Welcome to the Hot Topic series for June and July 2024: Students as Change Agents (SACHA)↗️. This series is introduced in the this post by Emma Taylor and Ruth Donnelly. Ruth is Assistant Director, Careers Service, and SACHA Programme Director, and Emma is SACHA Programme Manager.
What is SACHA?
Students as Change Agents (SACHA) is a student-led design thinking programme that partners diverse student groups with host organisations to tackle challenges aligned to the University’s research themes and that address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS). SACHA was first piloted in 2019 with seed funding from the Data Driven Innovation Programme↗️ to address the demand from students and external organisations to collaborate on developing fresh ideas to address some of society’s greatest challenges. Since then, SACHA has provided a transformative experience for over 1,500 students who have participated in the co-curricular programme↗️, run by Careers, and the elective course↗️, run by Edinburgh Futures Institute↗️.
SACHA participants are strongly encouraged to see themselves as life-long ‘Change Agents’ with the skills and confidence to have a positive impact in the world. They are able to connect with other Change Agents and host organisations from all the programmes by participating in SACHA’s ‘Change Agents for Life’ alumni community. SACHA is proud to have alumni from every School within the university and at every level of study, from first year undergraduates to PhD students, including some of our overseas distance learners and visiting students from other institutions.
The SACHA programme has proved the effectiveness of making the borders porous between the university and the outside world. It has shown organisations that the University can be responsive and innovative, that we care about the world around us and that our students are prepared to devote their time to coming up with fresh ideas to address endemic challenges. We’ve attracted a broad range of host organisations from the private, public and third sectors, sourced via existing University networks. We have also developed a ‘Think Tank’ version where the University has posed its own internal challenges relating to curriculum transformation, digital strategy and heritage collections.
For students, the student-led nature of the SACHA programme has developed their confidence in key skills such as teamworking, design thinking and using data confidently and ethically. Collaborating on challenges focused on the SDGs, and with potential to have real-world impact, offers new opportunities for students to embed sustainability into their academic experience and potential future careers. SACHA alumni have taken their experiences further through activities such as volunteering with host organisations, securing internships, sitting on university strategy groups, and even returning to host challenge questions themselves as ‘change agents’ in their graduate roles.
How can SACHA provide new insights into teaching and learning?
The SACHA programme is committed to the belief that no one needs to be – or indeed should be – an expert in their challenge topic in order to take part in the programme. An outcome of this is that much of the content, group working materials, and overall programme structure is adaptable and applicable across disciplines and degree levels. In their challenge groups, students apply the thinking style from their discipline as well as draw on their own unique set of insights from their background, formative education and lived experiences. We believe this makes SACHA a uniquely powerful resource to tap into as one model for embedding experiential and student-led learning into the curriculum more broadly.
The experiences, lessons, and reflections gained through SACHA and shared throughout this Teaching Matters series aim to highlight the simple but powerful ways in which we can engage students more meaningfully in their own learning.
Keep an eye out for our upcoming posts!
Over the next eight weeks, we’ll be hearing from voices across the SACHA programme – including student participants (AKA ‘Change Agents’), staff, challenge hosts, and group coaches:
- In our first posts, our Change Agents who represent specific communities within the University, including the Online Distance Learner community and the International Student Community, reflect on how experiential learning has impacted on their student experience and their affiliation to the University.
- Alumni of the programme discuss the power of reflection as a tool for learning, and how reflection can be made more meaningful for students.
- SACHA staff offer their perspectives on what makes good group working practice, and the tips and tricks they’ve learned for supporting student groups as they adapt to an innovative, and sometimes uncomfortable, way of learning.
- Previous challenge hosts share their own experiences of being involved in the programme and get some top tips for mentoring student groups from SACHA group coaches.
We’re delighted to have the opportunity to showcase some of the learnings and insights from the SACHA programme in this blog series, and look forward to your comments and suggestions about how we ensure this sort of challenge-led experiential learning continues into the new curriculum transformation across the whole University.
Further SACHA resources
Webpages: Change Programme↗️
Media Hopper video: Students as Change Agents↗️
Curriculum Transformation Programme Hub Reports: Students as Change Agents (SACHA) Think Tank ’24: The Final Reports↗️
Previous Teaching Matters posts
- Doing curriculum transformation: Embedding wellbeing & belonging in curriculum and course design↗️
- Experiential Learning at EFI↗️
- Crossing disciplinary lines: What is interdisciplinary learning really like?↗️
- Developing challenge-led, interdisciplinary teaching: Helping make the curriculum a site for transformation.↗️
Ruth Donnelly
Ruth Donnelly is Assistant Director, Careers Service, and SACHA Programme Director. She provides strategic direction and oversight for the work of the Careers Service to support students’ development and successful transition to their future. A key part of her remit is to incubate innovation projects with colleagues from across the university and partners beyond, including the development of the Students as Change Agents Programme. Her background is in information management, and she has degrees in languages and business management as well as holding the postgraduate diploma in careers in Higher Education.
Emma Taylor
Emma Taylor is the Students as Change Agents Programme Manager, where she leads on the development, delivery, and management of SACHA. Her background is in Education, with experience teaching and tutoring at a variety of levels, from primary grades to master’s courses. Emma is currently completing a PhD in International Development.
