Student philanthropy – Possibilities for practice within the UK higher education sector

This practice paper reflects on lessons learnt from an undergraduate philanthropy module introduced across different programmes within the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent, UK. The module applies service-learning and experiential learning pedagogy to ensure students critically engage with community and societal issues, recognise themselves as philanthropists, and engage in a responsible decision-making process with their cohort. As one of the first UK Higher Education student philanthropy modules, lessons learnt provide important reflections for student philanthropy modules internationally, as well as within the UK context. Agreeing with others (such as McDougal, 2022), it suggests that experiential learning pedagogy is most successful when carried out in a diverse and multidisciplinary learning space where students reflect on their own moral position alongside others to build consensus. Observations in this paper explore how challenging individual perspectives potentially leads to a lasting sense of philanthropic responsibility.