DAVID WOLFF, DIRECTOR

Cupp Aims to become recognised as a leading UK university for the quality and range of its work in economic and social engagement and productive partnerships. Aim 3. Corporate Plan – Ensure that the University's resources (intellectual and physical) are available to, informed by and used by its local and sub-regional communities – Enhance the community's and University's capacity for engagement for mutual benefit – Ensure that Cupps resources are prioritised towards addressing inequalities within our local communities

Snapshot before 2003 University formed from a combination of local trade colleges. Historical emphasis on vocational and applied work A number of committed, engaged academics working individually with the community and without explicit support from the institution No central and formalised links with community groups although pockets of activity Minimal reference to community engaged scholarship in the corporate plan No committed central funding for community engagement No coherent community engagement philosophy Scepticism from community and university about the worth of investing in community- university relations

Snapshot Dec 2009 Expanded Helpdesk plus enquiries from community organisations 400 plus students annually involved in community engagement projects 100 plus knowledge exchange partnership projects initiated Over 120 academics actively involved with Cupp, including a strong cross- institution senior researchers group (including 6 professors) A dozen active communities of practice (for example: older people, children and families, lesbian and gay community) A dedicated and centrally funded infrastructure supporting community engagement Structured links with community organisations through co-ownership of governance, co-ownership of projects, strong involvement in communities of practice, co-delivery of research seminars and fora Extensive dissemination: Book, papers, films, conferences Winner Times Higher Education award for outstanding contribution to local community 2008

How we organise Cupp development team - 4 development managers, 2 administrators and a Director Academic directorship - 2 senior academics located in academic departments 20 senior researchers from Brighton and Sussex Helpdesk – access point to university and responsive service to enquirers Student community engagement – curriculum development that enable students to work on community projects Knowledge Exchange -significant projects that involve community university partnership Communities of practice – clusters of projects centred around a key theme Research and Development – support and consultancy to community university partnerships nationally and globally

Learning points Win-wins: Mutually beneficial outputs Define it in the doing Play to the communitys and universitys strengths: Programme designed with local picture in mind Court community and academic practitioners: We invested a lot of time and energy in relationship building and offering things Bi-cameral structure works for us Use short term projects as base for long term relationship building Use community-university brokers: we need people who understand both environments and speak both languages Emphasise practice and relationships rather than organisational form or structure: Communities of practice Manage change within the university Top down and bottom up support required Centrally owned and locally hosted within a school Stop moaning and get on with it

Institutional development at Brighton 2003 Cupp initiated as expiremental development 2004 Hefce funds community knowledge exchange 2007 Corporate plan and core funding for Cupp 2008 Hefce funds Coastal Communities Programme 2008 Audit of commmunity engagement completed 2009 Social engagement strategy agreed 2009 New department of economic and social engagement

Academic debates Purpose of higher education institutions Contribution to locality Widening participation Student experience Applied research and research assessment - impact Funding models Social capital Partnership working in complex environments Communities of practice Audit and evaluation 7 dimensions model Piloting Bradford REAP evaluation model

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