ID205 Tackling Challenges from Global to Local

The Idea

In the 1940s, American Aerospace corporation Lockheed Martin established its Advanced Development Programs (ADP) - known as Skunk Works. The ethos of Skunk Works was to bring together leading experts from different fields in an environment of reduced bureaucracy and high-autonomy to innovate new ideas. I believe there is scope to bring together the principles behind Skunk Works with the work Keele has invested into developing Global Challenge Pathways, to create an innovative and interdisciplinary student experience that would set Keele apart from other institutions. 

The idea would be to retain the Global Challenge Modules and expand to include a focus on the 'local'. They would commence with a set of thematic lectures / debates from Industry / Sector experts (building on Keele’s Grand Challenge Lectures and the Keele debates). Students would then form interdisciplinary groups and lead development of their own innovative solutions to their chosen challenge problem (with aligned support and supervision). To support them, students would be offered guidance, training or resources on key skills like project management, AI, communication and research (preferable via stackable credentials). Industry / external sponsorship of these project groups should be prioritised, allowing students to gain experiential learning experience and having the side benefit of strengthening Keele’s external partnerships.

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Society needs graduates that have an understanding of key challenges and are equipped with the skills to address those challenges. Challenges exist at both local and global level. Whilst the focus for Keele via GCP has been on addressing global challenges, these can seem like an abstract concept, particularly for students just starting their HE journey. We also know from our students that gaining experience of working with industry and other external partners is a priority. Keele’s work on global challenge pathways has established a platform upon which to build and innovate. Implementing this idea allows us to increase the skills of our students, provide them with additional experiential opportunities and also build interdisciplinary experience. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

Implementation of this idea would require an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together colleagues from across multiple professional service teams and academics. A working group should be established to develop a detailed concept for the idea. This group would support development of module specifications and the implementation work required (including sourcing of speakers, industry partners, skills training / resources and a strong internal and external communications plan etc). 

What Success Would Look Like

The modules are up and running. Student feedback is positive and outcomes are good, external stakeholder feedback is positive. Potentially there is sector / media interest and the sponsorship pool grows from to incorporate larger industry partners. Aligned successes could also include research (or other) collaborations between academics involved in the programme and industry / external partners and a feeder route into placement opportunities at levels 5 and 6. Longer term it would be beneficial to analyse (supplemented) graduate outcomes data to understand possible positive impacts on employability.