Wonkhe SUs · The 2026 webinar box set
Making the town or city where you study better
How SUs can make the town or city where students study better, through urban and civic activism. (This session was recorded in 2025.)
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Mack Marshall explores what "civic" really means for students and SUs, what students actually care about in their town or city, and how to build an urban and civic advocacy agenda. We cover the civic policy landscape and the silos that leave students forgotten, devolution and the rise of mayoral strategic authorities, and worked examples like the Greater Manchester Student Partnership. (This session was recorded in 2025.)
What we cover
- What "civic" actually means – relating to your city or town, to citizenship and community, and as a verb: volunteering, voting and being an active citizen.
- Enhancing the student civic experience – the Civic University Network / Institute for Community Studies report and its recommendations on democratic participation and civic university agreements.
- What students actually care about – getting around the city, housing quality and affordability, part-time work, staying to work after graduation, safety and access to health services.
- The civic policy agenda and the silos – why government forgets students (DfE? DWP? Housing? Health?), spanning housing, health, work, transport, skills, cost of living and devolution.
- Different access points – the lever often isn't the university, and sometimes isn't even your MP.
- Bridget Phillipson's priorities – including a greater civic role for universities in their communities.
- Devolution is coming – devolved power to local authorities, the English devolution white paper, and strategic/combined authorities led by elected mayors.
- Mayoral strategic authorities – including established mayoral regions getting devolved research funding.
- The Greater Manchester Student Partnership – five SUs working together as a regional voice, the Student Assembly, and a manifesto on housing, transport, safety and mental health.
- Town and gown – the non-academic population and the university community, and how SUs can help bridge them.
Things to read
- The UK needs a vision for its student cities
- Building a public transport agenda for commuter students
- Students will go if other students have organised it
- We want Greater Manchester to be the best place for students to live in this country
- How to develop urban advocacy projects in an election year
- How to develop a student urban advocacy agenda
- Urban advocacy, contract cheating, students in teams (Membership Services Show)
- What happens when student numbers grow faster than bed spaces?
- Where do students live now? And where did they live a decade ago?
- Where do graduates live (Census 2021 edition)
- The town is the gown
- What role should students and their SUs play in the community?
- How can SUs get civic-al
- What SUs need to know about student civic engagement
- Students should be more involved in their towns and cities (Pride in Place Strategy)
- Here's what universities' civic and economic impact is, and why SUs should be interested
- A new 'civic healthcheck' for your uni and SU
- Higher education, students, and a sense of place
- How to make a difference for students on public transport
- Here's how to respond to the Department for Transport's Integrated National Transport Strategy
- How city planners think about student accommodation
- Universities have a responsibility for the high street too
- 100 ways to build (and bridge) community on campus
- Students need a better deal on public transport
- Students making changes on transport
- Commuter students on Wonkhe – tag archive
- Civic on Wonkhe – tag archive
- Community on Wonkhe – tag archive