Student Hubs has closed. Thank you to you all for your support, your engagement with social action, and your commitment to active citizenship.
Our legacy resources for universities, students and community organisations capture our learnings and reflections from the past 16 years to continue to support our mission of mainstreaming student social action.
Student Hubs was mainstreaming student social action in the UK, creating active citizens for life. To achieve our mission we worked in partnership with institutions and local communities delivering a wide range of activities.
Our projects enabled partners to work with us in a tailored, bespoke way to benefit both students and community members. Universities were invited to work with us in a way that works for them through our five tiers of support, whether that’s a three month consultancy project on student engagement or a three year Hub mainstreaming social action at their institution, as part of our external strategy.
Within our programme delivery, we had four key areas. Structured Volunteering, Skilled Placements, Community Engaged Learning and training, events and incubation.
Structured volunteering
Students volunteer in the local community to tackle local social and environmental issues in place-based opportunities with community groups. Our opportunities are highly structured with theories of change, scaffolded for students, and supported by dedicated staff leading on partner recruitment, student training, induction and delivery support.
Skilled placements
Skilled Placements recruit, train and support students to engage with local organisations, small businesses and university departments as consultants, developing students’ employability, confidence and skills. Students receive weekly training through our structured programmes, and are empowered to be an active part of institutional strategy through programmes dedicated to social and/or environmental action in the local community and at their university.
Community Engaged Learning
Community Engaged Learning adds capacity to academics and students in delivering in-curriculum ‘real-world’ learning experiences for students. Dedicated delivery staff support academics to bring social action and live briefs into the curriculum, from sourcing and supporting community partners to delivering workshops or drop-in sessions for students.
Training, Events and Incubation
We also facilitated training, delivered bespoke events and offered incubation opportunities to spark engagement with students, communities and university teams.