Since March, college leaders have been very focused on their core roles. They have shown how brilliant colleges are at supporting their students, the employers they work with and the communities in which they operate. They have moved mountains to make sure learning and training could continue and faced every challenge with skill and pragmatism.

Amid all of this great work though, I am increasingly worried that we may be at risk of overlooking something. I’ve always believed that students learn as much outside the classroom, workshop or lab as they do inside it, through a broad range of extracurricular activities. I know though that not everyone agrees. Indeed, any observer of education policy for the past decade would believe that the only thing that really matters is the rigour of exams. Until last month, at least.

My thinking comes from meeting so many students over the years who talk with more passion and energy about the enrichment activities than they do about their formal studies. Likewise, hearing from employers referring to the importance of skills and experience students gain from enrichment much more than from their academic or technical studies. It’s instructive that many employers are now ignoring academic achievement in recruitment and looking so much more broadly at attitudes, confidence, teamnworking, creativity, problem solving.

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Students as engaged and active citizens

It’s not just about jobs and work, though. One of the basics of a good college education for me is how student enrichment supports students to become engaged and active citizens. That requires a good understanding of the world we live in, the changes and global forces we are subject to and how politics and social action can impact them. Ultimately, I’ve always believed education should be about aiming to empower and inspire students to want to build a better future. It should provide the insight and the tools, networks and wherewithal to achieve it. 

I’m not the only one who believes in enrichment, of course. Now, it’s unusual for me to be quoting Eton College (not an AoC member) to back up my claims, but on this occasion, I cannot resist.

The Eton student enrichment web page states: "Our ambition is that Etonians should be able to look back on their years at school as a time of personal growth" and quotes one student as saying that "I, like many others, have been afforded the chance to find where my passions lie [through student enrichment]."

Student enrichment comes in many forms – sport, physical exercise, drama, theatre, arts, music, study visits, international exchanges, volunteering, social action, getting involved in the students’ union or on the governing body.

Every school and college has an enrichment or extracurricular offer, but it’s pretty clear that many have struggled to retain the breadth of offer and number of hours that students can get involved because of the funding cuts of the past decade. Sadly, enrichment is often seen as a luxury, a nice-to-have. That’s in the best of times, let alone in the unique and challenging circumstances we are all in now owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But it’s precisely because of the social distancing, uncertainties, anxieties and strange times that we are living through that student enrichment is more important than ever. Whatever form it takes, enrichment is usually where students can interact with others, feel part of a team or wider community, learn about their own abilities, make friends, build confidence and get a sense of purpose and achievement. Important in the best of times, but even more so now with the known pressures on mental health and wellbeing.

A wide offer of enrichment

We’re doing our bit at AoC for students in sport, with the launch of a new fitness programme for students this month called Be Your Best. It’s a six-week programme to support colleges to be competition-ready in time for the AoC Sport leagues starting on Wednesday 4 November. It builds on our summer term Go the Distance Challenge in which 3,500 students and staff ran, walked and cycled 160,000 miles over four weeks. Even in lockdown, the desire is there to be part of something bigger, part of a community.

I’m also delighted that we are trying something else new this autumn, with our CollegesLive student conference on 18 November, in partnership with Richard Chase Events. This is designed to offer students some enrichment they can do virtually, addressing the themes that have dominated 2020 – social justice, climate change, dealing with uncertainty and overcoming adversity. We’ve got a great line-up of international speakers who will challenge students to think differently and consider how they can respond to the big debates and protests we’ve seen this year in response to the climate emergency and systemic racism. 

We owe it to college students to provide a wide offer of enrichment and not forget how empowering it can be for people to engage. Wouldn’t it be nice if one of the positives to come out of this dreadful pandemic was more of a focus on how colleges bring people together to play, act, perform and engage for their own good, and for wider purpose?

David Hughes is chief executive of the Association of Colleges