Pioneering VR & AI soft skills training for students at the University of Leeds

About

The University of Leeds, one of the UK’s largest universities, is world-renowned for the quality of their research and their teaching. Across both under- and postgrad degree programmes, they serve over 37,000 students. 

Through their award-nominated innovation hub HELIX, the university is leading the way in exploring immersive technology for teaching and learning. As part of its priorities around student education and experience, graduate outcomes, and digital transformation, the university partnered with Bodyswaps.

• Bridge soft skills gaps for students, especially those from widening participation backgrounds.
• Support academic staff in exploring the educational potential of immersive technologies.
• Pilot scalable, repeatable, and safe alternatives to traditional placement-based learning.

Deployment

Initial exploration

As part of the Meta Healthcare Bodyswaps grant, University of Leeds Faculty of Medicine and Health staff explored Bodyswaps content. 

As well as the healthcare modules, there was excitement about the wider soft skills offering and how this could impact student confidence and experience. This gave staff the chance to evaluate the platforms' suitability for their own teaching.

Building staff confidence

HELIX then led the way in turning interest into action, giving both healthcare and wider University of Leeds acadmic and professional services staff a chance to further evaluate and gain confidence with Bodyswaps. 93% of the staff who participated
in this stage thought their users would gain soft skills by using the modules, with 79% wanting to make use of it within their department/service.

Preparing for student rollout

Following the success of these exploratory stages, HELIX is now leading a pilot targeting students across multiple departments including Year 0 Medicine, Careers, Law and more to support soft skills development.

Key benefits

• Psychological safety: Staff praised Bodyswaps’ ability to provide a safe space for practice, particularly for students who may lack confidence.
• AI-driven customisation: Colleagues involved in the pilot were particularly excited by the ability to tailor content to learners’ needs.
• Repeatability: Bodyswaps’ repeatable nature means students can revisit scenarios at their own pace, from multiple devices, reinforcing learning outcomes over time.

Future plans

The upcoming academic year will serve as a broader pilot led by HELIX. The goal is to measure real student impact and gather evidence to support future implementation of Bodyswaps.

The pilot aligns with strategic priorities around digital transformation, curriculum redefined, graduate outcomes, and access for disadvantaged students. It feeds into wider work positioning the University of Leeds as a leader in immersive learning innovation.

With partners across faculties and professional services, Bodyswaps is being embedded into modules and the careers centre in ways that allow meaningful, repeated usage.

This will allow evaluation of how students learn, reflect, and improve over time with the platform. Hearing the experiences and opinions of students themselves is central to this pilot, and next steps beyond it.