More, Different and Better

Many British universities were founded with a ‘civic’ mission to contribute to the social, economic and cultural life of their city or region. The tradition survives, though in different, and, in some cases, barely recognisable forms. Most universities today take seriously their civic engagement role but, often, in the recent past, the work has taken place at the margins of institutional activity – usually some distance from the ‘core’ business of teaching and research.

For a variety of reasons, this has begun to change. A number of trends have helped close the gap between universities and their towns, cities and regions, including: the introduction of social and economic ‘impact’ as part of the criteria for funding research; the widening participation agenda, and, in particular, the requirement on HEIs charging higher fees to submit access agreements setting out their plans to attract under-represented groups; and the localism agenda, which has brought with it an expectation that university leaders will contribute to ‘leadership of place’ and local economic and civic renewal by helping join up a range of national policies and programmes at a local level. Sir Andrew Witty’s recent report on universities and growth argued that universities can play a stronger role in realising the economic benefits of research for localities and urged greater collaboration between HEIs and Local Enterprise Partnerships.

The context of economic recession – and the promise of a decade of cuts to education spending – has also been a significant factor. On the one hand, it has prompted universities to think harder about their potential role in wider society and the value of collaborative working with local, national and global partners; while, on the other, it has prompted government and other stakeholders to actively question the purpose of universities. The government’s 2010 White Paper, Students at the Heart of the System, reflected a growing appreciation that HEIs in receipt of large amounts of public funding have a civic duty to engage with wider society, and that, by and large, they had been failing in that duty.

Nevertheless, a wide range of formal and informal relations do exist between HEIs and their civic and community partners, and a number of institutions have worked hard to develop a leadership role within their wider communities. Where it is done well, civic engagement is characterised by committed leadership, a strong sense of mission embedded across the institution (rather than seen as a separate, ‘third’ stream of activity), a commitment to listening to and dialogue with key partners, and the provision of support, encouragement and resources for staff and students to develop and participate in the work.

But there are significant challenges too, including the complexity and inaccessibility of some institutions, the sometimes poor level of public understanding of what universities do, and the perception that not all universities are interested in building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with partners. The situation has been made more challenging by the decline of university lifelong learning, which, historically, has been responsible for much of the most creative and innovative HEI engagement activity. The picture overall is quite mixed, and there is clearly potential to do more and to do things better; however, there is plenty of good and innovative practice from which institutions and potential partners can learn.

For that reason, NIACE has worked with three partner organisations – Action on Access, the Forum for Access and Continuing Education, and the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning – to organise three conferences which will examine different aspects of partnership and collaboration in HE and consider how engagement with institutional partners, employers and communities can help HEIs make sense of a rapidly evolving higher education environment.

Each conference will focus on a different area of HEI partnership and collaboration – engagement with institutions, particularly schools, local authorities and FE colleges; engagement with employers; and engagement with communities – and consider how they can be encouraged and incentivised. We hope the events will contribute to the further development of this agenda, bringing together a wide range of colleagues from higher education with experts, politicians and partners and collaborators from the public, private and community sectors. At NIACE we have long argued that HEIs are key public bodies with important civic duties to wider society. Discussing what precisely this entails is timely, and necessary, if the potential of HEIs as key civic and community partners is to be realised and civic engagement is to become – as we believe it should – one of the guiding principles of HEI activity.

A series of posts exploring different aspects of HEI engagement will appear here over the summer and further details of the three conferences are now available online:

17 October 2013 – Institutional Engagement

14 November 2013 – Engaging with Employers

24 January 2014 – HEI Community Engagement