The dual mission of universities is to create new knowledge and to educate.
Traditionally, a hierarchy persists where research is seen as the primary source of value, while teaching and engagement are treated as secondary. Research-informed teaching philosophies have to some extent bridged the gap, but in a world of portfolio careers, rapid technological change, and new generations of students seeking more value from their education, is this enough?
We have been considering the concept underpinning Jonathan Grant’s “new power” model of a university, where institutions are rooted in participation, shared power, and social purpose. In such an institution, education isn’t a delivery mechanism for established knowledge – with students as the customers in receipt – but a participatory process through which new knowledge emerges.
Such ideas of “connection” are also central to Dilly Fung’s Connected Curriculum model of curriculum design developed at UCL in 2017. Futures-focused education must equip students to graduate with experience of creating new knowledge themselves, and critical thinking and problem-solving are emerging as the core graduate capabilities – with significant implications for teaching and learning.
If graduates are expected to deal with uncertainty, reinvent themselves, and contribute in substantive ways across their lives – as the World Economic Forum’s Future of jobs report 2025 makes clear – then universities must create space for students to practise how knowledge is made, not just how it is understood or applied, but how it is generated, through experimentation, collaboration, failure, reflection, and iteration.
Embedding inquiry skills into the curriculum is an important first step, as many universities are doing. Real confidence, however, comes from practising and applying those skills in diverse, authentic contexts – whether through projects, placements, or collaborative problem-solving. Curiosity, critical thinking, and collaboration aren’t just for aspiring researchers – they’re now the bedrock of success in every career path, and the design of education increasingly needs to provide opportunities for students to work on real problems with real people.
Learning opportunities that were once offered in addition to the curriculum – like the Then and Now project at the University of Warwick and the Community Research Initiative (CRIS) at UCL – need to move closer to the mainstream curriculum. They help students build confidence and the ability to translate the knowledge and competencies developed within their programmes into real-world contexts.
UCL’s approach
UCL’s president and provost Michael Spence has argued that universities must show they are relevant to everyone, locally and nationally, if they are to retain public trust and legitimacy, and the UCL Policy Lab was set up to explore precisely these issues.
The Shared institutions report from More in Common and the UCL Policy Lab found that nearly half of people living in the UK think universities offer too many low-quality degrees, while those who didn’t attend university are far less convinced that universities benefit the whole country. It also indicated that, to remain relevant, university degrees and learning must bring students closer to the people, places, and problems beyond campus.
When students learn with communities, universities become active participants in society and the knowledge created is more socially grounded, challenged, and complex – a more realistic preparation for graduates, and more defensible as knowledge for “public good”. The way students learn could itself be considered a civic act, because learning alongside others, beyond the university gates, is how universities earn their social purpose. How UCL is approaching this has been central to discussions about the future of education here, forming part of our bicentennial celebrations as we mark our 200th anniversary.
Partners hiding in plain sight
As colleagues working in partnership, we’ve been considering where and how learning happens. Universities already host rich environments for knowledge creation and skills development – they just don’t always recognise them as such.
SUs, for instance, have long been places where students learn by doing – organising, representing peers, leading change, building communities, and engaging with their cities. These activities generate socially embedded, experiential knowledge about leadership, participation, power, and social change, and SUs are, in essence, educational delivery partners hiding in plain sight.
By bringing students together, SUs create opportunities for connection, exchange, and exposure to the everyday realities of society, helping close the gap between universities and the communities they aim to serve. Seen this way, extending learning isn’t an add-on or enrichment exercise – it’s a statement about what universities value, how they fulfil their public purpose, and how they understand the nature of knowledge itself.
Building the partnership
The partnership between the university and the SU has strengthened significantly since 2022, supported by the sector-leading Student Life Strategy. Leading initiatives include the Impartial Chairs Programme, supported by the Pears Foundation and the Centre for International Experiential Learning, which equips the next generation of leaders with the confidence to disagree well when debating a range of difficult topics and to champion freedom of speech.
The Community Research Initiative supports Master’s students to connect with local community organisations during their dissertation, enabling knowledge exchange across the academic divide and giving students the chance to co-create useful and usable knowledge – a recent example being a project that evaluated school meal policies in Tower Hamlets in collaboration with the Ocean Regeneration Trust.
ExtendED in practice
Most recently, the partnership between the university and the SU has shaped UCL’s new ExtendED Learning initiative, launching fully in Summer Term 2026. This term-three, university-wide programme offers experiential learning that forges connections across cohorts, with communities, and between academic study and real-world contexts.
Activities include cross-disciplinary teams tackling challenges set by charities or not-for-profits, immersive workshops where students learn to discuss difficult topics and record podcasts, four-day innovation sprints, networking events, and industry briefs. Through collaborative problem-solving, students learn to generate insight, work with complexity, and produce something of substance alongside others at pace.
The 2024–25 pilot showed strong impact, with students reporting a 19 per cent increase in analytical skills, a 16 per cent increase in “Deepen Your Knowledge” competencies, and a 20 per cent increase in skills linked to gaining experience and networks. Above all, students grew in confidence by working in real-world, low-risk settings where they could see the effects of their contributions.
The development of ExtendED has produced four lessons worth sharing.
Opportunities are open to all and centrally provided, giving students exposure to something truly multidisciplinary that enriches their learning and broadens their understanding. They’re non-credit-bearing, making them low-stakes experimental opportunities that are still recognised and valued.
Non-academic and external providers of extended learning are essential to students’ appreciation of the co-creation process. And the role of the SU as an experienced provider of extended learning is central to the programme.
Beyond the classroom
Research will always remain important to the mission of universities, but in the decades ahead the legitimacy and impact of higher education will depend just as much on whether students leave with the confidence and experience to create new knowledge with others – and to use that knowledge in ways that contribute well to society. The question facing the sector is no longer whether we can afford to extend learning beyond the classroom – it’s whether we can afford not to.
If the question is what it should feel like for a student to be part of a learning community, perhaps the answer is that universities should inspire students as active participants in the mission of making a difference rather than as recipients of education. Programmes such as ExtendED at UCL are built around a simple but powerful premise – that students learn best when they’re actively involved in creating knowledge, not merely consuming it.
