Make a Difference: Get Involved in Social Impact at UCL

Your time at UCL is a chance to do more than study – it’s an opportunity to make change. Whether you’re passionate about climate justice, social equality, mental health, or supporting local communities, there are plenty of ways to get involved in valuable social impact initiatives.

With the Students’ Union, you can volunteer with local charities, apply your research skills to support the third sector, and learn about making meaningful change through social enterprise. Whether you have a few hours or want to commit long-term, we can support you to find something that fits around your studies.

Social impact work is a great way to meet new people, grow your confidence, and gain valuable skills. It can also bring fresh perspective to your degree – and make your time at UCL even more meaningful.

Find your thing

Community Volunteering

Our Community Volunteering Programme is a great way to develop key employability skills, make new friends and try something new while supporting local causes.
We vet all of the volunteering opportunities to ensure that they are safe for volunteers and to support students to participate, we ensure that your travel expenses are covered.
There are lots of different ways we can support you to start volunteering within the community.

Volunteering Fairs

Attend one of our Volunteering Fairs where you will have the chance to explore different volunteering opportunities with local charities and community groups.

Volunteering Directory

We have a wide range of volunteering opportunities with local charities and community organisations, which you can search based on your interests.

Start your own outreach project

Our Student-Led Volunteering Programme cansupport you to develop your own community project that supports a cause that you are passionate about. Our team will provide you with support to get your project off the ground and you can also apply for funding to buy any resources needed. You can even start a project with your club or society.

Submit an idea for an outreach project and someone from our team will be in contact to discuss your ideas.

Big Help Outs

Our Big Help Outs are a chance to work alongside other UCL students during a one-off volunteering event. We run Big Help Outs throughout the year so check out our BHO webpage for details of the upcoming events.

Volunteer with other UCL students

Our Student-Led Projects (SLP), which are run by UCL students, are a great way to give back to the local community while volunteering with other UCL students. You can also find volunteer vacancies with our SLPs on the Volunteering Directory.

Community Research Initiative

At the Community Research Initiative we act as a bridge between the university and voluntary sector. We do this by empowering students to collaboratively carry out research with these organisations and to create useful and useable research outputs to impact the community. Throughout our programmes we emphasise power sharing and knowledge democracy: we are not ‘academic saviours’ of our lesser local communities and citizens. We acknowledge gaps in our own knowledge and seek to find out more from experts within the community and voluntary sector. Explore how you can get involved below:

Community Engaged Dissertations for Masters Students

At the heart of the Community Research Initiative is the opportunity to carry out a collaborative dissertation project with and for the community. We help you to partner with a voluntary and community sector organisation to solve real world problems and create a positive social impact with your master's research. Throughout the year you'll get 1:1 support from our team, skills development through our engaged research workshops, and brokering to hundreds of community partners that are ready to co-create research in partnership with you.

Research Volunteering for all students

Put your academic skills to work outside of the classroom by volunteering your research and study skills to make a real social impact community organisations. It's an excellent way to hone your skills, develop cross-sector experience and make a genuine positive impact with research. Together with our charity partners, we've created volunteering opportunities where you can hone these research skills through engaging with real world problems While you can gain cross-sector experience, the charities receive valuable research and evaluation to back up their important work. It's a win-win.

The Pro Bono Research Service for Doctoral Students

Our Pro Bono Research Service offers voluntary and community sector organisations a chance to sit down with our knowledgeable doctoral students to co-create solutions for their research and evaluation needs. Our doctoral students are trained in research consultancy skills throughout the year work within mini consultancy groups focused on causes that they are passionate about. Your interdisciplinary group will work together to tackle major issues such as climate and sustainability, health and wellbeing, cultural understanding, justice and inequality and more!

Student Social Enterprise

The Social Enterprise programme aims to create a vibrant culture of social impact across UCL, grounded in structured, student-centred opportunities. Our programme includes a multi-entry pipeline that supports students through learning, experimentation, and venture-building. We support UCL students to take meaningful action on social issues they care about by equipping them with skills, competencies, and self-belief developed through engaging with our Student Social Enterprise Programme. Students engaging with the Social Enterprise team can expect to receive best practice knowledge, access to a diverse mentorship programme, funding to launch or scale their social enterprise and a physical space to work from.

ExtendEd Learning

ExtendED Learning is a collaboration between UCL and Students’ Union UCL, which offers taught students a wide range of free learning opportunities in Term 3. Choose something that interests you, from one-off workshops and conferences to in-depth consultancy challenges and innovation labs. This is your moment, whatever subject you study, to step outside of assessments or dissertation planning and try something new.

  • Take the chance to experiment and innovate whilst having a positive impact on society. 
  • Build valuable skills and competencies without the pressure of an assessment. 
  • Access our skills mapping platform to get the most from your learning and demonstrate your personal development. 
  • Various dates, time commitments and modes available – pick as many opportunities as you like. 

What do other UCL students say?

"The cheerleading Student-Led project was more than just a cheerleading session—it was a celebration of friendship, empowerment, and the joy of coming together as a community."

Yalin on UCL Lightning

"I decided to make a social impact (...) because it is a great way to gain experience, meet new people and it was relatively flexible which was important to me."

Mandy, Centre 404 Volunteer

Join our online Social Impact community

Or visit the Social Impact webpage to discover what's on offer!

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