Our 2024 educational programme

Our Programme Team delivers a range of workshops, conferences, training sessions, and digital content. These are designed to explore the causes and impacts of social division in order to promote more inclusive and just societies.

Our activities are youth-centred, supporting the development of ethical leadership through intergenerational, intercultural, and cross-sector dialogue.

Key areas of focus for our programme include:

• Youth & Democracy – Our flagship project brings young people together from across the country to re-imagine politics and political systems for the UK that will generate better democratic outcomes in the future. It is driven by the concerns and views of young people, including those from marginalised backgrounds, to ensure they are heard.
• Strengthening the Rule of Law – Working with our partner organisations, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, the College of Policing, and Big Voice London, we are developing young people’s understanding of the way laws are made, contested, and enforced. Three residential workshops will be held each year with 24 young people from the UK and Commonwealth countries, supported via online resources, facilitated webinars held between retreats, and an online peer-to-peer network.
• Exploring Ethics – Underpinning all the work that we do is the development of ethical leadership skills, empowering young people, and ourselves, to think about what a “good” society might look like and how we might create it. Reflective and interactive, the sessions are designed to help students to reflect critically on the ethical dimensions of contemporary social challenges.

Student conferences

We deliver two highly-regarded, interdisciplinary, residential student conferences, with the aim of creating a space for participants to learn together, build networks, understand differences, and enjoy themselves. 

Our Life Beyond the PhD conference takes place over five days in August, bringing together doctoral students from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, to explore the value and potential of academic research, foster collaboration, and develop public engagement skills.

Since 1947, our International Student Christmas Conference has extended a warm welcome to students from all over the world who are currently studying in the UK, to enjoy thought-provoking seminars and workshops, meeting others who are studying away from home, facilitating intercultural dialogue, and inspiring discussion and debate on themes related to our work.