We are sharing our final communication today as we look ahead to our closure this month on 31 January 2025. This blog includes a round up of where you can find all of our legacy materials, which we hope you will share widely with colleagues and peers across the higher education, third sector and with Student Hubs alumni.
Resources for universities, students and the third sector
We are leaving a range of resources available to universities, students and the third sector. These include:
For universities
- The Case for Social Action: a report which reflects on why we believe universities should be incorporating social action into their institutional approach, sharing our case studies and impact from across our history, and addressing how through social action, universities can respond to Education Bridget Phillipson’s call to the sector from November 2024 about what the Labour Government expects of them.
- Our October Showcase webinar recording: see us recognise and celebrate 16 years of student social action from this session we delivered in October.
- Engaging Student Leaders: you can see our toolkit for Engaging Student Leaders, and the webinar recording here.
- Working with Community Partners: you can see our toolkit for Working with Community Partners, and the webinar recording here.
- Delivering High Quality Social Action: you can see our toolkit for Delivering High Quality Social Action, and the webinar recording here.
- Our programme quality framework resource for universities to audit their programmes.
- Our university self-assessment resource for universities to audit their approach to accessibility, inclusion, quality and student leadership.
For students
- Guide to Volunteering: supporting students to learn more about what volunteering opportunities involve and how they can prepare themselves to participate.
- Guide to Incubation: supporting students to understand the steps they can take to develop and incubate new social action activities and what support they might need.
- Student Skills Audit: supporting students to reflect on what skills they have and what skills they want to develop (and how to get there).
- Building My Skills as a Student Leader Workbook: supporting student leaders to evaluate their skills and understand how they can develop and grow.
- Campaigning & Advocacy Workbook: taking activities and frameworks from our popular Campaigning & Advocacy training series for students to work through independently.
- Accessible Programme Design Checklist: a checklist for students and student leaders.
For the third sector
- Guide to Early Career Starters: sharing our approach to supporting early career starters from our long history of training and inducting graduates and early career starters, and delivering our graduate programme (Worthwhile).
- Guide to Organisational Policies: sharing our approach to enacting and delivering our exciting and innovative policies, including the 9 day fortnight and 4 day week, and our minimum leave policy.
- Guide for Community Partners: sharing our expertise on how to work with student volunteers and support volunteers to thrive.
Accessing and using our resources
The Civic University Network will be working in partnership with Student Hubs to support the hosting of their legacy resources following their closure. Individuals will still be able to access Student Hubs’ website after the closure, however this will be shut down by the end of 2025, and the resources will have a permanent home with the Civic University Network from the end of January 2025 onwards.
Adam Leach, Programme Director of the National Civic Impact Accelerator, said:
“We were honoured to host Fiona Walsh McDonnell at CiviCon24, where she delivered a compelling address on the critical role of place-based impact in shaping the higher education student experience. At the Civic University Network and its National Civic Impact Accelerator Programme, we recognise the profound and enduring influence that engaged citizens have within their communities. We firmly believe that universities are pivotal in inspiring individuals, teams, and systems to better serve their localities.
“By providing a platform for these invaluable resources, we aim to help secure the strong legacy of Student Hubs’ impactful work, and offer the Higher Education sector a range of free, effective tools to drive positive change. Our goal is to empower universities to transform lives and places through a truly civic approach, which cannot be achieved without enhancing the student civic experience.”
If you have any questions about the resources, please get in touch with Student Hubs at info@studenthubs.org until the end of January 2025, or email the Civic University Network at civicuniversity@shu.ac.uk. For updates on the launch of Student Hubs’ resources via the Civic University Network, please subscribe to the Network’s newsletter.
Please also see this statement about the use of our materials from the Student Hubs Trustee Board and Management Team:
This resource has been created by student social action charity Student Hubs. The aim of this resource is to support the delivery of high quality student social action. Please use, apply and share this resource as you see fit and credit Student Hubs as relevant to recognise the support our frameworks and resources have provided for your activity. Whilst you may make use of all intellectual property set out here, you do so entirely at your own risk. Student Hubs provides this intellectual property “AS IS” and without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent by law, Student Hubs expressly disclaims all representations, warranties and conditions in relation to the intellectual property set out here, whether express or implied. |
Where to find us
We’re excited to share where our team are heading off to next.
- Our CEO Simran Dhanjal-Field is joining the Forward Institute‘s Advisory Practice as a Senior Manager. Sim will be working to support the promotion of responsible leadership and delivery of interventions to support organisational transformation. You can connect with Sim on LinkedIn.
- Our Partnerships and Development Director, Fiona Walsh McDonnell, is joining Counterculture as a Higher Education Consultant. Fiona will be delivering consultancy projects for the higher education sector and the education sector. You can connect with Fiona on LinkedIn, or reach out to her at Counterculture at fionaw@counterculturellp.com.
- Our Network Director Sophie Payne will be spending the next four months travelling in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. When she returns to the UK, she’s aiming to continue her work in the social impact sector. You can connect with Sophie on LinkedIn.
We’re pleased to announce alumni can still stay in touch via our Google Group, which Sophie Payne will be moderating in her capacity as an alumni. You can join the group here if you want to join our post-closure community.
Goodbye
From all of us at Student Hubs, we thank you for your long term support throughout our history, and we will miss engaging with you through our local Hubs, projects and sector partnerships. You can see our final blogs which include:
- ‘On the Decision to Close and Delivering On It’: Our CEO Simran Dhanjal-Field reflects on our decision to close and how our team have found the past six months as we wrap up Student Hubs.
- ‘Thanking our Funding and Strategic Partners’: CEO Sim and Partnerships and Development Director Fiona thank, recognise and look back at our funding partners throughout our history as an organisation.
- ‘Announcing Our Legacy Donations’: Our Trustee Board and Management Team share an update about which organisations Student Hubs will be donating our legacy funds to and why.
Goodbye, good luck and we hope you continue to engage in social action and active citizenship, and use the resources from our legacy.
If you need to urgently get in touch with Student Hubs beyond 31 January 2025, please email trustees@studenthubs.org.