Mission - issues and considerations

Developing a strategy takes time

This was Newcastle University’s first ever Engagement Strategy, so the process, and the scope, were quite difficult to define. A further challenge arose from the extraordinarily wide spectrum of actual and potential engagement activity which was difficult to capture and quantify, as it was constantly changing.

The process can create strong resistance from some members of the university community

Although seeking to develop a shared understanding of engagement is agreed to be a worthwhile goal, it is unlikely to ever achieve consensus, and can even provoke hostile reactions from some academic staff who view engagement as a dangerous distraction.  ‘It’s worth provoking the debate, but don’t get too hung up on arriving at a set of universally agreed values tripping off everyone’s tongue!’  Paul Younger

Be aware that running surveys and audits can be very time consuming

‘We were overwhelmed by the response to our audit.  We expected a couple of hundred responses, but got nearly twelve hundred.  It was a struggle trying to distil it all, and in retrospect probably wasn’t worth doing in the way we did it as we didn’t have the resource to properly analyse the results.’ (Paul Younger)

Can engagement be ‘managed’?

It is important to consider the extent to which it is desirable or possible to ‘manage’ public engagement – and to what extent ‘managerial’ approaches squeeze out the creativity and spontaneity which many regard as fundamental to good engagement.   Is there a ‘best fit’ level of management, which protects an institution from risk while also supporting individuals to be creative in their engagement activities?  

Just how much support does engagement need to thrive?

While most people agree that engagement is more likely to thrive if aligned with research and teaching, it is also acknowledged that it still requires time and resources to under pin it. For example, much public engagement is built on long term relationship and network development. This is difficult to fund within teaching programmes or research projects.