Positive Change Week 2026

Students sat around a laptop - laughing and talking

Monday 2 - Friday 6 March 2026

We are excited to present, the annual Positive Change Week, the University’s biggest celebration of diversity, sustainability and positive impact. This year, the week will run from Monday 2 March – Friday 6 March 2026 and features an exciting programme of events led by staff and students, to celebrate our diverse community and showcase positive change at our campuses and beyond!

Positive Change Week is focused on the theme of sustainability, with each of our events linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; showcasing our commitment to addressing global challenges.

Students sat in front of a laptop

Undergraduate research conference

On 11, 12, and 13 March 2025, the Global Experiences team hosted the 6th annual Undergraduate Research Conference in which undergraduate students from all our teaching partnerships showcase and celebrate their research. We had a fantastic event with many students joining from across the globe delivered by a great team of student volunteers.

The event was well attended with 106 registrations peaking on the Day 2 of the conference. The conference featured introductions to campuses at Lancaster Leipzig, Lancaster Bailrigg, and BJTU. Professor Mark Stevenson, Cross-Faculty Dean of Global Engagement opened and closed the conference, and the keynote speech was delivered by Professor Jan Bebbington, The Rubin Chair in Sustainability in Business and Director of The Pentland Centre.

Undergraduate Research Conference

Some of the events...

Global Positive Change Week involved over 25 different events online and on campus. Here are some of the events that took place...

Staff and students planting trees on campus

Rewild Lancaster

A group of staff and students gathered to launch Rewild Lancaster – a tree-planting nature-based initiative on campus. They hosted two sessions on Wednesday 12 March and managed to plant over 300 new trees – amazing effort in helping to create a more diverse habitat on campus!

Sustainability knowledge exchange meeting

Sustainability Knowledge Exchange

Over 50 staff and students came together for our Sustainability Knowledge Exchange on Wednesday 12 March, sharing examples of sustainability research, best practices and updates from different areas across the University. There were presentations from Dr Georgiana Allison about University sustainability, Dr Felicity Connolly talking about sustainability in medicine and Dr Nathan Jones discussing the Cultivate culture project.

Students sat at a scrunchie making workshop

ReStore Lancaster

ReStore Lancaster held two events during the week for students to join in with. On Monday 10 March, students gathered at a workshop to learn how to make scrunchies from leftover fabric, and on Wednesday 12 March, held a “Fill a bag” event that raised funds for St Johns Hospice.

Two students picking up litter in Lancaster

City litter pick

A small group of staff and students spent 3 hours litter picking from Sainsbury’s to the Millennium Bridge in Lancaster City Centre, filling 8 bags with litter between them.

LUSU Green students planting trees

LUSU Green

The LUSU Green team ran two events for students. On Thursday 13 March, they ran a tour of Forrest Hills to look at biodiversity and rewilding, where the volunteers helped out with some tree maintenance, manually eradicating the overburdening grass which was drowning out any possible sunlight the trees were getting. On Friday 14 March, they fused craft and activism to stand up for garment workers rights! In the session they created embroidered tags to ask Lancaster’s MP to hold fashion brands accountable for their workers as part of a labour behind the label campaign. This was a collaboration with Daniella Southin, founder of @womxncreatingwaves.

Sharing languages and culture

A big part of Global Positive Change Week was sharing different cultures and languages to help forge friendships and a love of learning about people.

Students at an International Pub Quiz

Sharing culture and language

The School of Global Affairs had a busy week and hosted five different lunchtime language cafes, three international film nights and an international quiz evening. Approximately 100 students and staff came together over the week to share their love of languages, culture and friendship.

Students at a language cafe

Sharing culture and language

The School of Global Affairs had a busy week and hosted five different lunchtime language cafes, three international film nights and an international quiz evening. Approximately 100 students and staff came together over the week to share their love of languages, culture and friendship.

Students at a language cafe

Sharing culture and language

The School of Global Affairs had a busy week and hosted five different lunchtime language cafes, three international film nights and an international quiz evening. Approximately 100 students and staff came together over the week to share their love of languages, culture and friendship.

Other activities...

In addition to the many events happening, there were also other activities helping to create Positive Change around campus.

Foodbank collection

Lancaster University Conferences and Events team hosted a foodbank collection for Morecambe Bay Foodbank. The team managed to collect around ten bags of food donations for the good cause.

Recycling your tech

ISS ran a tech amnesty – encouraging staff to hand in unwanted or outdated IT equipment for safe disposal or re-use. During the week, they managed to collect 60 pieces of equipment, including 18 PCs and 14 monitors.

Library collection

Lancaster University Library curated a selection of sustainability books and resources for Global Positive Change Week and featured these in the library foyer during the week.

Sustainable procurement

The Head of Sustainability at Lyreco UK and Ireland joined Procurement for a 30-minute session to present what Lyreco is doing around sustainability. Lyreco is the University’s stationery/office supplies provider, and the session was open to students, staff, and suppliers to inform them about some of the work the University’s suppliers are doing.

Global Positive Change week is celebrating the contribution of all our international staff and students to the sustainability conversation. Rather than viewing internationalisation and sustainability as conflicting priorities, we view them as a connected global challenge, with mutual learning with respect for competing perspectives as key to a collective solution.

A quote from Professor Simon Guy - Pro-Vice-Chancellor Global (Digital, International and Sustainability)

Previous years

Find out more about some of the activities that have taken place in previous years.

  • COP26 Week

    Learn more about our COP26 at Lancaster Festival where we brought together leading voices on climate change issues.

  • COP27 Week

    Learn more about what we did to celebrate COP27 - and the research and insight from our world-leading academic experts.

  • Positive Change Week 2023

    Learn more about our Positive Change Week 2023, a week of celebrating positive impact and sustainability on campus.

  • Positive Change Week 2025

    Discover the events and sustainable projects that took place during Positive Change Week 2025.