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Institutional Context
Summary
Established for over 125 years, and part of the University of London, Goldsmiths spans the arts, humanities, social sciences, cultural studies, computing, business and management, and law. It is also a provider of professional training in teaching, social work, counselling and therapy practice. Knowledge creation and exchange – from curiosity-driven research to work that applies its research to real-world issues – underpins its intellectual, creative and social culture. As a campus-based university in the London Borough of Lewisham, an area of significant deprivation, as well as being racially diverse, its local economic, cultural and social impacts are highly significant and Goldsmiths recognises that these impacts will become even more important for its local community in the future.
Institutional context
The nature of our disciplines, the mix of theory and practice and interdisciplinarity, and our relatively small size (a student cohort of some 10,000 plus a staff cohort of some 1,200) combine to create an academic community that is known for linking up new ideas across disciplines to create new degree programmes and imaginative approaches to research and practice. This interdisciplinary ethos has helped Goldsmiths to develop a reputation in fields such as creative computing, practice-based research, creative and cultural studies, understanding ourselves and others, how we interact with new technologies, and social justice.
Goldsmiths has grown new disciplinary fields and areas of focus which bring together insights from a range of established disciplines in new ways: Notable examples are:
Forensic Architecture established a new field and methodological approaches to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world.
The Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) involves contributions from disciplines such as music, dance, drama, fine art, communications, media and technology.
The Department of Computing focuses on creative computing and has a vision of computing research as an interdisciplinary set of practices, methods and techniques clustered around the roles of computation in individual creativity and social connectivity.
Our research helps to develop new technologies and services, including contributions to the UK’s creative and digital industries which are an increasingly important part of the UK’s economy. Three examples here are: the development of new approaches to business, financial models and management in the creative economy; the development of computer games, immersive technologies and AI; and new methods to evaluate user experience of immersive media content, and in so doing has helped a range of international telecommunications companies in Europe and the US, as well as cultural organisations in the UK and overseas (such as RSC, Young Vic, and the Arts Council of England).
Many of our departments also make direct contributions to cultural life and influence cultural and artistic practice, with their research reaching the public through exhibitions at museums and galleries as well as broadcast media. Departments are often involved in prestigious events and exhibitions, such as the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, and the Wellcome Collection. Our alumni have won the Turner Prize (eight times), and also include an Oscar winner (the director Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave).
Given our origins as a technical college for local working classes and our location in Lewisham, it is not surprising that Goldsmiths is deeply committed to its local communities within south east London, and has a long history of community engagement. The social and economic impacts of what we do locally are therefore highly significant given this local context. This is recognised by the London Borough of Lewisham and also by the Greater London Authority (GLA), as evidenced by our partnerships with both and our contributions to their growth strategies. We aim to build and enhance these partnerships and activities as part of our new Civic Engagement Strategy and forthcoming Civic University Agreement (CUA).
For further information, please send queries to v.hurley@gold.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
As an anchor institution in Lewisham, an area of significant deprivation, Goldsmiths has longstanding partnerships with local stakeholders (the Council, schools, FE providers, local community groups and charities). This network has in turn informed Goldsmiths’ approach, helping it to deliver major benefits for its local community, as a model employer (it is the one of the two largest employers in Lewisham), as a driver of local business growth, as a means to meeting local reskilling and upskilling needs, and as a provider of social and civic infrastructure. By ‘co-producing’ our priorities for local growth and regeneration with its local stakeholders, Goldsmiths has been able to assess how best it can harness its strengths to respond to what its community needs.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Making a difference through its research and knowledge exchange is one of our four strategic priorities (see link to the Strategy for 2018-23: https://www.gold.ac.uk/media/documents-by-section/about-us/Goldsmiths-Strategy_Exp_13.compressed.pdf). This Strategy has been underpinned for several years by a number of policies and operational priorities, which will be brought together into a Civic Engagement Strategy (expected to be finalised early in 2021), which will be facilitated by a Civic University Agreement (CUA). Our aim is to ensure we have an even more systematic and strategic approach to civic engagement to support post-Covid recovery.
The geographic areas strategically relevant to our civic priorities at Goldsmiths are:
New Cross/ Deptford and its corresponding creative enterprise zone (CEZ) – immediate locality – this CEZ is Lewisham’s flagship economic recovery programme
London Borough of Lewisham – Local
South-East London and Thames Estuary Production Corridor – Regional
Greater London – Regional
We are acutely aware that we are located in an area of relatively high deprivation where Goldsmiths is the largest employer locally and where there are limited local employment opportunities elsewhere. New Cross in South East London is one of the most deprived areas in the UK, but is also very diverse with people from BAME backgrounds accounting for the majority of the population. Yet as well as being an area of relatively high deprivation New Cross and Deptford is also an area of change. Over the period 2016-41 the population is projected to increase by 30,000, an increase of over 50%. This combination of an area of high deprivation under pressure for growth and regeneration means that the role of Goldsmiths in shaping future development will become even more important in the future for its local community.
The social and economic impacts of what we do locally are therefore highly significant given this local context. This is recognised by the London Borough of Lewisham and also by the Greater London Authority (GLA), as evidenced by our partnerships with both and our contributions to their growth strategies. For example, we hosted an event with the London Economic Action Partnership in 2018, which showcased how Goldsmiths informed Lewisham’s 10-year Business Growth Strategy, including the work on the Good Growth fund and DeK business growth partnership. See: https://lep.london/event/leap-south-east-london-engagement-event.Through our Memorandum of Understanding with Lewisham, we are taking a lead role in regional enterprise development by encouraging support for start-ups, particularly linked to the Creative sector and leveraging the skills and know-how of the University. Goldsmiths also engaged actively with the Lewisham Poverty Commission, which looks for innovative ways to make a real difference to the lives of people affected by poverty, seeking the views of local residents and identifying best practice from other councils. We aim to build and enhance these partnerships and activities as part of our new Civic Engagement Strategy and forthcoming CUA.
On a regional level, we are increasingly working with the GLA given the significance of our expertise to the London Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy, which identified the cultural and creative industries as one of its priorities, given that it provides one in six jobs in London and generates around £47bn for the economy. So much of what we do at Goldsmiths is directly relevant to the cultural and creative industries, which makes us well placed to advance the GLA’s strategic priorities for this economic sector. We also contribute to the GLA’s Culture Strategy, providing support and advice on the Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ) within our locality, which is Lewisham’s flagship economic regeneration initiative, aimed at allow emerging centres of creative production to grow and provide new creative employment opportunities for communities.
Two recent externally commissioned evaluations have helped us assess the impacts we are having locally and regionally, which in turn are informing the development of our forthcoming Civic Engagement Strategy and CUA. The first, a regional impact study, identified many of the needs of the local area and assessed how Goldsmiths addresses these needs to provide benefit; and the second examined the extent and impact of our community engagement strategy, and recommended ways in which these engagements might be strengthened. The externally commissioned regional impact study concluded that:
“Whether directly as an employer, through its relationships with local businesses, from the contribution of its students, the wider cultural impact of its activities, or the collaborative partnership role in local economic development, Goldsmiths brings significant positive benefits to
its local community. These benefits are long established but are growing. Goldsmiths has a critical role to play in the future social, cultural and economic development of Lewisham Borough and of New Cross and Deptford in particular.”
This report found that there was significant alignment with the priorities and policies of local stakeholders. The MoU signed between Goldsmiths and LB Lewisham in 2016 was aimed at boosting the links between the two organisations with Goldsmiths taking a lead role both in the Lewisham skills economy and in terms of business development through encouraging support for start-ups and SMEs.
Hundreds of Goldsmiths’ students and staff volunteer within the community for local charities and voluntary organisations like Action for Refugees in Lewisham and New Cross Learning and in the local community library. They also are involved in fundraising and supporting local charities. The findings of the second report (what our local community wants) found that:
On a personal level, residents are most keen to use the facilities – the cinema, gallery, library – or to attend events.
On a community level they consider that Goldsmiths’ most important role is in school liaison and education and skills delivery to the local population.
In terms of its broader civic role, resident respondents are most likely to think that Goldsmiths: cares about the welfare of its students; has a beneficial impact on the local economy; and students are good neighbours.
Aspect 2: Activity
Our approach has been as follows:
Goldsmiths as an employer
Delivering value to our locality by acting as a model employer, and through our procurement practices and our local ‘convening power’.
The Lewisham Leaders Deal to which Goldsmiths is a signatory, aims to support the local economy through adopting good labour market practice in matters of procurement, apprenticeships, information and guidance and the London Living Wage.
Insourcing our Cleaning and Security staff - many of whom live locally - seeking to create better and more secure employment terms.
Joining the Lewisham Council convened ‘Lewisham Backs Business’ taskforce to support business recovery and growth locally.
Local Business Growth
Supporting local business and entrepreneurs in our community through our Enterprise Hub (for local businesses and our students and graduates) and our Business Support programme (which involves workshops, business boot camps and mentoring for SMEs). These initiatives have been delivered closely with Lewisham and GLA to deliver their priorities, especially post-Covid recovery.
Contributing to Lewisham’s flagship economic development project, the Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ) in New Cross and Deptford.
Student Enterprise – helping our graduates to start their own businesses. we have a strong track record in supporting successful student enterprise, as evidenced by a recent report on students at UK universities starting their own businesses, which ranked Goldsmiths as 6th out of the 121 universities analysed from the Guardian’s university league table.
Supporting reskilling and upskilling
Collaboration with our local FE Colleges to address local skills shortages.
Development of shorter courses to help students build up qualifications over time, targeting local skills needs and supporting economic and social regeneration, and we are also looking at how we might expand our current short course provision.
Our education outreach programme includes programmes with local schools aimed at raising aspirations and encouraging participation in higher education among under-represented groups. This will have a significant long-term impact on the economic life chances of many local residents. Many of the schools we work with have a minimum of 30% of pupils eligible for free school meals. In 2018/19, we worked with almost 170 schools and colleges, with over 300 events delivered in total, involving almost 3,000 pupils and students.
Social and Civic Infrastructure
With the Lewisham Local partnership (a group of Lewisham’s voluntary and community sector organisations), supporting organisations and groups in the community and voluntary sector through student and staff volunteering, internships and placements and research and knowledge exchange projects
Supporting local cultural infrastructure e.g. Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art is London’s newest contemporary art institution and is open to everyone.
Enabling our local community to access our cultural assets (which include a community library pass, free room hire and the Curzon Cinema)
Aspect 3: Results
Economic Impact – local, regional and national. Table 1 below summarises the economic impacts of Goldsmiths’ teaching, research and knowledge exchange as measured by job creation and GVA.
Table 1 Summary Economic Impact
| UK | London | Lewisham | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GVA £m |
|
GVA £m | Jobs | GVA £m | Jobs | |
|
61.0 |
|
61.0 | 1,955 | 61.0 | 1,955 |
|
20.0 |
|
9.4 | 191 | 3.1 | 64 |
|
11.5 |
|
9.6 | 204 | 1.5 | 32 |
|
92.5 | 2,609 | 80.0 | 2,350 | 65.6 | 2,051 |
|
41.5 |
|
38.5 | 822 | 14.4 | 307 |
|
8.8 |
|
8.8 | 436 | 1.6 | 81 |
|
1.2 | 53 | 1.1 | 48 | 0.4 | 18 |
|
|
67.8 | 8.3 | |||
| Sub Total |
|
1,368 |
|
1,258 |
|
435 |
|
|
3,977 |
|
3,608 | 90.9 | 2,486 |
More specific outcomes and impacts of our knowledge exchange activities include:
Enterprise Hub – we have specific targets on the number of businesses we seek to engage (100 or so), the number of new jobs created (80 is our target), and participation from BAME entrepreneurs.
DeK and Digital Grid which support SMEs and local business – we assess the number of new jobs created and the growth in new products and services.
Creative Enterprise Zone (CEZ). Lewisham has recognised the impact we have: “Goldsmiths is our key creative engine – and a vital driver of London’s creative economy. It provides much of our talent, has shaped the district’s creative identity for several generations, and it has pioneered new ways of working that are transforming the very ways we operate as cultural beings.”
Student Enterprise and Alumni. There were 449 accredited student placements in 2018/19. In addition, the Santander Micro Internship Programme was particularly well received resulting in 15 regional businesses employing a total of 18 interns. More than 10% of working graduates staying within the Greater London region went on to set up their own businesses, become freelance or become self-employed in 2018/19. This is making a significant contribution to the local economy, in particular supporting the growth of the CEZ.
Impact on Lewisham’s Economic Strategies and Plans. This impact can be evidenced from a number of the Borough’s reports and strategies. Goldsmiths “critical economic role” is central to Lewisham’s plans for “the growth of the creative and digital industries in the Borough. In its Business Growth Strategy (insert link), Lewisham identified Goldsmiths as an important economic development partner.
We regularly review and evaluate the impact of these knowledge exchange activities, in order to assess the impact of what we do and why it matters, and understand what works and what does not. These reviews and evaluations inform the development of our operational priorities and plans, as well as our overarching strategies.
The findings of externally commissioned evaluations are published on our web site and promoted through social media. Case studies celebrating relevant knowledge exchange successes are promoted internally through all staff news.
For further information, please send queries to v.hurley@gold.ac.uk
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
We are committed to creating change locally and globally, making our research and practice come to life in a socially conscious way by engaging a broad range of publics in a positive, mutually beneficial exchange. We have also opened up our space and facilities to our local community.
We nurture and embed a sustainable culture where academics at all career stages are supported to undertake excellent public engagement that makes a tangible difference.
We have focused on our local community in Lewisham responding to local needs. We prioritise working with local partners to ensure a wide reach and contributing to events and activities outside our campus as well as opening up our own resources to the local community.
Aspect 1: Strategy
Goldsmiths public engagement strategy and details of how we work with our community can be read here:
Our strategy has been underpinned for several years by a number of policies and operational priorities, which will be brought together into a Civic Engagement Strategy (Early 2021), facilitated by a Civic University Agreement (CUA). Our aim is to ensure we have an even more systematic and strategic approach to civic engagement to support post-Covid recovery.
Our current Public Engagement Strategy was developed in early 2018. It was informed in part by responses to a survey of all Goldsmiths researchers (academics and PhD candidates), which sought to map current public engagement activity and establish the embeddedness of our public engagement culture. We received responses from just under a third of Goldsmiths’ academic staff and 45 PhD candidates.
The Goldsmiths Community Engagement Strategy (CES) was approved in 2014 following an internal mapping exercise across the College of all the activity taking place, and it was refreshed in 2018 with a consultation with 30 local community groups and partners.
The Public Engagement and Community Engagement Strategies support the following institutional strategy objectives.
Making a difference through our research and knowledge exchange:
3.5 We will develop a more outward-looking, public-facing approach to communicating about our research, taking outwards the work undertaken at Goldsmiths to new publics and generating new and different impact and value.
Civic engagement for mutual benefit: active partnership with our community:
5.6 Through public engagement with our research, our range of short courses, our public lectures and events programme and our library and archives, we will make our knowledge and learning accessible to the widest community.
Regarding governance, there are two groups with related yet distinct remits based on a hub and spoke model – the Public Engagement Strategy Group (PESG) and Public Engagement Group (PEG). Terms of Reference available on request.
PEG / PESG minutes will be received by the Research and Enterprise Committee in 2020.
The External Relations Committee has overseen the development and delivery of the Goldsmiths CES and receives regular reports on activity. Additionally, an internal staff forum for Community Engagement meets once a term to share community engagement activity practice and support the delivery of the strategy objectives. A series of Community Conversation events have been held once a term to provide a forum for the community to feedback general views on Goldsmiths community engagement
The Public Engagement Manager supports the development and implementation of the Public Engagement Strategy, with support from a Public Engagement Assistant at 0.5 FTE and an annual budget of £13k.
External public engagement funding totalling £17.5k has been attracted to support public facing activities in 2019 alone.
The Lead for External Engagement & Strategic Development post is responsible for coordination of strategy, community engagement outreach and strategic partnership activity. There is an annual £5,000 activity budget to support small community engagement projects.
In 2019-20 the UPP Foundation granted £7,500 (with match funding from Goldsmiths) to support the commissioning of external research (Chalkstream) engaging residents and stakeholders to generate insight about local populations, their views on the institution and their requirements of it.
Notable community offerings include a community use discount for space and room booking to local not-for-profit groups and activities. In the 2018-19 academic year – we applied discounts to the value of £120,000 for community use bookings.
The Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art is also publicly accessible. There is a Curator of Engagement that leads a programme of public engagement and includes activities with local community groups and projects.
We offer a community access scheme lets local residents use the Goldsmiths’ library for free. In August-September 2019 alone, 34 community user passes were issued and there were 93 first term community applications for first term of 2019-20.
We engage proactively with our community through our Community Engagement website, which has a list of named key contacts for different types of activity, and through The Forge, a Goldsmiths events listing magazine, which is distributed to 30,000 local households. The main ‘asks’ we receive from members of the community concern access to Goldsmiths space and facilities, access to student volunteers and engagement with Goldsmiths staff to support research and evaluation.
Aspect 2: Support
We have an established network of Public Engagement Representatives in each of our 19 academic departments, appointed in liaison with Heads of Department with time allocated into their workloads.
The PESG is responsible for allocating internal seed funding on an annual basis. Grants of up to £1000 are available to support activities that connect Goldsmiths' research, practice and scholarship with the public annually. The application, monitoring and reporting processes are designed to embed good practice.
The quality of proposals has increased year-on-year, while the value of applications regularly outstrips the modest internal budget (£5-7k) often by a factor of 10.
We have a Community Engagement Forum, the purpose of which is outlined in the section above. Sabbatical officers and staff members from the Goldsmiths Students’ Union also attend and this supports links with student-led community engagement projects.
Local community partnerships are key to our approach in community and public engagement: supporting staff by identifying community partners and making introductions is an important role played by our Lead for External Engagement and Strategic Development and the Public Engagement Manager.
Our evaluation of more general development sessions, that aim to communicate public engagement first principles, indicated that attendees would benefit from training grounded in specific opportunities or their work. Therefore, our more recent workshops have focused on internal Grant applications, and in the past opportunities at local festivals and pop-up shops.
One of the principles that underpins our Strategy is learning through doing. Our overall approach to delivering training has been project-based, with one-one development sessions.
Goldsmiths Council includes members from our local community and one of Council’s sub-committees, External Relations Committee, oversees the development and implementation of the CES.
One of our more recent projects is a new Enterprise Hub which will support entrepreneurs in our local community as well as Goldsmiths students and graduates. The Hub is in development but the planned governance arrangements for the operation of the Hub includes representatives from the local community.
Public engagement webpage – partnerships and working with us
Public Engagement undertaken by academic staff and PhD candidates is celebrated at the Warden’s Annual Public Engagement Awards, recognising the excellent work Goldsmiths academics and PhD candidates do to engage the public with their research, practice and scholarship. There are special awards for projects which demonstrate exemplary community engagement. An awards ceremony for these is hosted by the Warden in May each year. Winners receive £500 toward future activities.
Entrants must be nominated by a member of Goldsmiths staff, a Goldsmiths student or a member of the public. Nominations are judged against the following criteria: Mutual Benefit, Innovation, Quality, and Sustainability.
Aspect 3: Activity
Public Engagement
At Goldsmiths we are committed to making our research, scholarship and practice come to life, engaging the public in a positive, mutually beneficial exchange of ideas in a socially conscious way.
Public engagement at Goldsmiths encompasses the different ways specific publics are engaged in a dialogue with the design, process and outcomes of our research, scholarship and practice, leading to benefits for all involved.
we nurture and embed a sustainable culture where researchers at all career stages are supported to undertake excellent public engagement.
Strategic Aims:
1. To become internationally recognised for our innovative and effective approach to public engagement
2. To welcome, listen, trust and collaborate with the full range of publics and organisations
3. To develop a sector leading, sustainable culture of public engagement
Case study examples of recent public engagement activities which contributed to meeting the above Strategic Aims:
Community Engagement
Our strategic objectives are:
Form strategic partnerships in our local communities
Embed ourselves as part of the local education and skills infrastructure
Support the Lewisham economy and form partnerships with local enterprise hubs
Make our knowledge and learning accessible to the widest community
Be a good neighbour
We have an action plan that covers activities relating to all objectives, encompassing work from across the college – academic departments, professional services and Goldsmiths Students’ Union (inc. student societies). Activities range from small projects working with community partners (e.g. fundraising with the 999 Club for local homeless people), to the development of Goldsmiths policies that make a difference to our community (e.g. Good Neighbour policy), to applying Goldsmiths academic expertise to local challenges (e.g. Politics academic sitting on Lewisham Poverty Commission). Our approach is to keep dialogue with community partners open so that we know what’s important to them, and how our expertise, facilities and resources might help them. In 2006 we created a Memorandum of Understanding with Lewisham Council to focus our shared work on the three strategic priorities that were most important locally: building community; skills and education; and supporting a stronger local economy. The MoU has amplified the work we can do together in these areas and led to the creation of a wider ‘anchor organisation’ strategic partnership initiated by Lewisham Council and Goldsmiths. An example of successful partnership work – during 2019 partners co-signed a pledge to work on the ‘Lewisham Deal’ which included commitments to support an inclusive local economy, detailing actions on the London Living Wage, procurement, apprenticeships and careers IAG.
The Chalkstream report asked local residents and stakeholders to name the priorities that they wanted Goldsmiths to support – access to space and events; recruit local young people to Goldsmiths encouraging HE progression, local inclusion issues - our strategy addresses these. The report also helped us assess the impacts we are having locally and regionally, which in turn are informing the development of our forthcoming Civic Engagement Strategy and CUA.
Aspect 4: Results and learning
We’ve developed a suite of online resources hosted on our intranet to support academics to plan and evaluate their Public Engagement activity. These resources emphasise the need to embed evaluation at the planning phase. We emphasise methods where evaluation becomes an implicit part of the project, rather than relying solely on formal methods such as feedback questionnaires.
Foremost in our suite of online resources is our ‘Public Engagement Planning Template’ and Public Engagement Report Template’.
Methodologies such as Theory of Change have informed our approach.
We produce detailed evaluation reports for every project directly supported by the Public Engagement Team – available on request for period 2017-2020. These reports are for internal use, but form the basis of case studies published on our website – see examples in the previous section.
We also publish details of our PE Award winners and funded Grants.
Aspect 5: Acting on results
We have recently undertaken a review of progress toward our PE Strategy implementation plan based on activity since 2018, resulting in a supplementary action plan. This has been received by the institutional Research and Enterprise Committee, but is not relevant for the general public – available on request.
We undertake an annual analysis using the NCCPE Edge Tool, as noted in our PE Strategy.
We intend to repeat our institutional PE survey in 2021 in order to identify progress.
The Chalkstream research included a number of questions taken from national civic university research, allowing us to compare how respondents view Goldsmiths compared to resident populations and their local universities across the country. We intend to repeat this research regularly so that we can monitor change. This research is complemented by a programme of Community Conversation events which are open discussion spaces for local residents and community partners to feedback on Goldsmiths.
Goldsmiths is represented on local partnership groups and boards which enable us to participate in the current conversation and respond with support and help. We are partners of Lewisham Local (umbrella community volunteering and giving organisation), Safer Lewisham Partnership (statutory CDRP), Stronger Lewisham (council-led community voluntary sector forum) and Waldron Health Stakeholders group (neighbourhood health and well-being project).
For further information, please send queries to v.hurley@gold.ac.uk