The Civic University Network
The Civic University Network builds on the 2018 UPP Foundation Civic University Commission which challenged universities to re-shape their role and responsibility to their communities to realise their potential as drivers of a new civic agenda. Our vision for the Civic University Network is to help make this ambition a reality – supporting universities to develop and embed civic aspirations at an institutional level, as well as working with government and strategic partners to ensure that a university’s geographic role and responsibility is used more effectively as an agent to drive positive societal change.
Our Focus
The Network will work to support the growing Civic University movement by sharing best practice between participating universities, support those HEIs who are developing Civic University Agreements (a key recommendation of the UPP Commission), develop a peer review scheme so that universities increase their civic impact, and connect universities with other sectors which are prioritising issues around ‘place’ to level up the economy and society. The civic university network is funded by the UPP foundation, Department for Education, Carnegie UK Trust and Arts Council England.
Our Ambition
The Civic University Commission challenged universities to re-shape their roles and responsibility’s to their communities to realise their potential as drivers of a new civic agenda. Our vision for the Civic University Network is to help make this ambition a reality – supporting universities to develop and embed civic aspirations at an institutional level, as well as working with government and strategic partners to ensure that a university’s geographic role and responsibility is used more effectively as an agent to drive positive societal change.
Civic Insights
Civic Insights provide perspectives and ideas, written by leaders in education, government and beyond, who are interested in ways to harness the civic mission of universities for positive social change. They aim to provide unique insights and inform thinking, drawing on the direct experience of those navigating today’s civic policy challenges, opportunities and practices, in order to help shape the development and deployment of civic-focused strategies within HE institutions
The first in our Civic Insights series is from Chris Millward, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Student who discusses improving local prosperity and the big challenges facing HE in 2021
Current Context
The establishment of the network comes as we all grapple with the challenges of Covid-19, not only for our institutions, but also for our wider communities and localities. The unprecedented nature and scale of this will shape the civic agenda for the foreseeable future. The Network will be working with Universities UK, the NHS Confederation and other key sector bodies to develop a coordinated response to the challenges ahead and to support universities’ contribution to longer-term recovery from the impact of Covid-19. The thought piece prepared by Des McNulty and John Goddard is well worth a read. One of the activities of the network will be to facilitate discussions across universities on the issues raised in the paper
Upcoming Events
23 June: Build Back Fairer: The essential role of anchor institutions in the North East and Yorkshire. The Health Care Perspective Click here to book your place
Latest Events
Latest Civic University Network event: Improving local prosperity through pathways and participation
We are pleased to announce the latest Civic University Network event taking place on Wednesday 10 February, 13.30-15.00 ‘Improving local prosperity through pathways and participation’ is a panel event which builds upon the publication
Civic University Agreement: Consultation and evidence gathering
Bookings are now live here for the next event in our Civic University Agreement workshop series 'Civic University Agreement: Consultation and evidence gathering' will take place on 28 January, 10:30am - 12:00pm. This will
Universities’ role in ‘Levelling up’ and building back better
Our latest webinar was to coincide with the UPP Foundation launch of two reports on the role of Universities in the 'levelling up' agenda, and on addressing the forthcoming employment crisis. Introduced by Richard