Student volunteering and social action in the UK has a long history, from university settlements and missions in the nineteenth century to workcamps for the unemployed in the interwar period to CND protesting and Student Community Action after the Second World War and throughout the later part of the 20th Century.

More recently, students have been at the forefront of promoting the sustainability agenda and are taking an increasing interest in social entrepreneurship. If you’re curious about the journey we’ve been on, you can watch a video on the history of student volunteering online and read the 2010 article by Georgina Brewis: Students, Volunteering and Social Action: How did we get where we are today?