Building a Framework for Change: My Experience as a Student Consultant for UCL Grand Challenges

Written by Sara Rashid, UCL Department of History

In Term One, I had the privilege of participating in the Grand Challenges Build a Lab programme as a Student Consultant. As a History student, I worked alongside a group of innovative students from various disciplines across UCL to develop a lab framework on Moodle that provides future UCL students with the resources required to tackle some of the world’s most pressing social issues.

We spent many weeks debating the focus of the lab framework, and at times, it was difficult to stay grounded in what truly mattered. It was incredibly rewarding to see our ideas take shape, transforming an unclear brief into a tangible, practical framework that can be used across various scales and formats.

However, what made this programme truly unique and unlike any other initiative I’ve participated in at UCL was its emphasis on student-staff collaboration. Instead of simply learning from the staff, we were learning with and from each other. This allowed us to exchange ideas, enabling us to tap into the strengths of our diverse academic backgrounds and pushing me to engage with ways of thinking that go beyond my own degree discipline. For example, during one session, we each shared experiences from our studies in which we had successfully collaborated to solve problems. We incorporated these ideas into our lab, making the process genuinely interdisciplinary.

I cannot thank the UCL Grand Challenges team enough, especially Zulekha Mayet, Clare Stainthorpe, Kiran Thadhani, and Milly Metcalfe, for coordinating such an innovative initiative. I am excited to see the implementation of this framework as part of UCL’s “Extended Learning Opportunity.” I believe this has the potential to truly take advantage of the diversity of skills held by UCL students whilst also meaningfully contributing to UCL’s culture of “disruptive thinking.”