The unseen ripples of human possibility: how undergraduate tutors could lead a new era of National Service

“This blog was kindly authored by Lee Elliot Major Professor of Social Mobility University of Exeter. When the email dropped into my inbox, I have to admit I almost dismissed it as one of those scam messages we’re all now trained to avoid. The subject line ‘Old Times’ sounded suspiciously vague. But when I read the first few lines, I found myself transported back to another life. It read: Just retired after thirty years as a high school maths teacher. Thank you for making me realise that I could do maths. The email was from Richard, a former undergraduate I had tutored while I was studying for my PhD in Theoretical Physics at the University of Sheffield in the early 1990s. I had not heard from him for more than thirty-five years. To be honest, I could barely remember what Maths I had been teaching at the time. Yet it instantly tugged at my heartstrings. It was a deeply moving message to receive: to discover that a small thing I had done as a young postgraduate student had stayed with someone for decades. Not only this, it had rippled forward through the life of a teacher who would go on to help generations of children himself. In education, we rarely glimpse the lasting reverberations of our actions. Small acts of encouragement can disappear into the blur of our busy lives. Yet sometimes they transform lives in ways we never fully realise. That was a ray of light I held onto – as I sat composing Cracking the Class Code , my latest book on the shrinking opportunities blighting today’s generations. Little did I know all those years ago that tutoring would become a bit of a lifetime obsession. In 2009, as CEO of the Sutton Trust , when I helped to muster together a toolkit of best bets for teachers tutoring emerged as one of the strategies backed by decades of studies . It can lead to an extra five months’ learning gain over one academic year. Educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom used it as the benchmark for the greatest rate of progress a learner can make. It’s why hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on private tutors across the world. In 2020, I delivered a proposal to Number 10 urging Boris Johnson’s government to create a ‘national tutoring service’ . This university-led approach would have helped to level-up education during the Covid pandemic. I never heard back. The idea was inspired by America’s tradition of volunteering, from AmeriCorps to campus-based service learning. Britain too has flirted with similar ideas, from David Cameron’s short-lived National Citizen Service to Rishi Sunak’s mandatory national service proposed during the 2024 general election. Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, spoke of a ‘society of service’ to help deliver Labour’s ‘opportunity mission’ . This could have been a big visionary idea that the government so desperately needs, but it had no vehicle capable of turning it into an everyday reality. A national university volunteering service would offer just that. It might start with undergraduates tutoring pupils in schools, but could also extend to them supporting community legal clinics or helping local communities tackle environmental challenges. At the University of Exeter, we’ve seen what this type of embedded quality-assured model can achieve. We call it the ‘win win win’ tutoring scheme. Undergrads benefit from degree credits and new life skills after serving as tutors. Local pupils improve their basic literacy. Many undergrad tutors consider teaching as a career, while others, we hope, will volunteer for impactful tutoring charities . Tutoring is to be offered as part of a wider education minor open to any Exeter undergraduate. This month, I had the joy of meeting our tutees and tutors in a special mini-graduation ceremony. “I thought it would be a chance for me to try and give back a little and hopefully make a small difference to these children’s education,” one undergraduate said in a report for the UPP Foundation , a core funder. All the tutors say they enjoy the sessions. Next year. we hope to extend the scheme to improving pupils’ numeracy. These are the foundational skills that can transform pupils’ lives and strengthen our economy. We’re urging other universities to come on board. Our aim is to expand nationally so that hundreds more pupils can benefit. At a time of mounting financial and reputational pressures, this is precisely the moment universities should demonstrate how they can support local communities and drive economic growth. It shows what collective effort can achieve. Our scheme’s success is down to countless colleagues from across the university and beyond, as well as teachers in partner schools. In 1962, in his famous ‘Moon Speech’ at Rice University in Houston, John F. Kennedy proclaimed that the United States would fly to the moon and do other things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” In an era of declining opportunity that tempts us to focus on our own survival, we must find ways of giving back to others. A national university volunteering service could create thousands of unseen ripples of human possibility stretching across generations. Perhaps, many years from now, another retired teacher like Richard will write to a former student tutor with the same simple message: “Thank you for making me realise what I could become.” Universities wanting to know more about the Exeter tutoring model should contact: exetertutoring@exeter.ac.uk . More details on the scheme can be found here . 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