Context: The relationship between Higher Education Institutions and their local communities is often framed around student versus local residents’ lives and ‘economic impact’. This is failing both the community, and the University, for whom the local community presents a wonderful vehicle for collaborative engaged research. As higher education faces unprecedented public scrutiny and increasing pressures from the political, economic, social and environmental agendas, there is increased public interest in the impact of universities on their localities and regions. There are growing calls for universities to be more socially relevant and responsible by addressing the needs of society, both locally and globally. In recent years, the concept of the “third mission” has become popularised, referring to the social, enterprise, and innovative activities that universities perform in addition to core teaching and research tasks. It is increasingly accepted that universities, when well-connected with their communities, can be a vehicle for making healthier, culturally richer and more interesting places to live, work and study. Globally, more and more universities are integrating social responsibility into their mission statements, including those for research and teaching, arguing that higher education is improved when it gives back to the society that is responsible for funding it. Indeed, University Social Responsibility has become a core mission of many higher education institutions around the world. Objectives: The central aim of this proposal is to share experience and know-how of relationships between European Universities and their civic societies and to use this as the basis for a series of innovative pilot projects in each partner city. We want to understand how Higher Education Institutions can respond to what their local community really needs and perform or broker research with and for communities, in a demand-driven way. Finally, we want to drive institution-wide commitment to co-production of knowledge and innovation through social engagement and citizen-led research, where the experience and expertise of individuals, communities and civic organisations is recognised, used and valued. Profile of participants: This project will bring together universities, their local authority partners, community members, Civil Society Organisations and engagement practitioners, through stakeholder involvement, and participation in case studies and pilot projects in each Partner City. Activities: We will conduct a review of the different models of community university partnerships such as front-door (e.g. science shops), embedded and networked partnerships. We will aim to define the processes, structures and governance which best nurture successful partnerships and identify facilitating and hindering factors which influence the collaboration process. We will explore the different approaches currently being used to include underrepresented social groups and ethnic minorities in the engagement approach and consider opportunities for improving equity throughout all stages of the collaborative process. We will also review the methods used by universities to capture and evaluate impact from community university partnerships, and aim to try to understand which indicators different stakeholders such as community partners and policymakers find useful in measuring the success of engagement activities. We will use a case study methodology, to explore successful examples of community university partnerships in each Partner city, understanding what works and why, and measuring the impact of the projects, using interviews, documentation (of reports, course progression etc.) and observations. Our findings will then be used to inform the co-design of a community-led Pilot Project in each Partner city, each of which will be evaluated for factors such as impact, inclusion and transferability. Finally, to aid dissemination, the lessons will be made available in a variety of formats within a Toolkit which will help universities to identify opportunities to undertake, and scale-up successful citizen-driven approaches. Results and impact: The immediate outcome of this project will be enriched knowledge and understanding of the myriad ways in which universities can engage with their communities in order to become more embedded in, and responsive to, the needs of their local city and society. Potential longer term benefits: In the longer term, lessons learned will enhance the relevance and impact of trans-disciplinary engaged research into societal issues (e.g. health and wellbeing & sustainability) by helping researchers to engage with the right people using the most appropriate approach, ensuring equity throughout the engagement, and understand and respond to the nature and quality of relationships which develop.
Context: As higher education faces unprecedented public scrutiny and increasing pressures from the political, economic, social and environmental agendas, there is increased public interest in the impact of universities on their localities and regions. There are growing calls for universities to be more socially relevant and responsible by addressing the needs of society, both locally and globally. In recent years, the concept of the “third mission” has become popularised, referring to the social, enterprise, and innovative activities that universities perform in addition to core teaching and research tasks. It is increasingly accepted that universities, when well-connected with their communities, can be a vehicle for making healthier, culturally richer and more interesting places to live, work and study. Globally, more and more universities are integrating social responsibility into their mission statements, including those for research and teaching, arguing that higher education is improved when it gives back to the society that is responsible for funding it. Indeed, University Social Responsibility has become a core mission of many higher education institutions around the world. Objectives: The central aim of this project was to share experience and know-how of relationships between European universities and their civic and civil societies and to use this as the basis for a series of innovative pilot projects in each partner city. We sought to understand how Higher Education Institutions can better respond to what their local community really needs and to perform or broker research with and for communities, in a demand-driven way. We also sought to drive institution-wide commitment to co-production of knowledge and innovation through social engagement and citizen-led research, where the experience and expertise of individuals, communities and civic organisations is recognised, used and valued. Participants: This project brought together universities, their local authority partners, community members, Civil Society Organisations and engagement practitioners, through stakeholder involvement, and participation in case studies and pilot projects in each Partner City. The completed outputs included: IO1 A state-of-the-art review of partnerships between universities and their civic and civil societies: This output provides an overview of the different models and approaches of partnerships between universities and their communities, exploring their governance, function and structure, motivations for partnering, and characteristics. We also provide a focus on each of the partner countries, and describe how regional and national context and policies support or hinder partnerships between universities and their communities, and describe some of the unique partnerships between academic institutions and their communities in each partner country - exploring the practicalities of what works and what doesn’t work, and trying to understand how partnerships demonstrate and evaluate the impact of their activities on all stakeholders and the wider society. IO2 Case Study Compendium: This second output used a case study methodology to explore successful examples of community university partnerships in each Partner Institution, using interviews and observations to understand and describe what works and what doesn’t. IO3 Pilot Project Delivery and Synthesis: The findings from the first two outputs were used to inform the design and delivery of a community-led Pilot Project in each Partner city. Each project was co-designed and delivered from inception with non-academic partners, to bring about mutual benefit for all parties and was evaluated for impact, inclusion and transferability. IO4 Community University Partnership Toolkit: Finally, the lessons learned were translated into a series of accessible components of a Toolkit designed to help universities and their communities to develop partnerships which respond to local societal challenges. Results and impact: The immediate outcome of this project is enriched knowledge and understanding of the myriad ways in which universities can engage with their communities in order to become more embedded in, and responsive to, the needs of their local society. In the longer term, lessons learned will enhance the relevance and impact of trans-disciplinary engaged research into societal issues by helping universities to understand how they can support academics and students to co-produce research with and for their communities.