Jisc Change Agents' Network Conference 2024

This session will be presented by Jordan Kirkwood, Director of Programmes for the Common Mission Project, a registered UK charity offering unique and innovative education programmes to UK universities. Adopting a Peccha Kuccha style, this Lightning Session will introduce our ‘Hacking For’ Courses, providing universities with the ability to integrate Mission Driven Entrepreneurship™ into their curriculum, bringing student teams together to work on real-world problems alongside government Problem Sponsors and Industry Mentors - thereby leveraging the strengths of these different sectors. 

The pedagogy behind the 10-week accredited course is focussed on ‘experiential learning’ in which students simultaneously learn and apply Lean Startup methodology to better understand their government problems. This skills-based applied learning approach really centres employability in the student experience, with the students ‘getting out of the classroom’ and talking to people who actually experience the problem, enabling them to validate the problem before moving on to develop potential solution ideas. These solutions, in turn, are rigorously tested with potential end users.  The result? A university course in which students gain the potential to have real-world impact whilst also developing key transferable skills, knowledge of government and commercial skill-sets.

Our mission at Common Mission Project is to “create the leaders of tomorrow to solve the critical problems of today”. We achieve this by creating ecosystems centred on real-world problems. We deliver this across UKHE using Lean LaunchPad™ Methodology. We create social value across government spaces through our Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship™. With a growing presence across the UK, Common Mission Project has delivered our flagship Hacking for Ministry of Defence (and Hacking for Sustainability) courses to 20 universities.