Make space to be a little bit extra

How to encourage everyone on campus to participate in extracurricular activities to enrich personal and professional development

Spotlight on extracurricular activities hero image

It’s not all lectures, labs and tutorials. Life outside class should give students valuable learning experiences that can enrich their personal and professional development. Whether it’s sport, creative pursuits, professional societies or work experience, all give a chance to build soft skills such as teamwork and problem-solving and foster a crucial sense of belonging. Here’s how to create a rich, diverse and challenging campus programme that students (and staff) will want to engage with.

How to encourage students to engage in the broader university offering

Getting involved in campus life beyond the classroom brings multiple benefits for students, so how can universities encourage greater participation in the range of activities on offer?

Irina Shcheglova

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Support for mental health and well-being

Students in group

The benefits of leveraging student interest groups

Kelly Lam shares how universities can work with student interest groups to add value to the university and aid student development

Kelly Lam

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Depressed student hiding face on arms in front of laptop

Generation Z presents new challenges for medical education

Digitally savvy and adapted to rapid change, this cohort of future doctors needs emotional support and help managing expectations and setbacks

György Purebl

Semmelweis University

Woman walking past a field of yellow flowers

Walk the walk to benefit your academic research

Walking can be used to benefit academic research, help with problem-solving and promote creative thinking. Here, Anna Lois McKay explains the different ways it works

Anna Lois McKay

University of Leicester

forest with heart-shaped gap to sky

A practical approach to tackling eco-anxiety

We induce eco-anxiety by teaching students about climate change, so training them in practical and achievable solutions to it are needed, too, write Helen Hicks and Dawn Lees

Helen Hicks, Dawn Lees

University of Exeter

It’s a game changer: using design thinking to find solutions to the Sustainable Development Goals

Rachel Bickerdike explains how using design thinking to find solutions to the Sustainable Development Goals can open up a new world of social entrepreneurship for students

Rachel Bickerdike

Durham University

Develop professional skills and networks

Muslim student working on engineering project

How to work with industry in mutually beneficial ways

Collaboration through professional societies offers students real-world learning opportunities and universities a way to enhance graduate employability. Here’s how to do it

Ali Zwain

Al-Mustaqbal University

A group of students discussing a project

Teamwork, support and structure: the core principles of rewarding student internships

Student internships are an effective way to facilitate student-staff collaboration but, to work well, they require teamwork, the right support and structure, and a focus on tangible outputs

Craig McEwan

University of Exeter

Man climbing up-and-down graph-like staircase

How to sustain a journal and beat the academic publishing racket

Starting a journal is hard enough – keeping it going is an ongoing challenge. Here’s how to maintain success in academic publishing

James Williams, Asma Mohseni

University of Derby

Group of young adults

How a rich extracurricular campus life nurtures well-rounded individuals

Soft skills such as organisation, communication and networking are often developed outside the classroom. Here’s how universities can help their students learn vital life skills

M. C. Zhang, Aliana Leong

Macau University of Science and Technology

From cohort to community: how to support student-led initiatives

Building a strong cohort starts with supporting students directly. Here, we, as student and staff co-authors in the humanities, share insights on how to encourage solutions designed for students by students

Ranita Thompson, Joanne Walmsley, Ben Graham

The University of Queensland

Support for widening participation

Deaf students signing in conversation

Supporting students with disabilities’ success through extracurricular activities

Non-curricular activities develop students’ skills and sense of belonging, but students with disabilities often face financial, cultural and physical barriers to participation. Here are ways universities can support equal access and inclusion

Brooke Szücs, Paul Harpur

The University of Queensland

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Steps to address the operational challenges of widening participation

Well-being assistance, leadership development and mentoring opportunities are key to supporting students from under-represented groups. Here, Angus Howat details a programme for widening participation from a Kiwi perspective

Angus Howat

Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury

Group of multiracial students

A whole-campus approach to boost belonging for student success

Joint efforts among faculty, staff and students themselves can support first-year and transfer scholars to feel included and engaged, write Lorett Swank and Catherine Thomas

Lorett Swank, Catherine Thomas

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Happy group of students

Creative projects as a way of bringing students together

An institution-wide creative project is an opportunity for students to make friends and learn from one another, writes Karen Amanda Harris. Here, she shares tips for developing an extracurricular language-art project

Karen Amanda Harris

University of the Arts London

Why my hobbies make me a better scholar

Non-academic skills, both motor and cognitive, can enrich research capabilities in unexpected and often unexamined ways, writes Stephen W. Harmon

Stephen W. Harmon

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities