Institutional Context
Summary
The vision of the University of Central Lancashire is to transform lives by delivering an outstanding educational experience, creating prosperity and opportunity in the communities we serve. Knowledge exchange is at the heart of our Strategic Plan. We are a Northern Powerhouse partner, working alongside others to strengthen the NW economy. Entrepreneurship is embedded in our curricula. We carry out world-leading research that has local and global impact, leading to commercial opportunities where appropriate. We value partnerships with external stakeholders, collaborating on opportunities arising in the public and private sectors. We provide workforce skills through our Degree Apprenticeship and Continuing Professional Development provision, and we offer expert consultancy and a range of services to help business to grow.
Institutional context
The vision of the University of Central Lancashire is to transform lives by delivering an outstanding educational experience, creating prosperity and opportunity in the communities we serve. As a leading civic university, based in Preston, Burnley and Cumbria, and with a thriving Cyprus campus, we work alongside our partners to strengthen the NW economy and beyond, delivering real-world solutions to educational and societal challenges.
Knowledge exchange is at the heart of our Strategic Plan, founded on six priorities, and in particular to Priority 4: Real-world Research, Innovation and Enterprise and Priority 5: Our Place in the World (Figure IC1).
Figure IC1: Our Six Strategic Priorities
Our REF2021 submission highlights how our research changes lives, and the range of sectors, organisations and communities we work with, from stellar astrophysics public engagement to the ground-breaking Preston Model.
Entrepreneurship is embedded in our curricula – Propeller Hub helps students , staff and alumni create their own businesses; and award-winning Creative Innovation Zone pairs students from diverse courses with creative skills and fresh ideas, with businesses facing innovation challenges.
We offer skills and human capital development through a portfolio of credit- and non-credit- bearing Continuing Professional Development, including bespoke leadership and management programmes from our Executive Education and Leadership Hub. Supported by our strategic alliance with Training 2000, we are helping develop new growth areas of employment through one of the largest national portfolios of Degree Apprenticeships, crucial in boosting local and regional productivity.
We are dedicated to supporting SMEs, who are vital to local employment and wealth generation. We provide a range of SME services, including product development, carbon reduction and how to secure business investment. Our award-winning Centre for SME and Enterprise Development provides tailored advice and support, as well as networking opportunities and masterclasses.
We have a range of state-of-the-art facilities and equipment located across our campuses to aid and facilitate learning and sharing of knowledge across our community. Our Engineering Innovation Centre is helping the region’s businesses to engage with the University to deliver benefits across the spectrum of engineering.
The University is a core academic partner of the National Cyber Force UK, to be based in Preston. Our Cyber Solutions Centre provides business support and CPD delivery within cyber security, and we are developing a Preston cyberzone, an information-sharing platform to support cyber-facing business locally.
The Knowledge Vine provides a virtual environment for academic-business collaboration. External partners connect and virtually shake hands with communities of like-minded people, post questions, and benefit from members’ knowledge and expertise.
Our Intellectual Property Portal provides business with straightforward access to our technologies, software and innovations through commercial and non-commercial licences.
Our “front door model”, managed by the Enterprise & Engagement Unit (EEU), provides a single point of entry for businesses wishing to work with us (Figure IC2). We assess business needs and identify the most appropriate route for accessing our expertise, including Degree Apprenticeships, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, consultancy, and collaborative partnerships.
Figure IC2: Access UCLan knowledge and expertise
Find out how to work with UCLan here.
For further information, please send queries to kef@uclan.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
As a major local employer and education provider, the University of Central Lancashire plays a pivotal role in addressing productivity, skills and wealth gaps in Lancashire and Cumbria. Local growth and regeneration are at the heart of our Strategic Plan. We are a collaborative, civic institution, working with external partners to accelerate socioeconomic growth in the region, reacting and adapting to local needs and challenges. We do this through our inclusive higher education and workforce skills provision; our programme of co-designed innovation and knowledge exchange activities that support business to grow and increase productivity; using our applied research to directly benefit the region; and ensuring that our estate development plans have a positive impact on local economic growth and regeneration.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Our strategic approach
Local growth and regeneration are at the heart of the University’s Strategic Plan. We are passionate about investing in the social, economic, and cultural development of Lancashire and the North West of England, offering opportunities which enhance the lives of those who engage with us through:
Driving economic growth through employment, regeneration of our campuses, and engagement with the University.
Supporting all people to access and participate in higher education, providing more choices and opportunities for individuals to succeed.
Leveraging our position as a large higher education provider to be a force for positive change in our region.
Engaging in regional networks, enhancing our strategic partnerships, and delivering high quality public engagement as part of our civic commitment to the region.
We are a collaborative institution, committed to working with external stakeholders from public, private and charity sectors to accelerate economic growth in the region, adapting to local needs and challenges. We do this by:
Developing workforce skills by training employees, and working with businesses to promote growth and increased productivity through our innovation and knowledge transfer activities.
Using our applied research to directly benefit the economic, social, and cultural development of the region.
Ensuring that our estate development plans and strategies have a positive impact on local economic growth and regeneration.
Geographical focus
UCLan is an anchor institution with a multi-campus presence primarily based in Lancashire. The City of Preston is our home campus, with other campuses in Burnley, Whitehaven in Cumbria and Cyprus. We also have a presence in Blackburn through our subsidiary company, Training 2000. The University’s local growth and regeneration activity is mainly delivered in Lancashire, supported from the Preston and Burnley campuses, with more specialist activity delivered in West Cumbria along the British Energy Coast.
The University actively participates in wider North West and Northern agendas, including the Northern Powerhouse, North West Space Cluster, NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West, Northern Health Science Alliance, North West Aerospace alliance and North West Cyber Corridor (see below), expanding our geographical focus beyond our immediate County boundaries.
Lancashire’s economy
Lancashire’s economy lags much of the UK. The County’s economy was worth £33.3 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2020. GVA per head was £22.0k, 76% of the UK average, a substantial productivity gap that has been widening steadily since 2004.
Gross disposable household income (GDHI) stood at 85% of the UK average, with all but two of the fourteen local authority areas well below average – Blackburn with Darwen at 70% was third lowest in the UK (out of 179).
There is substantial variation across the County, with Lancashire home to some of the most deprived areas in England, including three out of the ten most deprived English local authorities - Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, and Blackpool which ranks first (IMD 2019).
Lancashire has a population of 1.2 million (Census 2021), with an economically active population of 568,000 (75.7%), below the Great Britain average (78.4%). Of the economically inactive, 29.4% are either temporary sick or long-term sick compared to the Great Britain average of nearly 27.7%. This has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the ONS’ Annual Population Survey, the proportion of Lancashire residents with higher education qualifications (NVQ4 or above) in 2021 was 35%, 9% below the national average; NVQ3 qualifications in Lancashire are 5% below the national average.
There are over 55,000 businesses in Lancashire comprising 20% of the North West’s enterprises. The major employment industries are human health and social work (16.4%); wholesale and retail trade (15.8%); manufacturing (12.5%) with accommodation and food services and education each at around 8.5%. The County boasts international strengths in Aerospace, Engineering and Energy Technologies.
Local government make-up
Lancashire comprises 15 local government institutions: Lancashire County Council; two unitary authorities (Blackpool; Blackburn with Darwen); 12 local authorities (Burnley; Chorley; Fylde; Hyndburn; Lancaster; Pendle; Preston; Ribble Valley; South Ribble; Rossendale; West Lancashire; Wyre). The Local Enterprise Partnership, known as the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP), serves the whole county.
UCLan’s role in supporting local growth and regeneration
We are a widening participation University, providing inclusive access to Higher Education to our local communities and wider. The University is working towards closing the skills gap through the delivery of high-quality degree apprenticeships to meet employer demand and a range of SME support. We are a member of the Lancashire Skills Pledge which recognises organisations working towards improving skills of staff and young people.
The economic, social and cultural make-up of Lancashire means that there are multiple, local growth and redevelopment opportunities. Over the last three years, these have been identified and nurtured through relationship development and partnership working with the LEP and County Council along with other major anchors in the region such as the NHS trusts, Chambers of Commerce and large employers such as BAE Systems. Our Vice-Chancellor chairs the LEP’s Innovation Board. The University and BAE Systems have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enable further collaboration on a range of business innovation initiatives and entrepreneurship training.
We collaborate with our Local Enterprise Partnership on projects of benefit to Preston and Lancashire and invest in key roles to nurture linkages and facilitate joint working, including UCLan’s Head of Local and Regional Business Engagement; and the Universities Innovation Manager, who currently works on behalf of UCLan, Lancaster and Edge Hill Universities.
Aspect 2: Activity
Supporting strategic national regional initiatives and opportunities
We contributed to a number of major strategic national initiatives that have a regional presence in the North West. We are an active participant in the North West Space Cluster and helped to launch the Lancashire Space Cluster in Summer 2022. Our public and community engagement work also closely aligns with this initiative.
We have a long history of working in partnership with health organisations regionally. This includes active participation in initiatives such as the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast. Furthermore, in the last three years, we have worked with the NHS to use European Regional Development Funding to deliver two programmes to improve efficiency and health outcomes:
Health Matters: helps SMEs in Lancashire to access and sell their innovative and solutions-focussed ideas into the NHS;
MedIComm: a medical innovation and commercialisation programme that helps NHS staff take their ideas to market.
The National Cyber Force is moving into Lancashire. The University hosted the launch event and is now proactively working on the cyber ecosystem development within the region as part of the North West Cyber Corridor.
We also sit on the Lancashire Skills Implementation Plan (LSIP) as well as the Lancashire Work-based Learning Forum, which review skills needs in the region.
Supporting regional government and institutions
Lancashire County Council
The University works closely with Lancashire County Council (LCC). Towards the end of 2021/22, the University collaborated with LCC on the introduction of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. This involved working with the other universities in Lancashire to develop a pan-Lancashire Innovation Programme that local authorities can participate in. Our PVC for Research and Enterprise participates in the Lancashire 2050 group on Health and Economic Prosperity Policy.
Lancashire Enterprise Partnership
Building upon our Vice Chancellor’s chairing of the LEP Innovation Board, we have continued to play a major partner role within the LEP, including active participation of several UCLan academics in development of the refreshed Lancashire Innovation Strategy. Our PVC for Research and Enterprise chairs the Health Sector Board, leading on related policy. UCLan staff also participated in development of the Lancashire Digital Strategy and Lancashire Internationalisation Strategy, both launched in 2022.
Supporting local government and local places
Preston
The University plays important and varied regeneration roles in its home city of Preston. For example, UCLan academics led development of The Preston Model for community wealth building (see Aspect 3).
The University undertook major public realm redevelopments in partnership with the City Council. This included the opening of the new Student Centre and University Square in late 2021.
Burnley.
We have a growing campus in Burnley, a relatively deprived part of Lancashire, and a close relationship with Burnley Council. Through careful and considerate partnership working, we helped the Council to secure £20m of Levelling Up Funding from central government. This will in part fund redevelopment of an old Victorian Mill as part of the University’s campus, including a Research and Enterprise Service presence, to support regeneration of the town. We also worked with the Council on repurposing Sandygate Mill to create a library and Students’ Union presence. In addition, we have a residency in The Landmark, a local business hub, to ensure that we can support a wide range of Burnley businesses.
Supporting the regional SME and business communities
The University had great success in securing monies from both the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Skills Fund (ESF), to support socioeconomic growth of the region (see Aspect 3). This funded a range of programmes in partnership with other stakeholders, including:
The Innovation Clinic, supporting SMEs to develop and enhance their business proposition. They specialise in product, graphic, service design and development.
The Lancashire Innovation Drone Zone, a specialist team of drone pilots, robotics specialists, and hardware and software engineers helping accelerate SME product and service development activities for the drones sector.
The Investment Readiness Programme, delivered by experienced professionals with access to an extensive network of angel, venture capital and corporate investors, helping Lancashire SMEs to grow.
Our Centre for SME and Enterprise Development responds to the needs of the SME community, stimulating enterprise, innovation and business growth. Recognised in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) for its support for businesses, the Centre works collaboratively with businesses, creating a more productive and innovative SME sector (see Aspect 3).
We also run several programmes that encourage student enterprise and spinouts with an aim to grow the regional economy through stronger graduate retention within the North West. The award-winning Creative Innovation Zone (CIZ) pairs students with creative skills and fresh ideas, with businesses facing innovation challenges. Our Propellor Start Up Programme supports UCLan students, staff and graduates to start their own business.
Furthermore, we have developed our Front Door Model to provide all businesses with straightforward access to our full range of products. Our ambition is that, as we nurture relationships with individual businesses, we will broaden the products and opportunities taken up.
Response to COVID-19
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University, and its staff and student communities contributed time and resources to support the people of Lancashire. Our Covid response has fostered closer working relationships with our local and regional partners. Many and varied examples are shown on our web pages.
Aspect 3: Results
Our research and knowledge exchange activities have had a range of positive outcomes and impacts on our local area and the North West.
Research Impact
Our Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) submission demonstrates the wealth of impact that our research has, with world-leading or internationally excellent impact across our disciplines. The following impact case studies exemplify and evidence our work in local growth and regeneration, with examples across our wider portfolio demonstrating how we engage with local partners, communities, and the public.
Building networks to collaborate with SMEs, students, and regional government, creating mutual benefit and impact. Our Centre for SME Development (CSME) capitalised on £22.5m to assist 1,744 SMEs, create 236 jobs and generate annual GVA of £15m. This significant economic impact has led to the CSME being highlighted in the UK’s Industrial Strategy for responding to business needs.
Shaping Civic Space: Increasing cultural engagement and informing policy through temporary public art Following the financial crash of 2007/8, which ended developer-led plans for Preston City Centre, art-led project In Certain Places offered a fresh approach to urban regeneration, which is predicated upon the cultural and social life of the city. This is now considered a model of good practice within national art and placemaking discourses.
The Preston Model: Driving wealth generation, community investment and national policy. The Preston Model is the go-to reference model for Community Wealth Building, increasing local economic investment by changing procurement behaviours through cooperation. Our research changed the socio-economic fortunes of Preston. Local procurement increased during the research period (2012-2021) from 39% to 79.2% (increase of £200m).
Economic Impact
We conduct periodic reviews on the impact of local growth and regeneration activities, with the next one planned for 2023. Three independent reports, published between 2015 and 2020, describe and quantify UCLan’s socioeconomic contributions to Lancashire and the wider North West economies and identify the University as one of the most socially and economically active universities and employers in the sector.
Regeneris 2015 and 2018 reports provide a range of evidence of the outcomes and impact of the University’s local growth and regeneration strategy and activities. For example:
We are well-established as the main HE provider in Lancashire and play a key role in improving skills of residents – ~1% of Lancashire residents are enrolled at the University.
78% of graduates entered employment six months after graduation, with 11% going on to further study.
43% of graduates who found work stayed in Lancashire, 1.1% of the number of workers with degree level qualification in the sub-region.
We perform strongly on graduate start-ups and survival beyond three years contributing up to £15 million in annual GVA.
A midpoint economic impact review of the University’s ERDF- and ESF-funded support for Lancashire SMEs was conducted in 2020 – see Figures LGR 1 and LGR2. As we approach the end of our EU regeneration funding, the University is reviewing the most effective way to sustain this valuable support to local SMEs and other partners.
Figure LRG1: ERDF- and ESF-funded support for regional SMEs (2020)
Figure LRG2: Wide ranging impacts from European regional funding (2020)
The Engineering Innovation Centre
In 2018-2019, the University opened its £35m Engineering Innovation Centre (EIC) in Preston providing an integrated space for teaching, research and knowledge exchange. The EIC is a signature project within the Lancashire LEP’s strategic economic plan and a flagship local growth and regeneration project. Since inception, the programme has raised £45m in capital and revenue and supported more than 300 SMEs to improve their productivity and performance.
Skills and entrepreneurial support
We worked successfully in partnership with the LEP and Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to support more than 400 employers to boost their productive capability, with more than 2,000 local employees gaining new skills and qualifications through higher and degree apprenticeship programmes.
In 2019, the Centre for SME and Enterprise Development and Propeller Student Enterprise Hub were shortlisted for Entrepreneurial University. The Centre has a community of 1,200+ SME members and Propeller has guided UCLan to 1st for student start-ups with 961 in the past five years.
In 2021, the University in collaboration with Preston City Council hosted the first Northern Lights Business Festival to coincide with the Preston Christmas Lights Switch on. Timed to help with businesses moving into the “new normal” following the Covid 19 pandemic, the festival was a catalyst for entrepreneurial minds of all ages to come together to share ideas and best practice for the benefit of all.
Communicating our successes
The University maintains an active presence in our local areas and in the region, ensuring we can communicate our successes. This ranges from Committee membership and attendance at business forums; to press coverage. We sponsor key events, such as Lancashire’s Red Rose Awards and Enterprise Vision Awards and actively engage with short-listed companies to identify opportunities for support and collaboration. We have web, LinkedIn, a @UCLanBusiness Twitter presence and have monthly e-shots of our Business at UCLan newsletter (circulation ~7,000).
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
Public and community engagement is integral to the University of Central Lancashire’s mission to widen participation, promote social mobility and contribute to positive impacts in our surrounding communities. We do this in a range of ways, including our award-winning Lancashire Science Festival.
We hold the Silver NCCPE Watermark for our approach to Public and Community Engagement, which is articulated through our Public Engagement Strategic Framework. The framework identifies the benefits of public engagement to the public and the University, focussing our activity under three broad themes – community engagement, cultural partnership and STEM, and ensuring institutional priorities for teaching and learning, research and impact, equality, diversity and inclusion, and civic purpose are met.
Aspect 1: Strategy
University strategy and priorities
Public engagement is an important aspect of the University’s Strategic Plan. Sub-Strategy 4: Real World Research and Innovation sets out our commitment, as a Civic University, to work with local and regional partners to enhance development of the Preston Cultural Quarter with public engagement programmes. Sub-Strategy 5: Our place in the World, demonstrates how public and community engagement is integral to our mission to widen participation, promote social mobility and contribute to positive impacts in our surrounding communities.
In 2020, we received the Silver NCCPE Engage Watermark and in 2021 we implemented a Public Engagement Strategic Framework (Figure PE1). This sets out outcomes and benefits of engagement to the public and University, mapped onto areas of strategic importance (research, teaching, civic purpose, and EDI).
Figure PE1: Public Engagement Strategic Framework
Governance and Leadership
Formal governance through the Public Engagement Steering Group (PESG) ensures activity across the University maps to the framework. PESG reviews School Public Engagement Plans and endorses them for approval by the University Research, Knowledge Exchange, and Ethics Committee (RKEEC), which in turn reports into Academic Board (Figure PE2).
The Vice-Chancellor and Senior Management Team receive P&CE reports from the Deputy Chief Executive. The Head of Widening Participation and Public Engagement is Operational Lead. Deputy Heads of School (Business Development and Partnerships) are strategic leads, responsible for providing direction for School public engagement activity and bringing together School Public Engagement Plans.
Figure PE2: Governance of Public & Community Engagement at UCLan
Partnerships and stakeholders
We are taking an increasingly place-based approach to engagement across our UK campuses. Throughout the pandemic and recovery period we worked with local councils and networks of community partners to identify how we might best engage publics local to our campuses. We actively engage with the Lancashire Resilience Forum, and during the pandemic worked at a strategic level with other civic anchor institutions, such as the County Council, NHS, and police, to address local issues. We built a Covid field hospital within our Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre and provided gowns and medical equipment. We continue to work closely with the Harris Museum and signed an MOU setting out how we will work collaboratively to support and develop the city’s creative culture. In Burnley, we continue to grow our campus and educational offer. As part of this work, we began a community listening exercise in summer 2022, engaging with the public as well as local community organisations. In Westlakes we work extensively with the Samuel Lindow Foundation (aka Westlakes Research Limited) to understand the community and co-create interventions that have a positive impact (see section 3). Partnership working with councils, third sector organisation and businesses in Cumbria has led to us become a learning partner for the Creative People and Places programme devoted to bringing investment in the arts and culture to areas of least engagement.
Aspect 2: Support
Resourcing
We provide practical support for staff and students to undertake public engagement. Deputy Heads of School have strategic responsibility for public engagement in their areas, with other roles in Professional Services and Schools that share responsibility for public engagement activity (Figure PE3). This is supported by annual non-staff budgets of over £200K. Furthermore, the University secured over £1m in external funding to support public engagement projects from 2019 to 2022.
Figure PE3: Cross-University responsibility for Public & Community Engagement
Practical support
Public engagement training is available throughout the year with external trainers providing sessions alongside those delivered by the P&CE team. An introduction to public engagement is embedded within all postgraduate research student inductions. We offer informal training to staff and students through one-to-one support for the annual Young Scientist Centre demonstration competition and the Lancashire Science Festival.
Public engagement is recognised as part of academic workload allocations and features as an item for discussion on all appraisals. We support staff and students volunteering on projects that have positive social impact through our Time to Shine scheme (one paid day a year to do voluntary work) and Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership.
Mechanisms to enable excellent practice
In 2021-22, over 150 activities were planned across the University, mapped to the Public Engagement Strategic Framework and institutional EDI priorities.
We host the annual Lancashire Science Festival, which welcomes >10,000 visitors from primary schools and our surrounding communities and enables staff and students to engage the public through interactive stalls, workshops and shows. The event is well-suited to those new to public engagement, with several staff and students using this as a springboard to further develop their public engagement practice. In 2021, 111 staff and students delivered public engagement activities.
Working in partnership with communities has enabled excellent practice through collaboration. We host a termly Community Action Forum (CAF), which provides space for community groups to come together and share best practice. Whilst events are coordinated by UCLan, the CAF is a partnership between a network of 60 member organisations, with sessions and meeting format shaped by the partners.
In 2021-22, we began working more closely with the Fishwick and St Matthews (FAM) Big Local partnership. We agreed to act as a local trusted organisation and host a Community Engagement Officer for the partnership. The relationship has been mutually beneficial and led to increased P&CE in the FAM area to meet community needs.
Each year University colleagues can bid for up to £1,500 to support new public engagement projects, funding 25 projects in 2019-22.
Support for networking is provided through UCLan Engage Forum meetings, informal opportunities to share ideas, identify best practice and to develop new projects.
Aspect 3: Activity
Figure PE3 illustrates how positive social impact is achieved through our P&CE. People engage with activities linked to our broad themes to produce measurable outcomes and benefits. All this work is underpinned by broader institutional strategic priorities.
Figure PE3: P&CE activity links to strategic themes and priorities to deliver positive social impact
Community-focussed engagement
The Connected Communities project works with residents, faith groups, Preston City Council (PCC) and voluntary organisations in the local area of Broadgate, Preston. Residents became community researchers, conducting a survey to understand connections in the local area. Long-term impacts of the project include a community-led group which brought the community together organising Unity Streets during lockdown, supporting neighbours, and other events. Connected Communities is now being implemented in other areas across Preston and our Cumbrian Westlakes campus. Over five years, researchers trained 150 local children to conduct community research. Activity has taken place in Moorclose, Ormsgill, Mirehouse and Woodhouse, some of the most deprived local areas in the UK. In Ormsgill, the Stronger Together community group was founded in 2020 by a group of mothers whose children had taken part. In 2021 the group received £26,000 external funding to support their work and engaged with over 700 people in the local community.
We are part of You Count, a Europe-wide project, bringing together young people and relevant stakeholders to co-create knowledge and innovations about community belonging to increase young people’s inclusion. Preston You Count, led by UCLan, is developing a Living Lab, where young citizen scientists, UCLan researchers and other stakeholders address relevant issues and develop appropriate youth-led interventions.
The Social Prescribing Unit, established in 2021, focuses on recognising, harnessing and developing the role that communities play in achieving good social prescribing outcomes.
The Comensus team work with service-users, including patients and carers, to embed their knowledge and experience within teaching and research. The team facilitate two-way engagement through publics sharing their lived experience in a teaching session, creating digital resources such as short films or written case studies, and participating in admissions days and assessment.
The School of Law provide a range of free services and clinics to the public, covering general legal advice, immigration law advice, family assistance and business law. Between 2019 and 2022, clinics engaged 144 members of the public. In summer 2022, the Advice Resolution Centre, a physical hub on the Preston campus, was created where the public can access clinics.
Figure PE4: Examples of community-engagement activities
Cultural partnerships
In Certain Places, a cultural partnership based in the University, worked in partnership with PCC to develop the Mobile Events Tent (MET), a versatile mobile venue that can be used for a variety of events. The project secured £500,000 from the Towns Fund to enable design and build of the structure. The fully-equipped space can seat 100 people or be an open space of twelve meters square. Further funding was provided by UCLan and PCC to deliver an engagement programme and over summer 2022 the MET hosted 34 events for over 900 attendees, with 65 different artists producing over 30 different and varied productions, including art installations, community workshops and performances. This has produced valuable data on ‘what works’ that can inform future programmes. Local independent artists and the entertainment sector delivered 50% of the events and just under 50% of the programme engaged with participants and audiences from culturally diverse communities.
The Feed project, a partnership with Whitworth Art Gallery, explored and challenged complex issues around how we feed our babies, particularly when in public. Activities included a day long public event at the gallery; a new audio walk; a zine publication; and a bespoke baby feeding chair with specially commissioned sound works. Following on from this work a project is being developed at Greater Manchester’s Integrated Infant Feeding Unit, which will use creative processes to address some of the barriers which prevent new mothers from accessing and engaging with their services.
A partnership with LPM Dance to run weekly Dance and Parkinson’s classes for the local community has run for the last four years. Academics and LPM Dance have developed a strong and mutually beneficial partnership that supports the student experience and is valued by those who attend the classes.
We also encourage young people to engage with creativity and the arts. Several colleagues across the School of Art and Media deliver Saturday Club, which engaged 50-60 young people per year between 2019-2022.
Derelict Arts CIC is a people-centred Arts organisation in Preston, Lancashire. Derelict grew out of a UCLan Performing Arts initiative, which served to bring communities and the cultural sector together in partnership with the University. Now an independent CIC, Derelict retains its close affiliation to the University, working with and partially funded by the University. Partners include charities, arts organisations, Local Authorities and community groups. In 2019, Derelict partnered with the St Georges shopping centre in an interactive public arts consultation, gathering the public’s view on Preston’s cultural offer.
Our MIDEX research centre has worked with a number of partners to explore issues around Migration, Diaspora and Exile. They have worked with IBAR and the Preston Black History Group to write a book ‘England is my home’: Windrush lives in Lancashire. The book will be disseminated to librarians throughout Lancashire as well as being distributed to the local community.
Figure PE5: Images from a range of cultural partnership activities
STEM engagement
The multi-award-winning annual Lancashire Science Festival was delivered online for schools in summer 2021, with a one-day family festival in autumn 2021. The online festival involved live-streamed workshops and pre-recorded mini-lectures (example here). We sent printed class packs to schools with high proportions of students eligible for pupil premium and made the resources downloadable for all. The in-person family day attracted ~5,000 visitors. We saw an increase in the proportion of visitors from areas of deprivation (IMD deciles 1-3) from 25% in 2019 to 33% in 2021. 67% of those surveyed said the festival had improved their perception of UCLan.
We have a partnership with the Royal Institution of Great Britain to deliver the Young Scientist Centre (YSC), a state of the art laboratory dedicated to engaging young people with STEM subjects. In 2021-22 we welcomed schools back into the YSC and engaged ~2,000 students in interactive workshops.
The SUN art installation is a seven-metre diameter floating spherical light artwork presenting actual astrophysical data from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). SUN displays 10 weeks in the life of our closest star in 12.5 minutes of real time. SUN premiered in October 2019 as part of the Lightpool Festival, Blackpool and then in November 2019 at the Light Up Lancaster Festival, Lancaster. It is estimated that ~10,000 people engaged with the installation over both venues, with overwhelmingly positive feedback. In 2022, SUN toured locations in the UK and wider, including the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Brussels (in collaboration with the Royal Observatory Belgium), University of Warwick as a focus for the UK National Astronomy Meeting 2022 and Cardiff City Hall for the UKRI-STFC and IOP Interact Conference 2022.
Figure PE6: Images from our STEM engagement activities
Aspect 4: Enhancing practice
Evaluation against the Strategic Framework
Every activity on school public engagement plans is mapped to at least one outcome and delivered activities are evaluated against these. Evaluation is facilitated via our interactive toolkit and templates that help colleagues build their project-specific evaluation method. The first part of the toolkit helps colleagues identify an appropriate evaluation method for their activity (Figure PE7).
Figure PE7: Evaluation toolkit – methods section
The next section of the toolkit asks which outcomes and benefits an activity is mapped to on the Public Engagement Strategic Framework (Figure PE8). Based on the options selected, the toolkit suggests appropriate questions to measure these outcomes and benefits.
Figure PE8: Evaluation toolkit – suggested questions
Our toolkit is accompanied by a suite of tutorials, guides, and templates to aid navigation and development of activity-specific evaluation approaches.
Figure PE9: Evaluation toolkit – additional resources
Specific-activity impact evaluation
Where key project impacts lie outside of the framework, the Public Engagement Team, or Impact and Outputs Unit will work with the project team to develop a suitable evaluation approach.
Aspect 5: Building on success
Over the last three years, our Public Engagement Strategic Framework, planning and governance structures have helped us to articulate the purpose of public engagement at UCLan (Figure PE1). We have a three-year action plan, produced through the Watermark assessment process. Delivery is tracked by the PESG and progress reported to the RKEEC and Academic Board (Figure PE2). Our University Strategic Plan and sub-strategies list actions related to public engagement, with progress formally monitored via the Vice-Chancellor’s Group and University Board.
The 2021-22 academic year was the first cycle of P&CE planning and reporting overseen by the PESG who reflected on what worked well and what could be improved, with changes already implemented from 2022-23 onwards.
We embed reflective practice within our engagement programmes. All projects supported through the Public Engagement Fund (Section 2) complete a final report, reflecting on lessons-learned through their projects to help inform practice. This has also helped the central P&CE team identify University-wide processes that can be improved.
We evaluate our flagship programmes to ensure continuous improvement. The Lancashire Science Festival evaluation showed that the most impact is upon visitors from low socioeconomic status households, leading to implementation of a community pass scheme to attract more visitors from areas of high deprivation. However, in 2021 evaluation showed the passes were reaching fewer of our target demographic and we have updated our methods to increase the number of passes distributed through community partners.
Whilst EDI principles are embedded within our strategic approach (Figure PE1), there are opportunities to focus engagement activity that helps address institutional EDI goals. Several public engagement-related actions around engaging under-served and under-represented communities sit within action plans for EDI charter-marks, formally monitored through the EDI governance structure.
We are working more closely with partner organisations (Sections 1-3) and different communities help inform our practices through the CAF and Comensus. We will continue to explore how we can involve our local communities more.
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