Viewpoints

Peter Trevitt, CEO, Techniquest

In his role as CEO for the educational charity Techniquest, Peter is perfectly positioned to comment on how to engage audiences with science. In his 20 years of experience, he has discovered that:

"learning has been quickest when the science is particularly controversial"

Find out more about what Peter believes makes good public science engagement.

Tim Johnson, Academic Fellow, Heriot-Watt University

Dr Timothy Johnson, RCUK Academic Fellow in Financial Mathematics, believes that the impact of the credit crisis could have been mitigated had mathematicians been more active in public engagement.

"If society were more informed about the scientific basis of finance, it would feel more confident in questioning the activities of bankers in much the same way as they question the activities of scientists and engineers in other industries."

Read his thoughts on Public Engagement - is it as valuable as water?

Sarah Davies, Research Associate, Durham University

After years of observing and moving around the fringes of public engagement, Sarah is well placed to comment on how expectations within the academic community are met - or not - when contact with the public is eventually made:

"By giving ourselves an easy ride - by being satisfied by numbers or good evaluation scores or even the fact that our activities happened at all - we are, I think, missing the point."

She wants people to recognise that public engagement is hard to do.

Dr Tom Shakespeare, Research Fellow, Newcastle University

Tom has over 20 years experience of public engagement and argues:

'the current emphasis on engagement is perhaps an overdue recognition that universities cannot, like the ivy on their buildings, take a parasitic role, sucking resources and people from their surroundings without facing up to the responsibilities which both public funding and intellectual independence bring with them'.

In the following piece he explains more about why public engagement matters: From positive engagements to negative capability.

Professor Stuart Laing, Pro vice chancellor at the University of Brighton

Stuart is a passionate advocate for university-community engagement:

'community university engagement touches on massive and omnipresent areas of our actual social life - areas which are at the heart of the fabric and the material base of our society - matters which affect all of us every day of our lives'.

In the following piece (based on his presentation at the 2009 CUPP conference) he explains more about why public engagement matters for universities.

Professor Ray Hudson, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Region and Queens Campus, Durham University

Ray Hudson shares his thoughts on why areas such as his require a sensitive approach when it comes to public engagement.

'I begin from an assumption - that universities have the potential to influence for the better life beyond their boundaries and that it is important to capture this potential and ensure that it leads to positive impacts'.

In this piece, Ray outlines five ways in which he believes universities can and should engage. 

April McMahon, Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science, University of Edinburgh

See why April McMahon, Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science, University of Edinburgh believes that public engagement is becoming more important than ever.

'Not only does engagement with more diverse audiences communicate our ideas and solutions more widely, it also sharpens our understanding and improves our communication, regardless of the audience'.

April explains why she believes public engagement and research are bound together. Read more on why she believes public engagement matters to HEIs.

Mary Bownes, Vice Principal, University of Edinburgh

With responsibilties that include community relations and widening participation within the university, Mary Bownes is perfectly positioned to talk about the benefits of public engagement across the main stakeholder groups:

'We can't all engage with everyone, so selecting the best type of engagement for individual researchers based upon what they are researching, their communication skills and career stage is important'

Mary looks at how engagement impacts not only on researchers, but also on funders, the institutions themselves, and of course the general public.

Sir David Watson, Professor of Higher Education Management, The Institute of Education

Professor Sir David Watson from the Institute of Education argues that

'today, no self-respecting university or college would dare to lack a civic or community mission.'

He sees the Beacons project as the latest flowering of a long tradition in higher education - and sees that history as the key to thinking creatively about the future of the sector.

Penny Wilson, Head of Community Affairs, Cambridge University

Penny highlights some of the changes needed to truly embed public engagement in HEIs.

'If we want a large scale shift in the quality and quantity of public engagement, universities will first have to provide the infrastructure to enable this to happen'. Penny argues that concentrating on culture change is all very well - but it needs to go hand in hand with investment in training and support for staff and students.

She asks, is culture change enough?

Professor John Goddard, previously deputy vice chancellor at Newcastle University

John has an international reputation for his work to connect universities to their regions. In this public lecture, shortly before retiring from Newcastle, he outlines his personal journey:

'What I have learned on this journey is that academic work, in my case in the social sciences, can be shaped by and shape the wider society within which universities are embedded. It is not a one way street, but a recursive and cumulative process involving mutual learning'.

You can read the whole lecture here: 'The role of the university in the development of its city and region'

John Annette, Pro Vice Master for Lifelong Learning and Engagement, Birkbeck College

A transcript of this video.