Community engagement

Student volunteers

Getting involved in volunteering while studying is not only fun and rewarding, but also helps gain extra skills and experiences.  The Students’ Union supports students to volunteer with organisations in their local community, whether within West Yorkshire or beyond, and partnerships with local charities in and around Kirklees have meant students can take part in one day volunteering events or offer more regular support to organisations such as Oxfam, The Welcome Centre and British Heart Foundation.  Many of the clubs and societies also run fundraising events or need volunteers to support their projects, such as HarvestHud, and the Students’ Union is always looking for extra volunteers for a range of events, including those taking place over Freshers.  Students can register their interest at huddersfield.su/volunteering.

Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre

In 2018 a new Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre opened at the University.  It is expected to be visited by around 20,000 people a year, including many school parties from throughout the region. This project has received funding of almost £1 million, including more than £600,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund – it is being developed in tandem with the Leeds-based Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association.

National Health Innovation Campus

The National Health Innovation Campus will open in 2024. The campus will feature a range of public facing facilities, including our award-winning podiatry clinic, our THRIVE telehealth service and new clinics dedicated to sports and physiotherapy, parents and children and mental health. The campus will include world-leading research facilities and specialist clinical teaching facilities.

As the demand for health professionals continues to grow, the campus will enable the rapid expansion of courses in nursing, midwifery, allied health and human sciences, enabling the University to play a leading role in increasing the NHS and social care workforce. The campus will also deliver a major boost to regeneration and jobs and a growing international profile will see a huge expansion in training and education work.

Working with local schools and colleges

The University works with schools and colleges in the region to ensure that young people are aware of the options available to them. The University works together with Kirklees Council through the Kirklees Learning Progression Board, the Kirklees Community Learning Trust and the Studio School initiative. The University has similar connections in Wakefield. Our engagement with schools and colleges includes activities designed to: raise aspirations, reduce perceived barriers to higher education, support attainment, encourage access to the professions and provide clear information for parents and carers. In addition to our regular work throughout each academic year we also run the Progression Module and the Aspire Project.

Progression Module

We work with around 900 students at 10 schools and colleges on The Progression Module, a formal programme of study which gives Year 12 students the opportunity to investigate and research progression routes - primarily into Higher Education.

Aspire Project

In order to encourage young people to consider higher education, and the benefits it can bring them in future life, the University is launching a new project, in partnership with local schools. This aims to address the issue that 15% of highly able pupils who score on the top 10% nationally at age 11 fail to achieve in the top 25% at GCSE” (Missing Talent – research by the Sutton Trust). This 10 year project aims to improve SATS and level 2 examination results and progression to post 16 and HE courses for the pupils it works with.

Headstart Huddersfield

Headstart Huddersfield is a scheme that offers eligible students, interested in applying to the University of Huddersfield, the opportunity to gain an extra 8 UCAS points.

The scheme has been designed with the intention of providing fairer access for those groups currently facing barriers and therefore underrepresented in Higher Education.

There are many benefits to the programme for students.

  • Assist students with research, decision making and applications to university.
  • Develop HE-relevant skills including research, self-reflection and writing skills.
  • Formal recognition for students’ work (8 UCAS points recognised by the University of Huddersfield).
  • The University of Huddersfield will guarantee interviews, auditions or offers to all Headstart Huddersfield students who have successfully completed the programme and who meet the published academic and non-academic entry requirements.

Staff volunteers

Many members of staff are volunteers with local charities and community groups. In addition many also serve as governors at local schools and colleges. If your school or college has vacancies on its board please contact us, to see if we have a member of staff who might be suitable, by emailing enquiriesvco@hud.ac.uk.

The University acts as a professional partner for One Community. One Community was set up in 2010 with the aim of generating funds to support local community groups, and to ensure that the Kirklees area would have a Community Foundation.

International

China Children and Teenagers’ Foundation

The University and its China Office support a charity called the China Children and Teenagers' Foundation (CCTF). The purpose of CCTF is to care for, foster, and educate children and teenagers in China and to assist the government in improving the children and teenagers' education and welfare conditions.

Our University has a growing connection with China and it is our goal to work with our China Office to put something back into grass-roots education there. It is easy to think that China is a large, rich country, but its rate of growth is leaving some families and young people in rural villages behind as their parents move to find work in the big cities, so this is our chance to help out in a small way.

You may notice some fund-raising going on around campus, particularly during the Spring Festival Celebrations. Through these initiatives we support a number of children in Anqing Primary School, a remote school in the countryside of Guiizhou province. Our China Office visit the school regularly and periodically our students travel out to China in order to hand over our donation and to spend some time with the children in the school.