Partnership is the form DEN’s work has always taken. Across a decade, our students and staff have travelled to and welcomed colleagues from Westminster International University in Tashkent, Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Hanoi University, Istanbul University, and Further Education Colleges in London, building friendships that have produced joint conferences, jointly edited books, shared classroom projects and continuing conversations. These pages document the visits, exchanges and outreach activities that bring DEN’s network to life beyond the screen: trips to partner institutions led by students, hosting of international guests at Westminster, engagement with further education colleges across London, and the wider community work that grows from those relationships. Each visit returns something to the network: new ideas, new contributors, new questions for the next conference and the next volume. If you are an institution or community group interested in working with DEN, this is the place to start.
When I turned 18, I moved to London to study English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. I’m from a small town in Worcestershire, so moving to London was a big decision. I was originally set on studying history in Liverpool, though Music changed that. I love music in a way that’s hard...
I’m Laiyba Rashid, from London, but currently on exchange in Italy studying law, and life here couldn’t feel more different. London is fast, loud, always moving. But here, in a small Italian city, everything slows down. People recognise each other. There’s a sense of familiarity in everyday life, It’s quieter, more personal. And in its...
Uzbekistan. A country rich in history and culture. A country that holds so many brilliant memories from my previous visit last year. A country that became close to home. From the 25th of April to the 4th of May, a group of 14 students, including myself, from DEN will be visiting Uzbekistan for a Model...
My name is Ahmed Abdirahman, and I’m a first-year undergraduate from Somalia studying International Relations and Development at the University of Westminster. On the 25th of April, I’ll be travelling to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with my peers from the Democratic Education Network (DEN) to take part in the Model United Nations. Personally, this trip is hopefully...
My name is Aoife Fortuna, and I am an exchange student from the United States. Having grown up in a small town in upstate New York and spent most of my college years in a smaller village in Ohio, coming to London was a dream come true for me. So far, city life has been...
On the 25th April, I will be travelling to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, alongside my peers from the Democratic Education Network (DEN). It is safe to say that the excitement is huge! For me, this trip is more than just ticking off another country. It is an opportunity to step into a totally different culture. I have...
My name is Ariadna, I am Swiss and Portuguese and have been living in London since 2016. I graduated in Politics and International Relations at Westminster and then went to King’s College London for my MA in Intelligence and International security. I ended up in administrative roles in law firms for a few years, which...
In December, I had the privilege of travelling to Thailand with students from Westminster University. I wrote a previous blog describing how excited I was to experience every small aspect of this trip, and it certainly taught me things that will make me a better person. This journey marked the beginning of many personal reflections....
Having taught for over thirty years, I have long believed, much like Paulo Freire, that education rarely transforms the lives of learners when it is confined to the classroom. I have never viewed education as a “banking model,” in which educators simply deposit information into passive students. Instead, I have always aimed to engage students...
My friend summed up our field trip perfectly when she said, ‘We lived as locals, not tourists.’ That is precisely what our ten days in Bangkok felt like. We stayed on the campus of Kasetsart University, which provided us with a genuine insight into the daily life of the students there. The university itself was...
This trip really opened my eyes in a way I could not have imagined. Being able to be in Thailand alongside my peers made the learning feel more active, shared, and way more engaging than abstract. Exploring unfamiliar places and encountering new cultural practices, the experience was intense but paced, allowing me to absorb and...
In the famous city of London, there lived a group of students not connected by much. They all led their own unique lives and were experiencing a relatively average University experience. Then, a man with a mission brought these students into something that can only be described as an epic daydream full of friendship, adventure,...