Challenge offers students insight into policy decisions

Students from across Teesside University’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Law worked with the Civil Service at Darlington Economic Campus on a challenge offering insight into policymaking.

A group of ten students took part in the Policy Challenge as part of their Employability modules at Teesside University. These ten students came from across the History, Sociology, and Politics and International Relations disciplines.

The 2025 Policy Challenge continues a collaboration between the University and the Civil Service at Darlington Economic Campus following a successful Challenge last year.

This year, groups were tasked with formulating policy for either the Department of Transport; Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; or the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs. Students were given an indicative £15m budget to suggest innovative new policy ideas.

Ideas developed by the students included a new sustainable drainage scheme for coastal towns at risk of flooding, using Redcar as a pilot; a hydrogen bus pilot for the Tees Valley to reduce emissions and increase service reliability; and a concessionary fare discount scheme for public sector workers in the Tees Valley.

The teams prepared a final presentation of their projects to senior civil servants at the DEC campus. The winning group of students, from the BA (Hons) Politics and International Relations, who pitched sustainable draining scheme, have won week of work experience with the Civil Service in Darlington.

Harvey Richardson, one of the students from the winning team, said: “The DEC project was extremely useful and beneficial for my course, giving a great insight into how the UK government and specifically the civil service works, especially within the realm of public policy making, and on a personal basis, provided a real zoom in to the local opportunities available for students and graduates in Teesside.”

Dr Christopher Massey, (Principal Lecturer in Learning and Teaching), said: “Teesside University’s ongoing work with DEC through our Policy Challenge collaborations affords students the opportunity to engage in hands-on, policy-making exercises. It was a pleasure to be involved with student projects from an academic side and I know that the skills they have developed over the last few months will help them in applications to the civil service and other graduate employment opportunities in the future.”

Dr. Sara Gracey, Head of Engagement at Darlington Economic Campus, said: “Darlington Economic Campus is really pleased to be working with Teesside University on this project, which brings policymaking into the university context. Students put forward innovative, thoughtful proposals that genuinely took regional considerations into account. The use of well-presented data visualisations as evidence for recommendations to positively benefit communities and businesses were stand-out moments from the groups, as well as an impressive commitment to answering panel questions from each team."

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