What is this Framework for?
When assessing universities’ civic impacts and examining how to improve them, it is important to understand that institutions will have different priorities and timescales and different ways of understanding their communities’ needs. But they are engaged in comparable tasks and need a common language and set of criteria to compare and assess what they are doing in order to learn and improve. This is an attempt to provide such a framework. The framework has been informed by an evidence review of universities’ civic activity and previous research on universities’ ‘anchor’ role.
It is designed to inform universities’ internal processes and strategies in the first instance – but we recognise that this can and should be developed further by understanding what ‘place’ means to local partners and communities. The framework gives universities a tool to enable them to engage in conversations with colleagues and partners about what a truly civic university might look like, and what the journey might involve. It does not seek to impose a new set of obligations, but instead asks how universities can build the wellbeing of their communities through their everyday activities and core business of learning, teaching and research.
Purpose
This framework has three main purposes:
- to help universities to celebrate and tell the story of the action they are taking to benefit their localities
- to encourage universities to map their civic activities comprehensively
- to encourage them to do better still, by creatively asking ‘what if?’ questions, generate imaginative and ambitious responses, and reflect with their peers on achievements and opportunities
About the framework
How it works
The framework identifies seven domains of universities’ civic commitment – the core areas in which universities impact their places and communities. It also identifies six phases of progress. Progress is envisaged as a cyclical and iterative process, in which the learning then informs further reviews and development, as shown in the diagram below.
In the detailed tables you will find by selecting a domain on the right or navigating forward at the end of this page, the domains and phases are mapped against existing guidance on Civic University Agreements, and the principles of the Knowledge Exchange Concordat. This contextualises civic commitment within UK higher education policy. Mapping these activities against the Sustainable Development Goals (noted at the bottom of each section) places civic activity within a recognisable international framework.
The table below summarises the domains of activity and progress, with overarching questions to be addressed in each phase. It aims to encourage a comprehensive approach to HEIs’ civic activities, ensuring they are not narrowly focused on economic development. We would expect universities to be working across these domains simultaneously as well as sequentially, informed by their relationships with local partners.
The Civic Framework in a nutshell