The Higher Education Community Engagement Conference 2005 took place on Monday 14th November at the Manchester Conference Centre. We will be posting here summaries of the conference presentations and panel discussions, as well as other outcomes of the conference and ideas for future action. Conference Aims | Programme | Speakers | Flyers | Outcomes

The Higher Education Community Engagement Conference will provide the opportunity for senior managers in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to consider how community engagement activities may be embedded into their strategic plans. The event will explore how these activities may have a positive impact on the institution and its stakeholders if integrated into research, widening participation and teaching.

Delegates will have the opportunity to examine how community engagement activities can play a more fundamental role in the core business of HEIs. Community engagement activities include community education programmes, cultural activities, the teaching of ‘social entrepreneurship’, students and staff providing pro bono expertise, ‘service learning’, or the public communication of research.

Engagement with communities through teaching, research and third stream activity is not new to HEIs. However, the UK is lagging behind its international counterparts in embedding this activity – engagement is typically disparate, ad hoc and isolated. Even in UK institutions with extensive community programmes, such activities can be seen as separate, rather than integral to the institution’s mission. Since response to community need is paramount, a ‘one size fits all’ solution will not work. HEIs will need to be equipped to adapt to their own community’s social and economic needs and to find appropriate matches between these needs and the particular missions of their institutions.

Community engagement:

• gives new opportunities for knowledge transfer;
• provides innovative research opportunities;
• leads to personal development for staff;
• allows students to apply newly-learned skills;
• enhances the employability of students;
• supports widening participation;
• brings in external funds;
• provides good public relations and improves relationships with local communities;
• communicates research to the public, thereby demonstrating how public money is being spent.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Professor David Barrett, Dean of Health and Social Science, University of Luton;
• Professor David Bridges, Executive Director of the Association of Universities of the Eastern Region; Professorial Fellow in Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia; Director, Centre for Educational Research and Development, Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund’s College, Cambridge;
• Mr Dugald Mackie, Registrar and Secretary, The University of Manchester;
• Professor Bill Peterman, Chicago State University; Visiting Professor to University of Bristol and University of the West of England;
• Dr Kate Pretty, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge; Principal, Homerton College, Cambridge;
• Professor Ken Spencer, Professor of Local Policy, The University of Birmingham;
• Professor Kathy Sykes, Collier Chair of Public Engagement in Science and Engineering, University of Bristol;
• Mr Paul Hill, Times Higher Education Supplement.