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Between 2002 and 2018, at a time when UK universities were being increasingly measured in economic and financial terms, Staffordshire University established a dedicated public engagement unit. Staffed by an experienced team of “pracademics” (Posner, 2009), the Creative Communities Unit (CCU) engaged with community members and voluntary organizations through teaching, research, and consultancy. Underpinning CCU practice was a clear set of principles influenced by those of community development, including participation, inclusion, and action-driven practice. However, despite strong community connections the work of the unit remained isolated with little coordination for public engagement at a strategic level in the university.

This chapter charts the work of the CCU over its lifespan and its influence on a strategically embedded Connected Communities Framework through which civic engagement is supported across the institution. It explores how the alignment of grass roots activity through the CCU, shifts in UK policy and a clear, institutional strategic vision for civic engagement enabled the move from public engagement as a small team activity to an institutional commitment. It concludes with a reflection on the enabling conditions that supported the journey toward a civic university.

Research‐intensive universities have special challenges in providing their students with civic education, particularly education that is rooted in the curriculum. Their efforts are important to the overall effort to promote education “for the common good” at colleges and universities because of their stature within the higher education community. This paper aims to address the particular needs and challenges of research universities in fostering civic education and strengthening their leadership contributions.

This article provides a snapshot of how 15 American research university campuses, which are part of a “learning community”, approach their goal of educating their students to promote the common good. Based on survey self‐reports conducted in the spring of 2009, it documents their civic education work.

The survey confirms, while research universities are being creative and assertive in expanding their civic education work, there is ample room to extend and improve their efforts, and it frames an agenda for continued improvement. All surveyed campuses are committed to civic education and provide domestic and international engagement experience to undergraduates. Most provide curricular engagement experiences. In‐depth opportunities for a select group of students are common, university‐wide opportunities are not. Many want to improve the integration of curricular and extra‐curricular engagement.

The research is based on self‐reports of a small sample.

These campuses face two major challenges to fostering civic education: generating greater faculty buy‐in, and overcoming the difficulties of program development at large decentralized institutions. Opportunities for program improvement include: better measurement of outcomes, more use of theory, and more student involvement in institutional governance.

These findings provide unique insight into the work of some of the most able practitioners of civic education at American research universities.

The study seeks to understand the experiences and perceptions of the university youth regarding the democratic atmosphere of a public university located in Turkey. To this end, the objective of this research is twofold: (1) to investigate university students’ level of civic engagement regarding student activism, exercising rights, and interest in politics; and (2) to explore students’ perception of their university environment regarding the promotion of tolerance, respect for ideas, and participation in decision-making. This study was carried out at a public university located in the middle of Turkey. A mixed-method approach was employed, including both qualitative and quantitative data. A total of 332 undergraduate students participated in the quantitative part while 14 undergraduate students were interviewed in the qualitative part of the study. In quantitative data collection, two self-developed scales were used: Civic Engagement Scale and Perceptions of Democratic University Environment Scale. The results of the data analysis indicated that students’ overall civic engagement level was below the average level. In particular, the level of students’ activism was significantly lower than that of students’ interest in politics and exercising rights, respectively. In addition, the level of students’ interest in politics was significantly lower than that of students’ exercising rights. With respect to the students’ perception of democratic university environment, the data revealed that students’ overall perception of the university environment was slightly above average level. Specifically, the students’ perception of university environment regarding respect for ideas was significantly higher than that of university environment regarding participation in decision-making.

Civic engagement involves working to make a difference in one’s community. Experiential learning enhances civic knowledge and promotes the process of reflection that students can take beyond their educational experiences. The purpose of this paper is to identify whether civic engagement may be increased through domestic experiential learning experiences and to inform future educators about how a domestic immersion experience can be used to increase civic engagement among students.

Twenty-five students who participated in a domestic immersion experience in January 2022 were sampled. Reflection and changes in civic engagement were measured with student responses to questions before, during and after the immersion.

During the preimmersion, students showed a desire to learn about the Afghan refugee population and considered preimmersion anxiety mitigation strategies. Using the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Civic engagement VALUE rubric, the four main themes were diversity of communities and cultures, civic identity and commitment, civic communication and civic action and reflection. The main themes yielded post immersion were increased civic engagement and aptitude to apply knowledge and skills. The subcategories of continued civic engagement were career planning, volunteering and educating others.

The findings provide guidelines to future work in civic engagement. This case study provides insights into the impacts of domestic immersion experiences and how it allows the opportunity for experiential learning.

This paper aims to present an interpretation of freehand drawings produced by a sample of final year degree level learners in response to the question: “What is civic engagement”? The aim in using this approach, with final year degree learners from different countries, but pursuing the same degree, was to compare and contrast their understanding of civic engagement.

Learners completed their drawings and then discussed their drawings in small groups. All of their drawings were initially examined quantitatively before a sample of six drawings were selected for in-depth qualitative examination.

Using learner-generated drawings enables learners convey visually what can be challenging to verbalise. After the exercise, some learners discovered that they had a good basic appreciation of civic engagement.

Describing civic engagement pictorially forced participants to think about what the essence of civic engagement was for them.

This study shows how a collaborative learning experience, rather than a competitive comparison of performance, facilitates learners readily demonstrating their level of understanding and appreciation for civic engagement.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the impact of the marketisation of the English HE sector on academic staff and the nature of their professional work is felt to the same degree in different English universities. The study was conducted between November 2015 and April 2017.

Using the interpretivist paradigm, a qualitative, inductive approach is adopted. In total, 12 semi-structured interviews of 60-90 min each were conducted with academics of six English university types (ancient, old and new civics, plate-glass, technological and post-1992). Participants who were identified by non-probability sampling included professors, principal, senior and lecturers and associate lecturers.

Six key themes emerged regarding the impact on academic staff and their work: efficiency and quantity over effectiveness; autocratic, managerialist ideology over academic democracy and debate; instrumentalism over intellectualism; de-professionalisation and fragmentation of the academy; increased incidence of performativity, bullying and workplace aggression; and work intensification. The ancient university is least impacted by marketisation in terms of academic staff and the nature of their work. Next are the old and new civic universities, followed by technological, plate-glass universities. The most impact is felt by academics (and the nature of their work) in the post-1992 universities.

There is a relatively small number of interviews in this study; therefore, it is difficult to categorically correlate an academic biography with their opinion in the context of their university type. More male than female participants were interviewed. International staff were not interviewed, and this could bring a varying perspective to the narrative found in this study. A mixed approach in further research would aid this objective. Some of the questioning in the pilot study was not as focused as any further primary research would have to be.

A further area of study, which could have practical implications, add originality and value would be to investigate how good practice in “employee engagement” in the university context might pave the way forward. This has the potential to benefit academic staff directly and the institution, a win–win solution for all stakeholders.

This chapter explores one UK university’s influence and involvement as a key partner within the 2025 Movement, a movement for change with a collective vision to tackle avoidable health and housing inequalities by 2025 in North Wales, UK. The approach to building 2025 is founded in systems leadership and social movements resulting in transformational change in the way we work, think and deliver across a region as a collective. The innovative role of the university as a key partner has shifted the perceptions of the university in the region and its capacity to act as an instrument of government, contributing to the political imperative to support communities as part of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. The chapter outlines the principles behind 2025 and the university’s role to date, as illustrated through three case studies: Learning and Leadership; Social Prescribing; and Healthy Homes–Healthy People. The chapter reflects upon the challenges faced and how they have been overcome. Finally, enablers for successful collective working are identified, which have resulted in the university being able to utilize its expertise, energy and education to work in partnership in order to tackle some of the most complex issues facing our communities.

The project – AskingBristol – uses university students to connect third sector organizations with particular “asks” to organizations which might be able to respond with “offers”. The authors describe the task of the experiment as being an attempt to embed students and their universities within the cities that they are based in, but are often not really very connected to.

This reflective report on practice describes an initiative aimed at producing a piece of “social infrastructure”. Written by the four people involved, the authors theorize and evaluate what we have done so far and what we hope to do in future.

Over two phases, it has had some success, and we think represents a concrete approach to thinking about how “civic” ideas might gain traction within universities. Using ideas about social networks, boundary objects and infrastructure the authors explore the opportunities and problems of such a project, stressing that it allows co-ordination between a wide variety of people and organizations that do not necessarily share common interests.

This is one “experiment”, in one city, but it demonstrates the possibilities of getting “civic” universities engaged with local third sector organizations.

If it became a piece of social infrastructure, such a project could embed ideas about “civic”, “impact”, “engagement” and so on into the routines of the city and the university.

Though Asking Bristol cannot solve the problems of the city, it shows that we can transfer resources, time, skills and space to where they are needed.

The authors do not think anything like this has been attempted before, and hope that sharing it will stimulate some comparisons, and perhaps some dissemination of the idea.

During a period of significant crisis within HE on a global scale, there is a clear need for colleges to clearly articulate the distinct nature of their higher vocational education provision. This need is particularly acute given the current financial and political pressures impacting on a diverse HE landscape. The purpose of this paper is to argue that colleges are well placed to develop and implement an approach to scholarly activity which revitalises links with local communities.

This paper provides a synthesis of recent research on scholarly activity within college-based higher education (CBHE) and the concept of a “civic university”. It also provides a brief case study of how scholarship within the college context can be utilised to promote meaningful community engagement.

Working productively with community organisations, groups and individuals, colleges will be provoked to recast the complex relationship between teaching, research and community engagement in a manner appropriate to their immediate context rather than a national agenda. Moreover, a strengthened relationship between colleges and their local communities will recapture the rich heritage of vocational education in widening participation and raising aspirations towards education in general.

This paper attempts to relocate current discussions of CBHE scholarly activity within the context of civic engagement. It will be of interest to colleagues across the higher vocational education sector, both nationally and internationally, in situating their institutional and departmental scholarly activity strategies within the context of the communities which they serve.