(Press-News.org) Current policy pressures on universities to focus on improving their research excellence and to widen participation make it hard for them to engage meaningfully with excluded communities, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). University-community engagement remains marginal to the organisation, funding, management and strategic control of universities. This reduces their benefits for excluded communities.
"Traditionally, universities have regarded excluded communities with an air of detached benevolence," says Dr Paul Benneworth of the University of Twente, who led this study, looking at universities in the North East, the North West and Scotland. "However, if universities are to help change the lives of people living in the deprived communities local to them they must begin to manage their engagement more strategically."
Currently, community engagement tends to be done 'by' universities, 'to' communities. Universities offer access to facilities, services and learning but there are few opportunities for community learning activities to become embedded within universities, even where there is a close fit with universities' own needs. This means universities miss out on the chance to help develop 'social capital' in these communities. Social capital is the networks and relationships between groups which helps hold communities together and bind them into the rest of the country.
Dr Benneworth comments "We have recently seen the best and the worst of communities in action. Our research gives some pointers to the opportunities that universities now have to contribute to wider social efforts to prevent rioting becoming an endemic social problem, and helping to rebuild a vibrant public realm".
The study acknowledges that devoting resources to managing engagement is not easy since universities must prioritise the individuals within their institution rather than the communities who live outside it. Furthermore, university-community engagement is a transient and a side-line activity, which can make it difficult to anchor into university programmes and structures.
However, according Dr Benneworth, universities can engage more effectively in community social capital building, even now. To help them increase their impact, the researchers have developed a three-stage strategy:
Stage one: Create small-scale learning communities, linking academics with community groups.
Stage two: Link the activities of these communities temporarily to core university teaching and research, to allow the activities to professionalise and grow.
Stage three: 'Spin out' these activities into the deprived communities to develop further, allowing them to address particular symptoms arising from social exclusion.
Dr Benneworth cites the case of the Moneyline initiative, which emerged from Salford University to address financial exclusion: "Moneyline is good example of where a community engagement activity moved out of the university and developed into a social innovation that spread into excluded communities. Indeed, this was behind the idea of Community Investment Trusts, which have grown to become a feature of the financial landscape."
Dr Benneworth and his colleagues have already played an important role in advising university leaders and government policymakers on how universities can bring their insights on socio-economic disadvantage to help improve the fortunes of socially-excluded communities.
There are several key policy issues that emerged from the project. Firstly, communities need to be clearer about what they expect from a university. This is important because other university tasks tend to be well-defined in a language that universities understand - that of targets, key performance indicators and strategic objectives. Secondly, the spin-out phase must be well-financed and include a good proportion of the community.
Dr Benneworth concludes, "Perhaps most importantly impact funding must be available for the whole three phase cycle, not just for developing the idea academically. In this way, university knowledge can really be made accessible for the benefit of excluded communities."
Kate Hudson, project manager at the Beacon North East in Newcastle-Durham commented, "The challenge for universities is not to regard public engagement as a strand of what they do, the mere communication of their teaching and research, rather it should be the core of what they do, the very influence on teaching and research. At their best, universities are institutions for both private and public good and we must harness this potential and ensure that our efforts do not fall above or beyond those communities closest to home and often, most in need."
INFORMATION:
For further information contact:
Dr Paul Benneworth
Email: P.Benneworth@utwente.nl
Telephone + 31 6 2686 4190
ESRC Press Office:
Danielle Moore
Email: danielle.moore@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone 01793 413122
Jeanine Woolley
Email: jeanine.woolley@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone 01793 413119
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. This release is based on the findings from 'Universities and community engagement: learning with excluded communities' funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by Dr Paul Benneworth at the University of Twente, Netherlands and Professor David Charles at the University of Strathclyde.
2. Paul Benneworth is editor of a book arising from the project, to be published by Springer (Dordrecht, NL). "University engagement with socially excluded communities: towards the idea of 'the engaged university" is currently in production and will appear in Spring 2012.
3. Methodology: The project involved two fieldwork phases, firstly mapping community engagement across universities in the three case study regions and, secondly, detailed case studies of six learning activities in three institutions.
4. This research is part of a larger joint research initiative 'The Impact of HEIs on Regional Economies in the UK'
5. The UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2011/12 is £203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk
6. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peer review. This research has been graded as very good.
END
To cost‑effectively protect the climate, not only an emissions
trading scheme but also financial support for new technologies is
needed. Economising on targeted funding, for example for renewable
energies, makes climate protection more expensive ‑ as scientists of
the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) now
calculated for the first time, using a complex computer simulation
that spans the entire 21st century. Without funding, energy
technologies with high cost reduction potentials will hardly stand a
chance, ...
Using this garment-based patient biomonitoring platform allows us to register a number of the patient's physiological parameters in a non-intrusive manner. "The information gathered by an intelligent t-shirt using e-textile technology is sent, without using wires, to an information management system, which then shows the patient's location and vital signs in real time", explain the UC3M researchers. The system is designed to be used in hospitals and can be divided into two parts: the fixed infrastructure, which would be pre-installed in the hospital, and the mobile units, ...
For the first time, a major cultural institution is leveraging four Guide by Cell mobile technologies to provide a wide range of interactive choices for the visitor experience.
This summer, San Francisco's Fort Mason Center launched the year-long "SEAT" exhibition featuring over 30 Bay Area artists, each creating their own interpretation of a "seat."
SEAT is the first exhibition in the country to integrate the full Guide by Cell suite of mobile services. The SEAT works, built by local architects, concrete designers, blacksmiths, woodworkers, ...
In biologically active enzyme substrate compounds, as can be found in medicines, water plays a more decisive role than has been imagined up to now. The surrounding water acts like an "adhesive", in order to keep the substrate at the right place on an enzyme. For this, the dynamism of the water is retarded. Scientists at the RUB under Prof. Dr. Martina Havenith (Physical Chemistry) in close cooperation with the group of Prof. Irit Sagi from the Israeli Weizmann Institute have been able to observe and prove the retardation of the water's dynamism "live" for the first time ...
Premium knee implants, such as high-flexion knees were created to address specific patient needs and to promote additional function. But whether these higher cost devices provide greater longevity than their standard lower-cost counterparts remains to be seen in the medical literature.
Studies that have evaluated the functional results of premium vs. standard implants have demonstrated similar results between the prostheses.
Since the Zimmer NexGen knee replacement system has been on the market, almost half a million people in the US alone have had Zimmer knee implants. ...
Ovarian cancer is one of the most frequent forms of cancer that affect women. As tumors can initially grow unchecked in the abdomen without causing any major symptoms, patients are usually diagnosed at an advanced stage and have to undergo surgery plus chemotherapy. During the operation, surgeons attempt to remove all tumor deposits as this leads to improved patient prognosis. To do this, however, they primarily have to rely on visual inspection and palpation - an enormous challenge especially in the case of small tumor nests or remaining tumor borders after the primary ...
Research by the University of Liverpool has found that intervention policies that promote healthy eating could cut the death rate for cardiovascular disease (CVD) by up to 50%.
Professor Simon Capewell from the Institute of Psychology, Health and Well-being found that intervention policies which reduce unhealthy eating habits can have a significant effect on levels of CVD at both an individual and population level.
Poor diet is one of the major causes of CVD and small improvements can make a positive and rapid impact on both the individual and the wider population. ...
The lawsuit against Lawrence Livermore National Lab, as referenced in a 9/11/11 New York Times article, is a reflection of very serious issues confronting the laboratory. 130 former plaintiffs allege they were illegally laid off by LLNS in a flagrant demonstration of age discrimination. Tuesday, September 13, 2011 the lawsuit, which was filed May 2009, was set for trial on February 6, 2012 in the Alameda County Superior Court. The law firm of Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer, Oakland, California represents the 130 plaintiffs in this consolidated action. The ...
Researchers from North Carolina State University are proposing a health-based approach to identifying groups at high risk of genocide, in a first-of-its-kind attempt to target international efforts to stop these mass killings before they start.
Genocide, or the willful attempt to exterminate a specific population, is a violation of international law. In recent years, international discussion of genocide has focused in part on finding ways to identify populations at risk in order to prevent a problem before it starts.
Some risk factors have already been identified, such ...
Today's economic climate is having a dramatic effect on the health and well-being of injured workers. Skyrocketing unemployment rates and a 15% poverty level is a very scary realization. The impact it is having on injured workers is twofold.
First, an employee that gets injured is typically living on a budget. If he/she gets injured, that employee will have to readjust that budget to compensate for the reduction in income. Workers' Compensation benefits in Pennsylvania pay between Ninety Percent (90%) and Sixty-Six and Two-Thirds (66 2/3%) of the gross wage. This benefit ...
