This month, the Public Engagement Network was joined by Anne Murphy, Andy Thorpe and Guy Hembury for a panel on how Public Engagement fits in with the Civic University agenda, Research Excellence Framework, and Knowledge Exchange Framework.

“Public engagement describes the myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public. Engagement is by definition a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit.”

(NCCPE)

Civic University

The civic agenda came into university strategy as a lot of people across the university said that they were involved in civic activity. But this then raised a question: what did each person mean by “civic”? Anne Murphy has worked to pinpoint the meaning of civic as work which gives back to the region. This could mean contributing to culture, economy, environment or heritage in the local or regional area. Specifically, it’s work taking place in response to local challenges.

If you’re carrying out two-way engagement with the public, with the intention of generating local or regional benefit or resolving local or regional challenges, then your activity could be considered as both civic and public engagement.

REF – Research Excellence Framework

REF is the UK’s system for assessing the quality of research across UK Higher Education Institutions. It looks at Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding; People, Culture and Environment; and Impact and Engagement. Engagement comes into play across REF, from engaging with academics and other audiences in Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding to engaging with researchers, corporations or NGOs for example in People, Culture and Environment.

Public Engagement more specifically comes into play in Impact and Engagement. Here ‘engagement’ refers to processes of delivering impact, engaging with publics and research users to maximise the benefits of a project.

KEF – Knowledge Exchange Framework

KEF uses metrics and narrative statements to assess the ways in which universities collaborate with external partners. It is assessed through seven Perspectives, one of which is Public and Community Engagement. As well as considering strategies and success, this area looks at the support available and what the university is doing to enhance practice.

Public Engagement is a key area to develop in KEF, and the Public Engagement Network is a great way to communicate with those working on KEF who do not engage directly with Public Engagement.

What does this mean?

Two messages were consistent across all of these areas. The first was that we shouldn’t be doing public engagement for these agendas. Public engagement should be a matter of course, taking place for the benefits that it provides to both the public and the university.

The second was that those behind the REF, KEF and civic agendas are enthusiastic about what they do, keen to hear about the engagement taking place across the university, and want to do what they can to connect practitioners with those working on other projects or with others outside of the university who may be interested or help contribute to projects.

Remember, any piece of public engagement could link to any combination of the civic agenda, REF, and KEF.

How can I engage?

  • Identify broad stakeholder groups which might be interested in your work. If you’re doing work on local or regional interests, get in touch with the Civic Team – that’s Anne Murphy (Civic Lead) and Sue Knight (Project Officer) – if your research is related to policy.
  • If you’re carrying out significant public engagement that you think might lead to an Impact Case Study or contribute to the REF engagement narrative, get in touch with your Faculty Impact Lead or UoA coordinator.
  • Communicate with colleagues – there might be opportunities to collaborate or network which could be beneficial to your Public Engagement work.

You can join the network by searching ‘Public Engagement Network’ in Google Groups, or contact hannah.coombs@port.ac.uk