Supporting informal professional development in public engagement
There are many ways to support informal development in public engagement in an institution. This case study describes some of the event formats that have worked well at the Edinburgh Beacon.
Qualitative baseline research at UEA
CUE East Beacon carried out a qualitative baseline survey of a cross-section of academic staff at UEA. It not only provided a baseline against which improvements can be assessed, but also recognised the activity already taking place and identified motivations and barriers for getting involved.
Systems for Staff: coordinating and supporting public engagement at Beacon NE
Beacon NE is one of six Beacons for Public Engagement, established to encourage public engagement in the Higher Education sector and is a partnership between Newcastle University, Durham University and the Centre for Life.
Third/fourth year students at The University of Bath communicate mathematics in an exciting, interactive way to the public through four tasks - an exhibition at Bath Taps Into Science, a master class for the Royal Institution, a student-led project, and a mathematics project in any medium.
The project facilitated inter-disciplinary student volunteer teams who designed, developed and delivered innovative and exciting learning modules for primary school children at risk of disengaging with education. It is a collaboration between the university, business and schools.
PE at the University of Bristol
Public engagement in most of its guises has been a feature of life at the University of Bristol for many years.
Cross-Institutional Collaboration
The aim of this initiative was to help establish effective support for public engagement activities across the Edinburgh Beltane partnership.
The CUE East Individual Awards are aimed at providing an opportunity to acknowledge the contribution that staff and students at UEA and at the Norwich Research Park have made to university community engagement.
Beacon for Wales funding rounds
The Beacon for Wales has been focussing on raising the profile of engagement as a valid activity for university academics, and has managed to award £208k to 16 projects across four different Welsh universities in two funding rounds.
The Beacon Bursaries scheme is one of the funding schemes facilitated by the UCL Public Engagement Unit. The Beacon Bursaries funding scheme provides small grants of up to £1,500 to support projects or activities that will help staff and/or students to connect their research or teaching with groups...
All My Worldly Possessions: The Guernsey Evacuee Experience
Exploring the Guernsey Evacuee Experience enabled university researcher Gill Mawson to talk about her work and the Bury Archives. Sharing the stories of evaluees made the Archives and university research more accessible to the general public.
The Evaluation of the UCL Beacon
This case study outlines the lines of inquiry used to evaluate UCL’s programme as part of the Beacons for Public Engagement (BPE) initiative.
Places to start: opportunities for Public Engagement
It is important that staff and students have access to training, but is vital that they also have opportunities to ‘do’ public engagement. This presents a number of challenges. This case study focuses on some of the routes staff and students at the University of Edinburgh have followed to gain...
Discovery is a student-led registered charity based at Swansea University that links student volunteers with a comprehensive range of community activities. These include running a charity shop, fund raising and publicity, volunteering with children and vulnerable adults, and environmental projects.
UCL Provost's Award for Public Engagement
The reward and recognition of PE activity is a core goal of the Beacon for Public Engagement (BPE) programme. The UCL-led Beacon have approached this is a number of ways, including the organisation and delivery of an internal awards programme for public engagement called the Provost’s Awards for...
Developing an interactive installation for a tour of the UK, with the aim of raising awareness of AI researchers and the Sodarace audience.
Co-ordination and networks to support Public Engagement
It is challenging to coordinate information about PE, particularly across large institutions. It is also difficult to establish and maintain networks of people who work in this area. This case study explores how the University of Edinburgh is attempting to do this and shares the lessons learned so...
Developing infrastructure to support learning
Networks, events programmes, training opportunities and formal CPD in public engagement all support learning but delivering these initiatives requires experienced staff and other resources. Find out the Edinburgh Beltane tackled this.
Building formal support for public engagement into CPD Programmes
Our objective when we set out on this project was to provide a clear overview of the range of public engagement activities, the training and development opportunities available, and a way to support a strategic approach to professional development.
Working with community organisations and with sports clubs and societies of Warwick Students Union to develop community volunteering projects based around their activities. The aim was to promote a change in the approach to volunteering within Warwick Volunteers.
