Inside Exeter’s Grand Challenges

For today’s students, opportunities to develop key skills for life beyond graduation are integral to their university experience. Alongside skills development within the programmes students complete at Exeter, underpinned by ongoing work on our Exeter Skills Framework as part of Curriculum for Change, additional extra-curricular experiences such as Exeter’s Grand Challenges offer students chance to further hone their interpersonal, research and employability skills.

In this post, Irem Ozdemir, a third year Politics and International Relations student, reflects on her experiences taking part in and later supporting this innovative, interdisciplinary project. Running in the first week of June each year, Grand Challenges sees students work in small multidisciplinary groups to develop solutions to real-world problems, such as the climate emergency, food security and defence, social inequalities or mental health, with the support of academics, Professional Services staff and experts from industry, arts and the third sector. The programme addresses 5-7 challenges each year, ranging from the global to the personal – all underpinned by UN sustainable development goals – and uses problem-based learning to develop students’ skills.

Being a Grand Challenges student

Coming to university, I wanted to experience as many new things as possible, making sure I took advantage of what the university of Exeter had to offer. That’s when I got an email about Grand challenges in my inbox. It was described as a week-long project where students get to work on a current issue in the 21st century and create an output surrounding it.

Singing up to the challenge, I felt excited but nervous. Out of different challenges, I had chosen Climate Change, which was one of the biggest challenges on the programme. The first day eased us into the project well, we got put into teams and did some icebreakers, followed by brainstorming various ideas. We were given tools to use to design a prototype. Following this, for the next couple of days, we worked on designing the output. My team and I worked on developing a website and a policy proposal. The university had also organised many speakers during our time on the programme. For instance, we had a speaker from JP Morgan come in to give a session on sustainable finance. This proved not only a valuable learning but also a networking opportunity.

The final showcase was by far the best part of the Grand Challenge. It’s a full day of presentations, celebrations, and music. My team and I were able to give the rest of our challenge a 10 minute presentation on our output, followed by a couple questions. Our showcase was approached by many people and we were able to have insightful conversations with many of the participants.

During my time, I was able to develop many valuable skills, both for personal and professional development. These include time management, public speaking, research, delegation, and attention to detail. I was able to repeatedly bring up my experience during Grand Challenges in competency interviews to demonstrate my skills which ultimately helped me secure my second year internship.

From student to facilitator

Another perk of completing the Grand Challenges is that I was able to find out about an interesting part-time job opportunity on campus to apply for. Over the summer, I applied to become a student programme assistant and was able to get the job. This job allowed me to facilitate and monitor many employability programmes in my second year, one of which was Grand Challenges. Going from being a participant in the programme one year to running it the next was an amazing experience. This time, I was allocated to the Social Inequality challenge. I was able to support many students with their projects, help them meet deadlines, and ensure they enjoy every step of the programme. Once again, I had the opportunity to hear from experts and academics in their field which broadened my mindset and challenged my assumptions.

What I loved most, though, was witnessing students grow in confidence and seeing their ideas strengthen, their teamwork develop, and their ambition come to life over the course of a single week. Being part of that journey was genuinely inspiring. Grand Challenges wasn’t just a programme, it was a turning point. It shaped my skills, my network, my confidence, and ultimately, my university experience.

Irem took part in Grand Challenges in her first year and joined the Grand Challenges team as a Student Programme Assistant in 2024-2025 working on the Social Inequality Challenge. In 2026 she will be supporting the Central Team.

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