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Institutional Context
Summary
London South Bank University was established in 1892 with a mission to provide education that would improve access to opportunity for the people of south London, and applied research and enterprise activity that would advance their businesses.
We now are the leading provider in London of SME business support funded by European Union structural funds and our business incubation programme has been ranked second amongst all UK universities.
Our continued commitment to our mission led to the creation of the LSBU Group, which brings together the University, a Further Education college and a Multi Academy Trust, allowing us to develop clear educational pathways from secondary through further and higher education into high quality careers.
Institutional context
London South Bank University’s (LSBU) mission is to transform lives, communities, businesses and society through applied education and insight.
We are widely recognised for that mission. LSBU has been described in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide as “embedded in its south London community to an extent other Universities can only dream of.”
Our commitment to this community is at the heart of our identity and in order to better serve its educational needs, we have created the LSBU Group, which alongside the University, includes South Bank Colleges, South Bank Academies and South Bank Enterprises. We are a recognised leader in professional and technical education and the creation of the Group has allowed us to develop clear educational pathways from secondary and further education into higher education clearly aligned to local career opportunities and the needs of local employers.
First class academic insight underpins this, ensuring content and delivery of our education is based on a detailed understanding of employer expectations and cutting-edge industry practices. Over half of our courses hold professional accreditation. The success of this approach is reflected in our being named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in both 2017 and 2018.
With an emphasis on impact through insight and engagement with place, the LSBU Group Corporate Strategy 2020–2025 commits the University to producing research and innovation that enhances teaching and tackles global and civic challenges, generates critical insights, and sustainable solutions to transform the lives of individuals, communities, businesses and society, with the ultimate aim of producing GBP5,000,000,000 of economic impact by 2025.
Our knowledge exchange activity aims to engender inclusive growth by utilising Group research and enterprise expertise to provide coordinated support to local business through access to facilities, technical support or high quality insight provided by our Research Centres and Groups.
The Clarence Centre for Innovation and Enterprise on our Southwark Campus is the hub for this knowledge exchange, providing a gateway for businesses and the community to engage with the University, as well as providing them with dedicated workspace and event space.
Knowledge exchange is supported by a team of 40 Knowledge Exchange professionals and takes place across all levels of the institution, whether it is students responding to live briefs set by our employer partners or staff sitting on the advisory boards of local government and sectoral bodies. This reflects a culture where public and community engagement is encouraged and celebrated.
We work closely with our local boroughs and the Greater London Authority, using our insight and resources to support their strategic priorities, as well as supporting small businesses directly. LSBU is the leading HE provider of business and innovation support programmes (funded by European Regional Development Funds - ERDF) in London and our business incubation programme is recognised as second amongst all UK universities.
The impact of LSBU’s knowledge exchange activity is nationally and internationally recognised. In November 2016, LSBU was named the UK’s Entrepreneurial University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards.
For further information, please send queries to kef@lsbu.ac.uk
Local Growth and Regeneration
Summary of approach
Engagement with our locality to support growth and regeneration is a central pillar of the LSBU Group strategy. Our mission is to be embedded in the local community, delivering impact for our local and global partners. Our local area comprises of the south London boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. Our work has recently taken a more regional focus, with a new LSBU campus being developed in Croydon. Activities respond to local needs and include support for the 65 businesses located on our campus; enterprise support for our students and alumni; innovation support for small businesses and support for local skills needs. The impact of our work is recognised by our local and regional stakeholders.
Aspect 1: Strategy
The new LSBU Group strategy 2020-25 demonstrates our vision to create a vibrant educational hub across south London to transform lives, communities, businesses and society through applied education and insight. This Group approach builds on LSBU’s 2015-20 Corporate Strategy, which clearly articulates our mission “to be recognised as an enterprising civic university that addresses real world challenges.”
A key pillar within both strategies is ‘real world impact’: we aim to deliver measurable socio-economic benefits through our teaching, research, knowledge exchange and community engagement. Engagement with place is central to this pillar: our mission is to be embedded in the local community, delivering impact for our local and global partners. By 2025, we aim to replicate our south London local growth and regeneration offer in the localities of our global partners.
Currently, our local work focuses primarily on the south London boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Wandsworth. We have identified their needs through:
Engagement with the Greater London Authority (GLA): LSBU is the largest university provider of ERDF-funded projects in London. This has strengthened our understanding of the policy priorities of the GLA and the needs of the businesses we support. Senior LSBU colleagues are part of the ESIF funding committee and LSBU Chairs the London-wide ERDF Practitioners Group.
Engagement with local boroughs: LSBU has signed MOUs with three south London Boroughs to demonstrate our collaborative approach to driving regeneration across the sub-region. These MOUs set out local growth priorities for each Borough and clearly identify the LSBU Group’s role in supporting this growth.
Engagement with other civic groups: LSBU is an active member of local chambers of commerce and business representative groups including the local BIDs and enterprise agencies.
Consultation and evidence gathering: We engage with policy development and consultations related to growth and regeneration. The following reports have informed our approach: The Mayor's Economic Development Strategy for London (GLA, December 2018); London’s ESIF Strategy (LEAP April 2016); The Evidence Base for London’s Local Industrial Strategy (GLA, February 2020); Skills for Londoners (GLA, June 2018); and South London Tech Sector: A Framework for Growth (Regeneris October 2017).
The significant growth potential of South London and its potential impact on the wider regional economy is clearly demonstrated:
“A combination of grass roots enterprise and a fertile network of business support and growth assets has cemented an established Digital Tech Sector in South London, with considerable scope for further development and expansion’ (South London Tech Sector, Regeneris October 2017).”
In addition, we have commissioned our own research to understand local needs. South Bank IQ (2018) helped us to evaluate the potential for innovation-led growth in South London. It identified an opportunity for a dynamic innovation partnership on the South Bank, working alongside neighbouring and wider networks to create an enduring ecology for inward investment. The South Bank IQ report built on the concept of Innovation Districts set out in Kat Hanna’s Spaces to Think report (Centre for London, April 2016). Hanna’s report found that LSBU’s case study area had the highest percentage of jobs in the knowledge economy after Imperial College’s White City area and scored second to UCL in terms of public transport connectivity. In May 2020, we commissioned work to further develop our place-making strategy and create an action plan and funding roadmap for a post-Brexit, post-Covid19 landscape.
Through working closely with the GLA, our local Boroughs and BIDs and commissioning our own reports, we have demonstrated further the potential for regeneration and local growth across the South London sub-region.
More recently, our local work has extended across the region, with a focus on the London Borough of Croydon, as the LSBU Group intends to open a campus there in 2021. LSBU Croydon will seek to differentiate itself from the start with a unique pedagogy and courses developed in conjunction with employers. Our approach in Croydon will build on the work we have already done locally: the new Croydon hub has been developed in close consultation with the local authority, to ensure our offer is aligned with local skills needs and supports economic growth.
Aspect 2: Activity
LSBU’s investment in the Clarence Centre for Innovation and Enterprise provides the foundation for our local growth and regeneration activities. The Clarence Centre opened in 2013 and cost GBP11,000,000. Through the creation of the Centre, LSBU has renovated an important local landmark, creating a hub for businesses, the community and the university to interact. This building demonstrates the University’s commitment to the physical and economic regeneration of its locality. This coalescence of academia, business and society clearly aligns with our strategic aim of ‘real world impact’.
Our local growth and regeneration activities are based out of the Clarence Centre and include:
Support for on-campus SME tenants: LSBU’s campus is home to 65 SME tenants. The centre includes businesses from the third sector, digital and professional services. Each tenant pays a commercial rent to the university and is part of a vibrant on-campus business community. Tenants engage with the university through collaborative research projects, supporting curriculum development and student success through internships and work placements.
Support for student and graduate entrepreneurs: The creation of the Clarence Centre acted as a catalyst for increasing student and graduate engagement in enterprise and entrepreneurship activities. Each year, 5,000 students and recent alumni engage in a sector-leading programme, within and outside of the curriculum. Between 2015 and 2019, 700 activities were delivered to students and alumni and students secured 90 internships with SMEs based on LSBU’s campus. This has an impact locally, given so many of our students come from our local area: approximately 2/3 of LSBU’s students come from London.
Support for local businesses: start-up and innovation: LSBU is a partner of the South London Innovation Corridor, a four-borough partnership (Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Wandsworth) supporting creative and digital business growth, which has received GBP11,000,000 Strategic Invest Pot (SIP) funding.
LSBU is currently delivering 7 ERDF programmes to support London’s SMEs from across a range of key sectors including health tech, low carbon and creative tech. Over the next 3 years, LSBU aims to support 1000 SMEs to create 140 jobs. To date, LSBU has secured GBP11,617,000 of ERDF funding and is contributing GBP5,808,500 in match funding to these projects.
London’s ESIF Strategy notes that it is critical to make it easier for different parts of London’s innovation ecosystem (businesses, researchers or investors) to connect, exchange ideas, and collaborate. LSBU’s activities address this by:
increasing the proportion of SMEs that are innovation active;
increasing the number of businesses actively innovating to bring new products or new processes to the market;
increasing the number of SMEs engaged in knowledge exchange, collaborative and contract research and innovation with research institutions, public institutions or large enterprises.
Between August 2017 and August 2020, approximately 750 businesses each have received over 12 hours support and 40% of these are start-ups. This support nurtured 44 new research collaborations between SMEs and LSBU academics. Students have also shared their expertise with businesses, with 37 student consultancy projects involving SMEs to date. There have been 5775 expressions of interest from SMEs and 1350 registrations on our ERDF projects, demonstrating that our offer meets demand from local businesses. Over 630 workshops, 615 one to one sessions and 7500 academic consultancy hours have been delivered, both in person and, following the Covid19 pandemic, via virtual collaboration tools.
As well as our ERDF-funded activity, LSBU’s Business Solutions Centre provides local micro-businesses with access to consultancy expertise from students at LSBU’s Business School. Since opening in 2016, 45 students have supported 119 businesses.
Our expansion to Croydon is supported by GBP803,727 funding from Coast to Capital LEP and GBP2,500,000 Strategic Investment Pot funding from the GLA.
Support for local skills needs: Activities to meet local skills needs and develop the talent pipeline for local SMEs are a central part of our offer. These include:
Mayors Digital Talent Programme “Digital Grid” Project to develop and pilot new Level 4+ digital skills content to support students to work with SMEs. GBP354,000 capital and revenue funding has been secured from the GLA.
Fresh Start an EU partnership programme (DG Grow) to support migrant entrepreneurs (GBP103,000 total budget of which GBP15,000 invested as match by LSBU). Fresh Start received 77 applications and 46 aspiring entrepreneurs were chosen to attend a 10-week training programme of workshops, masterclasses, 1-2-1 business advice and mentoring.
The Passmore Centre at LSBU opened in November 2018. The Passmore Centre was funded by GBP3,000,000 investment from HEFCE, GBP5,000,000 from Southwark Council and GBP2,000,000 investment from LSBU to meet local skills needs, including apprenticeships. We train over 1500 apprentices from almost 500 employer partners and 6885 of our students are sponsored by their employers. LSBU is also a skills, training and employment hub partner of the Mayor’s Construction Academy (MCA), working alongside 3 local Boroughs, 3 FE Colleges and Lewisham Construction Hub to assist employers and those wanting to work in the construction sector. Between January 2019 and March 2020, the MCA LSBU hub engaged with 764 employers.
The LSBU Group is responding to local STEAM skills needs by constructing the Nine Elms STEAM Centre, funded by a grant of GBP20,000,000 from the GLA and GBP30,000,000 from the LSBU Group.
Aspect 3: Results
In November 2016, LSBU was named the UK’s Entrepreneurial University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards, which provided national recognition for our work. Since 2016, we have built on this further, to demonstrate the importance of our role in supporting local growth and regeneration.
Support for on-campus SME tenants: In the first 5 years since the Clarence Centre opened, we supported our tenants to have a combined income of GBP317,000,000 and create 337 jobs. Our third sector tenants worked with 3,200,000 people through their charitable activities. In 2017, UBI Global ranked the Centre in the top 15 worldwide of university-run business incubators.
Support for student and graduate entrepreneurs: Our activities have supported graduate employability and skills development:
All of the interns placed with our tenants between August 2017 and August 2019 either returned to full-time study or secured full time employment, with 35% of participating SMEs continuing to employ their intern.
The South Bank Collective CIC, a student-led creative agency providing practical experience for freelancers, turned over GBP140,000 and now has 70 student and alumni members.
Advance HE awarded a CATE Award to LSBU in 2018 in recognition of its collaborative approach to enterprise education.
Testimonials from students and graduates who have completed activities with the student enterprise team illustrate the impact of the work with participants viewing the activity as a vital part of their entrepreneurial journey
Support for local businesses: start-up and innovation: We know our activities are successful in promoting innovation and university/business interaction because:
Independent interim evaluations of all of our ERDF programmes affirm that SMEs value highly our bootcamps, workshops and 1-2-1 support.
Our research collaborations have led to 67 new products being introduced to the business or market.
SMEs have told us about the positive impact on their business that working with an expert has:
Through a2i a London based start-up created a biodegradable alternative to single use plastic packaging, based on seaweed called ‘Ooho’. The capsules were used to refresh runners during the 2019 London Marathon, saving 30,000 plastic bottles.
Through SimDh a health tech SME developed a training programme using a combination of virtual reality and a resuscitation dummy to teach people CPR skills in more realistic settings.
More case studies available here
In 2018, the Business Solutions Centre received the IOEE’s award “Enterprising Learning Provider of the Year”.
Support for local skills needs
Of the 41 participants who completed the Fresh Start programme, 13 new businesses were launched 9 of which were female founders
Apprenticeship success studies are published on our website, and those of our employer partners, indicating the value that they place on the partnership with LSBU.
For further information, please send queries to kef@lsbu.ac.uk
Public & Community Engagement
Summary of approach
LSBU’s civic mission was established at our foundation in 1892 when we were created to serve the needs of local people and employers. This mission remains core to our Corporate Strategy, with the 2020-2025 iteration explicitly setting it out as “transforming lives, communities, businesses and society through applied education and insight”.
We pursue this strategically by working closely with local government partners, which are democratically accountable to deliver the needs of our local communities. The three key strands are: access to opportunity - providing educational pathways into careers, across secondary, further and higher education; student success - providing local employers with access to an educated and skilled workforce; real world impact – providing insight to transform society and businesses.
Aspect 1: Strategy
We have strategically embedded our approach to civic engagement within the institution, by including explicit reference to it in the University’s 2020-2025 Strategy, and making ‘Engagement with Place’ one of the six key offerings of our mission. This builds on the approach to civic engagement set out within our 2015-20 plan that Local Authorities are best placed to determine the needs of their electorate and therefore the University can make the most impactful use of our expertise and resources by working with them to support their strategic priorities.
This new strategy was refined in consultation with local partners including: the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, We Are Waterloo BID, South Bank Employers Group, Better Bankside BID, Lend Lease, British Land and Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust.
Its key goals are that we positively contribute to the lives of 1,000,000 people and generate GBP5,000,000,000 of economic impact, in part through our work with individuals; educational institutions; local, regional and national Government; representative organisations; local businesses; and public and third sector organisations.
It focuses on three core objectives:
Student Success
Access to Opportunity
Real World Impact
The Strategy is complemented by Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the London Boroughs of Southwark (since 2014, renewed in 2020), Lambeth (since 2016, renewed in 2020) and Lewisham (since 2019).
The delivery of Civic Activity is owned by the Director of Corporate Affairs, who manages its day-to-day operation, and is measured against a local delivery plan overseen by the University Secretary.
Resources secured and allocated to civic and public engagement in support of ongoing activity include:
Dedicated space and staff time to support our public drop-in Business Solutions Centre and Legal Advice Clinic.
University investment in the creation of a publicly accessible business support centre – the Clarence Centre Business Lounge.
GBP300,000 investment from Southwark Council in LSBU’s Academy of Sport to improve public access to educational sports facilities.
GBP240,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create the Borough Road Gallery - providing public access to the work of the Borough Group artists.
Support from Hanban to turn Caxton House on the LSBU campus into a publicly accessible space for the promotion of Chinese language and culture.
Expenditure on 5 dedicated staff members within the University (the Corporate Affairs team) to manage public and community engagement.
Aspect 2: Support
LSBU’s Corporate Affairs Team coordinates and facilitates the University’s interactions with its local stakeholders and provides support and advice to academics wishing to engage with local or national policymakers. The team also manages civic-focused engagement, including a dedicated website functioning as a gateway into the University for potential civic partners. This dedicated resource to enable public and community engagement is further supported by academic experts from across LSBU’s Schools and colleagues focused on wider knowledge exchange activities.
Academic development is governed by the University’s Academic Development Framework and the nationally recognised Researcher Development Framework. Funding is available for external development activities and recent training delivered specifically to academics wishing to conduct public and community engagement includes:
A training event by the Industry and Parliament Trust on translating research into policy in July 2017.
A training event by Parliament’s Knowledge Exchange Unit on achieving research impact with parliament, hosted by the University in January 2019.
All organisational development activities are expected to have a link with the KPIs within our corporate strategy including those related to civic impact.
External guidance is provided to each academic School through advisory boards, which typically include members from the local community. The School of Business’ Curriculum Advisory Board, for example, includes local business owners and the Director and past Chairman of Southwark Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, one of the Cabinet members of the London Borough of Lambeth, is a Trustee of Lambeth College.
Staff achievement is celebrated regularly, including each June at an awards ceremony included in the University’s Staff Conference. This includes political and community engagement through the ‘Research in Action’ category, which recognises how the research at LSBU contributes to making the local community and world a better place.
Aspect 3: Activity
Partnership with key local organisations, including supporting the strategic aims of local government partners, which are democratically accountable to our local communities to deliver their needs, is at the heart of our approach to civic engagement. Our 2015-2020 Corporate Strategy committed to creating:
“An environment for our staff and students to further develop civic engagement and professional partnerships.”
This has seen many successes including:
The creation of the LSBU Group through the merger with Lambeth College and the sponsorship of a new Multi Trust Academy (comprising a UTC and an Engineering Academy); this enables us to offer educational pathways from Level 1-8 to the local community.
The strengthening of our relationships with existing civic partners (such as renewing our MOUs with Lambeth and Southwark Councils) which provides opportunities to support the local community and employers with their skills needs.
Developing relationships with new partners (such as signing MOUs for the first time with Morley College and Lewisham Council as well as committing to creating a new campus in the London Borough of Croydon) which has enabled us to extend our geographical reach.
A renewed engagement with local business through the creation of the Clarence Centre for Enterprise and Innovation and a significant expansion of our ERDF funded business support programmes has enabled us to extend our insight - enterprise and knowledge transfer – activities.
While the effectiveness of this approach can be seen in our successes, we also recognise that some of this civic engagement is simply a reflection of institutional culture rather than a result of responding to over-arching strategic priorities. In recognition of this fact we have further embedded civic impact in our 2020-2025 strategy.
Aspect 4: Results and learning
Our overall impact target, as set out within the Corporate Plan, is to contribute positively to the lives of 1,000,000 people and generate GBP5,000,000,000 of economic impact through our work with individuals, employers and civic organisations. Examples of existing activity which has positively contributed to our Plan’s core objectives of Access to Opportunity and Real World Impact are below:
Access to Opportunity
LSBU’s Confucius Institute, between September 2017 and June 2020, worked with 64 different schools and 34,364 students providing lessons in Mandarin Chinese, martial arts, Chinese dance and calligraphy.
The University has worked with Southwark Council to open up our Academy of Sport to the local community - delivering 136 days of Sports Camp activity to 5,103 children (aged 5-12 years); 82 vocational training courses to 1,011 attendees; and 12,612 hours of sports ambassadorship to 40 community partners between September 2017 and June 2020.
Between September 2017 and June 2019, 131,130 individuals attended free public lectures with 5,161 days of academic staff time dedicated to them. 8,610 people also attended events delivered by Student Enterprise and Strategic Projects staff supporting the development of key business skills.
Real World Impact
Academics in our School of Health and Social Care have been making a valuable contribution to the Covid-19 crisis including the setup of the clinical skills and simulation training facilities at NHS Nightingale Hospital London, and surveying NHS staff to understand new best-practice, which has been developed as a result of the pandemic.
LSBU’s Legal Advice Clinic and Business Solutions Centre provide a free drop-in service to local residents who require legal or business advice. Since opening in 2016, the Business Solutions Centre has employed and trained 45 students. These students, under the supervision of academics have supported 119 clients/businesses. The Legal Advice Clinic, over the last 3 years, has trained 148 student advisors advising, on average, 16 clients a week across 4 sessions with the clinic running for 24 weeks each year.
In 2018, an academic from LSBU’s School of Health and Social Care published a report commissioned by Waltham Forest Council on the changes to gang behaviour in the last decade. In response to the report, the Council recommissioned their gang-related services with an additional GBP800,000 of funding, including a new initiative to set up a financial investigation service. A subsequent initiative targeted at this area, has led to a 38% reduction in violent crime.
In 2016, academics in the School of Law and Social Science led a project, funded by the Merton Special Teaching Alliance, working with SEND and mainstream schools in south London across a period of 18 months to develop a greater understanding of the link between sensory issues and ‘challenging behaviour’ in autistic pupils. This has led to a new focus on the indicators of distress and their minimisation within the schools that took part, enhancing the learning experience for autistic pupils.
Academics in the School of Health and Social Care have been involved in local and national projects concerning early identification of Chronic Kidney Disease, self-management and patient and public involvement in kidney care; working with partners including the East London Kidney Service, the local health service in Truro, Cornwall and Kidney Research UK. This has included developing an early identification method of the disease implemented in 21 laboratories across the four home nations, serving an estimated 12,000,000.
An academic in the School of Law and Social Science has been active in researching and critiquing international legislation that has sought to downplay the risk the Eritreans face from its punitive National Service scheme. In October 2016 for example, LSBU submitted evidence to a new Country Guidance case on Eritrea published by the UK Upper Tribunal. Their judgment confirmed that Eritreans who evaded military service and/or left the country illegally continue to face a real risk of persecution, serious harm or ill-treatment if returned to Eritrea.
Aspect 5: Acting on results
Prior to creating our 2015-2020 Corporate Strategy, the University had reached out to civic groups locally on a relatively ad hoc basis. Based on that experience, we reviewed this approach, choosing instead to focus on close partnership working with key local organisations, with a dedicated Corporate Affairs team set up, in part, to manage those relationships.
While a significant amount of public and community engagement subsequently took place over the life of this plan, we reflected in developing our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan that much of our civic engagement could be further embedded from a strategic perspective. Therefore, in order to ensure our engagement is as effective as possible, civic and community engagement has been explicitly referenced within the document:
Through ‘Real World Impact’, we commit to producing Research and Innovation that tackles global and civic challenges, with the ultimate KPI of producing GBP5,000,000,000 of economic impact.
Through ‘Access to Opportunity’ we commit to building group wide partnerships across South London aligning our civic engagement activities and contributing direct economic benefits and socio-economic impact through our students, staff and alumni. We also commit to inform, inspire and involve our communities, local and national stakeholders in our work. In this way, we hope to positively contribute to the lives of 1,000,000 people.
Internally, colleagues were engaged in the shaping of the 2020-25 strategy through the ‘Shape our Future initiative’, which was also shortlisted in the Organisational Development and Culture Change Category of the 2020 UHR Awards. Colleagues from different teams involved in Public and Community Engagement, such as Corporate Affairs and Research, Enterprise and Innovation, learn from each other on an ongoing basis to continually improve best practice.
Full assessment of the current Strategic Plan will take place at the end of its running in 2025 with regular interim assessments being conducted in the ensuing period.
The University frequently evaluates its relationships with local partners, including having regular meetings with its local Councils to renew its work-plans and has committed to renewing MOUs periodically updating them to reflect changing priorities and ways of working. This process has been complemented by the sharing of MOUs between Boroughs to determine best practice. In addition, the University is represented on a wide range of Council Forums such as – Lambeth First, Southwark Business Forum and Southwark Skills Partnership – which help provide feedback and guidance on the University’s existing initiatives and alternative potential approaches going forward.
For further information, please send queries to kef@lsbu.ac.uk