The data collected centrally and analysed by a team of medical students and doctors. Student leads from each site are named authors on resulting papers. All other students are acknowledged and are able to present the work.

We have completed our first audits in Cardiff and London; other sites will return data in 2017. Student feedback indicated a high level of satisfaction with the project and interest in psychiatry as a future career.

This initiative aims to tackle the recruitment problems in psychiatry by giving students a chance to take part in high quality research and audits.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.