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Civic Field Guide

Process

This section of the Civic Field Guide explores the process of civic engagement.

We view civic through a lens of organisational culture to ask how universities organise and govern themselves to deliver for their places and communities.

A black-and-white illustration depicting interconnected elements along winding paths, including gears, a laptop, an envelope, an hourglass, a handshake, a signpost, a stopwatch, and a human brain. Red highlights accent the envelope and stopwatch, while dotted lines and arrows suggest navigation and workflow. The overall theme conveys process, decision-making, and time management.

Photography by Benno Media

Organisational culture for community good

Discover approaches to comprehensive civic management that map activities across themes and enable continuous institutional improvement

This section of the Field Guide asks: What does being a 'civic university' mean for the ways that universities organise and govern themselves?

Here, we examine how universities develop the mechanisms and organisational culture and capacity to deliver for their places and communities.

What do we mean by Process?

Field Notes at a Glance

Distilled wisdom to guide your path across the terrain.

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Foundational Waypoints

By stepping back and seeing evidence in the round, new insights emerge from the clouds.

Think of these waypoints as signposts, not instructions. They capture shared learning and practical insights to help you navigate your civic journey with confidence, at your own pace and from your own place.

Process Practice

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Map and coordinate across a full range of civic themes and activities

Develop comprehensive institutional awareness of civic engagement breadth to coordinate resources effectively and maximise collective community impact

Universities should systematically map and understand the complete range of civic themes and activities occurring across their institution, enabling a strategic coordination of resources and efforts for maximum collective community impact.

This approach involves documenting civic engagement spanning all domains – from health and wellbeing initiatives through economic development programmes, environmental sustainability projects through arts and cultural activities – ensuring no important civic work remains isolated or under-supported.

Universities can develop robust institutional knowledge systems that capture civic engagement happening across all departments, faculties, and service areas whilst maintaining strategic oversight capable of identifying synergies, avoiding duplication, and coordinating efforts for enhanced collective benefit.

This mapping process enables identification of gaps where university capabilities could address unmet community needs alongside recognition of areas where multiple university activities could collaborate more effectively. Success requires ongoing attention to emerging community priorities and civic opportunities, ensuring that institutional coordination responds dynamically to changing community needs whilst building upon existing strengths and established community relationships.

"Bringing together every thread of our civic work isn't just strategic, it's empowering , it reveals new possibilities for partnership and amplifies our shared purpose. When we map our engagement, we spot fresh opportunities and make sure no valuable project goes unnoticed. With the whole university pulling in sync, our civic footprint grows stronger both here and across the country."

University Civic Engagement Manager

Lost your bearings? Head to another terrain as your next step.

Key Equipment

Take a moment to reflect on these resources, then see how the next waypoint builds on this learning

Process Practice

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Learn systematically from evidence and experience

Create feedback systems that capture insights from both successes and challenges, enabling continuous improvement and more effective civic strategies.

Continuous civic improvement requires universities to establish systematic learning approaches that capture valuable insights from their direct experiences alongside broader external evidence, enabling ongoing refinement and enhancement of civic strategies and community impact.

This learning infrastructure involves creating effective feedback loops that document and analyse lessons from both successful civic initiatives and less successful attempts, understanding what approaches work effectively in different community contexts and why certain strategies achieve better outcomes.

Universities should actively engage with broader research on civic engagement, community development, and place-based collaboration whilst remaining highly attentive to local learning opportunities, community feedback, and partner insights.

This evidence-based approach enables universities to avoid 'reinventing the wheel', build upon successful civic innovations, and develop increasingly sophisticated understanding of effective civic practice across diverse contexts.

Effective systematic learning balances openness to external insights and best practices with careful attention to local context, community wisdom, and partner expertise, ensuring that improvements remain grounded in both rigorous evidence and authentic community experience and priorities.

 

"Learning from both our wins and our stumbles keeps our civic work grounded and growing. It's not just about what we do, but how we listen, adapt, and keep improving together. For me, the best kind of civic work listens deeply to what's happening on our doorstep and responds with purpose. Systematic learning isn't just about reviewing the numbers, it's about making sure our insights and those of our community partners sit at the heart of our next move."

Community-Engaged Researcher

Lost your bearings? Head to another terrain as your next step.

Key Equipment

  • 1

    Explore research examining race equality initiatives across UK higher education institutions, providing valuable insights for addressing societal inequalities whilst developing more inclusive civic engagement strategies. This study offers evidence-based approaches for translating civic intentions into meaningful, equitable action that benefits diverse communities.

  • 2

    Access a comprehensive framework designed to help universities ask critical questions about their civic activity, map engagement systematically, and develop locally appropriate metrics across seven civic domains. This iterative tool supports evidence-based improvement through structured institutional reflection and peer learning.

  • 3

    Utilise NCCPE's practical framework based on four core principles, purpose, people, process, and evaluation, to plan, implement, and systematically improve engagement projects. This template provides structured approaches for capturing learning throughout the engagement lifecycle, ensuring continuous quality enhancement.

  • 4

    Engage with an innovative data visualisation that integrates official statistics with university data, enabling evidence-based civic assessment and peer benchmarking. This evolving tool helps institutions analyse civic contributions systematically, identify local trends, and develop data-informed strategies for enhanced community impact.

  • 5

    This report champions a culture of learning from both setbacks and successes, arguing that innovation in civic engagement depends on risk-taking and reflection. It advocates valuing effort and lessons learned, even from failures, so universities can genuinely foster pioneering civic practice rather than simply demanding safe success from every activity.

  • 6

    Explore researcher Nikita Asnani's thoughtful reflection on reimagining research impact evaluation beyond metrics, emphasising meaning-centred approaches that value relational practice and care. This perspective published by NCPE, challenges universities to develop more nuanced, human-centred feedback systems that capture authentic engagement quality and transformational partnership experiences.

Take a moment to reflect on these resources, then see how the next waypoint builds on this learning

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Supporting Waypoints

Complementary insights that extend your understanding across the interconnected terrains of civic engagement.

These waypoints offer fresh perspectives to deepen and broaden your civic practice. They're here to complement your journey, giving you the space to explore connections, draw parallels, and engage with ideas that fit your own context.

Purpose Practice Partnership Process Policy

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Embed civic engagement as a core university mission

Chart institutional transformation by weaving civic purpose through strategic leadership, collaborative delivery, and comprehensive accountability systems.

Practice People Place Process

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Measure civic impact through quantitative metrics and qualitative narratives

Navigate evaluation complexity by integrating numerical data with community stories to capture authentic place-based transformation and meaningful outcomes.

Partnership​ People​ Process

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Coordinate thematic partnerships for collective impact

Develop issue-focused collaborations that unite diverse civic partners around shared challenges, amplifying expertise and resources for greater community benefit.

Practice​ Purpose​ Process Policy​

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Embed civic responsibility across university practice, reflecting real local needs

Align institutional operations with community priorities, ensuring university practices authentically model the positive changes promoted in wider society.

Partnership​ People​ Process​

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Build authentic equitable place-based partnerships

Cultivate collaborative relationships that honour diverse expertise, share power genuinely, and create sustained mutual benefit across different community contexts.

Coming Soon Download

Take the Civic Field Guide with you!

A downloadable version of the guide is coming soon, designed for you to keep, refer to and share with colleagues.

Whether you're navigating new partnerships or refining existing ones, this portable edition will help you chart your civic journey with ease.

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Hidden Gems

Sometimes it helps to step off the beaten path and immerse yourself in a new experience or perspective.

These hidden gems might help you reflect, refine or spark something new. Click to explore!

Expedition Debrief

Universities can significantly benefit from developing institutional knowledge systems that capture civic engagement happening across all departments, faculties, and service areas whilst maintaining strategic oversight capable of identifying synergies, avoiding duplication, and coordinating efforts for enhanced collective benefit.

Line drawing of a map with a location icon to one side.This mapping activity enables identification of gaps where university capabilities could address unmet community needs alongside recognition of areas where multiple university activities could collaborate more effectively, ensuring institutional coordination responds dynamically to changing community needs whilst building upon existing strengths.

Universities should create systematic learning approaches that balance openness to external insights and best practices with careful attention to local context, community wisdom, and partner expertise, ensuring that civic improvements remain grounded in both rigorous evidence and authentic community experience.

Line drawing of a page of paper with a chart and a graph drawn on it.This evidence-based approach enables institutions to avoid 'reinventing the wheel' whilst being able to build on civic innovations and develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of effective civic practice across diverse community contexts.

The Process terrain emphasises that civic organisational culture requires ongoing attention to emerging community priorities and opportunities, ensuring that institutional coordination captures civic engagement spanning all institutional domains whilst maintaining strategic focus on community-identified needs and partnership priorities.

This approach involves developing institutional systems capable of documenting, analysing, and improving civic work across multiple themes, creating infrastructure for sustained civic excellence that transcends individual projects or staff changes.

Systematic civic learning involves establishing infrastructure that documents valuable insights from both successful initiatives and implementation challenges, creating a more permanent organisational memory that enables continuous improvement whilst avoiding common pitfalls by understanding what approaches achieve better outcomes in different community contexts.

This learning process requires active engagement with broader research on civic engagement whilst remaining highly attentive to local learning opportunities, community feedback, and partner insights that inform increasingly effective civic strategy development.

Essential Equipment

Like a compass and a map, you need the right tools to set you on the right path.

Our essential equipment will help you plan a route and weather any storms along the way.