What skills and attributes are involved in public engagement?
Nutritionist Dr Amelia Lake is setting up an expert panel of young people who will influence public health research. AMelia is a fellow of Beacon North East. Picture courtesy of North News and Pictures
Engaging with the public can bring great rewards – both for the university and for the public its staff and students engage with. But this mutual benefit can’t be taken for granted: doing it well requires real skill, draws on a range of personal attributes and benefits significantly from self-reflection. We have developed a simple attributes framework that captures some of those key developmental areas, organised into three interlocking domains:
What next?
- Download the Attributes Framework from our publications page
- There’s a range of practical guidance in the How to do it section, aimed at supporting anyone who wants to begin develop their engagement practice.
- And there’s in depth guidance about how universities can support informal and more formal professional development in the How to support it section of the site.
- In the next section we explore how you can measure the impact of public engagement
