• About Us
    • About Wonkhe
    • Our subscriptions
    • People
    • Our partners
    • Pitch an article
    • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Latest
    • Explore the whole archive
    • Podcasts
    • Data
    • Wonkhe research
    • Long reads
    • Analysis
    • Comment
    • Wonk Corner
  • Jobs
    • Live jobs
    • Jobs posting & prices
  • Subscription
    • Our subscriptions
    • Wonkhe Pass
    • Wonkhe Mondays
    • Wonkhe Daily
    • Wonkhe SUs
    • Wonkhe Briefing
  • SUs
    • SUs HOME
    • SUs LOGIN
    • SUBSCRIPTION BENEFITS
    • BRIEFINGS FOR SUs
    • WEBINAR ARCHIVE
    • FREE SPEECH
    • LATEST ARTICLES
    • ADD NEW USER
  • icon-comments
  • About Us
    • About Wonkhe
    • Our subscriptions
    • People
    • Our partners
    • Pitch an article
    • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Latest
    • Explore the whole archive
    • Podcasts
    • Data
    • Wonkhe research
    • Long reads
    • Analysis
    • Comment
    • Wonk Corner
  • Jobs
    • Live jobs
    • Jobs posting & prices
  • Subscription
    • Our subscriptions
    • Wonkhe Pass
    • Wonkhe Mondays
    • Wonkhe Daily
    • Wonkhe SUs
    • Wonkhe Briefing
  • SUs
    • SUs HOME
    • SUs LOGIN
    • SUBSCRIPTION BENEFITS
    • BRIEFINGS FOR SUs
    • WEBINAR ARCHIVE
    • FREE SPEECH
    • LATEST ARTICLES
    • ADD NEW USER
This article is more than 1 year old
by Julia Unwin
Comment
10/12/20

Our turbulent times demand engaged universities

Julia Unwin and Vivienne Parry ponder how universities will consolidate their civic role, despite the challenges society is facing.
This article is more than 1 year old
by Julia Unwin
Comment
10/12/20
shutterstock_366149123
Image: Shutterstock
Julia Unwin Wonkhe
Julia Unwin Wonkhe

Julia Unwin

by
staff
9/12/20

Julia Unwin is a leading thinker on civil society, and chair of the governing body at York St John University.

Vivienne Parry Wonkhe
Vivienne Parry Wonkhe

Vivienne Parry

by
staff
9/12/20

Vivienne Parry is a writer and broadcaster.

Tags

  • Civic
  • Covid-19
  • public engagement
Julia Unwin

Julia Unwin is a leading thinker on civil society, and chair of the governing body at York St John University.

Tags

  • Civic
  • Covid-19
  • public engagement

Vivienne Parry

Vivienne Parry is a writer and broadcaster.

The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and UCL Culture have recently partnered on a report into the state of play in strategic support for university public engagement, in the UK and beyond. The Engaged University – turning words into action was based on interviews with engagement leaders which were completed before the arrival of Covid-19.

Prophetically, the interviewees called for universities to up the ante with their engagement, or risk being overtaken by events. The report identifies good practices in supporting public engagement; it highlights the challenges and limitations in the current system; it also points to practices outside HE which we should learn from.

A major crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic creates panic, and disruption. It threatens received wisdom and long-term practice. It threatens organisational viability. It can feed institutional paralysis. But it can also provide an opportunity for a reset, and for a reassertion of both purpose and values. The Engaged University report provides evidence of the very real action that is taking place within universities, and highlights the wide range of what more is possible and urgently needed.

Universities are by definition an intrinsic part of civil society. They are sovereign, independent institutions, established to meet need. Like so many institutions of civil society their origins are varied – whether they spring from church foundations, from philanthropic impulse, from civic determination, or otherwise – they have a purpose which is charitable, and they are not profit generating.

Like much of civil society they are regulated, but they have the ability, and the power, to make strategic decisions about their futures. This leads to the question, how will they exercise this freedom, and consolidate their civil role as they navigate the current crisis?

Engagement during Covid-19

Covid-19 has drawn back the curtain, revealing uncomfortable truths about our world, while also handing us an extraordinary opportunity for radical change – for reset. This is the most opportune possible moment in the worst of all times just as people are thinking not if they should reset but how they should do so.

Covid-19 and place are intimately connected – and just like monasteries of old, universities are inextricably linked with their location and their communities. Perhaps in scanning global horizons more actively, universities have forgotten their home communities but they do have responsibilities to them. And when we say responsibilities, we don’t mean that in any patriarchal way. Universities share spaces in their locations and need to share ideas about how to shape a meaningful future and to enact it with, rather than for, their communities in a true partnership.

Universities are by definition rooted in their place, and as part of a place – not as owners or managers – they shape the place, for good and for ill. The Engaged University report outlines a direction of travel. It also poses a huge challenge to universities – to translate words into action. We’re left wondering and hoping.

The challenge for the university sector

Can universities become genuine partners in shaping and building the recovery of their places, working not as leaders but as collaborators in the effort to build a new, more resilient prosperity? Can they can put their skills and knowledge, their networks and connections at the heart of a new programme of recovery, and use their undoubted assets – both physical and intellectual – to strengthen the hand of those crafting the slow return to a new and different way of operating?

These are urgent questions, strategically central to the future flourishing of both universities and the places they serve.

We were pleased to see the report foregrounding the PACT recommended by the Civil Society Futures Inquiry that Julia chaired. It asks absolutely the right questions for the times we are living in. It invites leaders to consider:

  • Where do you get your power from? And how are you sharing that power, shifting it to ensure that it benefits a wider population? And do you recognise the power held in communities and in other organisations?
  • To whom are you accountable? Is your primary concern ensuring that government and regulators receive a good account of your activities? Or do you have a duty of accountability to your partners, and others essential for your survival? Are you good at accounting for your actions? How open are you about the strategic dilemmas you face? In short what sort of partner are you?
  • To whom do you feel connected? Are you primarily connected to your peers – other universities with whom you compare yourself – or do you foster deep and meaningful connections with your partners in a place?
  • And how do you know you are trusted? What are you doing to enable trust in the academy?

Words into action

Ultimately universities will be judged by their actions not by their propensity to deliberate – valuable as that is. Unless universities get a grip here, they will find that events overtake them. Thoughtful introspection is important but needs to be accompanied by cash, commitment and constancy. No beginning and then abandoning.

Universities are facing a sustained freezing blast. Their finances are shot, the media has them in their sights, presenting degrees as dodgy commodities of doubtful value, there is a shortage of friends in high places. Civic partnerships, based on place, are a sure foundation in difficult times and are essential to survival. It will require something that may be difficult for academics – trusting those that may not share their knowledge and sometimes not their values either. It will not always be comfortable as it may require a surrender of power.

All of this requires genuine leadership and a determination to prioritise engagement – not treat it as an optional extra. That’s the choice that the Engaged University report helps to frame. Universities are crucial players in a civil, and civilised society. And they – we – need to behave like that, with humility of course, but also with a clear sense of purpose.

Our question to university leaders across the sector – and to funders like UK Research and Innovation is – When do we start? And how can we help?

Share

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • icon-comments
  • icon-share

Share

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

post list Latest articles

Wonkhe-Prizes-all
Image: Shutterstock

Why is a diverse sector focused on such limited narratives of research success?

by Cameron Neylon
Analysis
23/05/22
wonkhe-bureaucracy-papers
Image: Shutterstock

Reducing burden makes for good governance

by Susan Lapworth
Comment
23/05/22
wonkhe-this-is-fine
Image: Wonkhe/Shutterstock

This is fine: regulation, autonomy, and fear

by David Kernohan
Comment
23/05/22
Communicating,From,Distance,As,Two,Trees,Shaped,As,A,Human
Image: Shutterstock

The connections we make with students could be as important as the pedagogies we adopt

by Antony Moss
Comment
23/05/22
Emotion,Management,Concept,,Stones,With,Painted,Faces,Symbolize,Different,Emotions.
Image: Shutterstock

It’s reasonable to expect universities to practise emotionally literate pedagogy

by Debbie McVitty
Comment
23/05/22
Shutterstock_304007801
Image: Shutterstock

What should higher education learn from the Natasha Abrahart case?

by Jim Dickinson
Analysis
20/05/22

Distinctiveness, citizens, people and place: Jeremy Miles on HE in Wales

by Jim Dickinson
Comment
20/05/22
wonkhe-u-turn
Image: Shutterstock

Unconditional offers? Low entry qualifications are now the concern

by David Kernohan
Data
20/05/22

Podcast: Wokery, LEO, grade inflation

by Team Wonkhe
Podcasts
20/05/22
Shutterstock_1702475611
Image: Shutterstock

How to help international students bounce back from Covid-19

by Alina Schartner
Comment
20/05/22

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Related articles

shutterstock_1058170628
Image: Shutterstock

How can universities provide enterprising solutions for small business?

by Robert Crammond
Comment
19/05/22
shutterstock_243188854
Image: Shutterstock

Do students have the energy to make complaints?

by Felicity Mitchell
Comment
4/05/22

Podcast: Covid harms, Michelle Donelan, Scandinavia

by Team Wonkhe
Podcasts
8/04/22
shutterstock_2124463544
Image: Shutterstock

Homes for Ukraine – laying the foundations for university refugee sponsorship

by Bronwyn Parry
Comment
6/04/22
shutterstock_1508248688
Image: Shutterstock

Disadvantage isn’t just digital

by Liz Moores
Analysis
31/03/22
shutterstock_1768187438
Image: Shutterstock

Will accessibility gains be lost in the “new normal”?

by Kelly Louise Preece
Comment
11/03/22
shutterstock_2120731994
Image: Shutterstock

Were students abandoned during the pandemic?

by Jim Dickinson
Comment
22/02/22
people-watercoour
Image: Shutterstock

Levelling up must include an intergenerational element as well geographic

by James Coe
Comment
7/02/22

Copyright © 2022 Wonkhe Ltd.

Company Number: 08784934

Wonkhe Ltd, Lower Third Floor Evelyn Suite, Quantum House,

22-24 Red Lion Court, London, United Kingdom, EC4A 3EB

  • Moderation policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Moderation policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Wonkhe Mondays

By submitting you agree to our terms and conditions

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.