Building a Movement: Engaged Futures Statement
UK universities are under increasing pressure.
They face financial uncertainty, growing expectations to demonstrate public value, and questions about how closely they are connected to the societies they serve. Many people working in and around higher education believe this relationship needs to evolve if the sector is to remain trusted, sustainable and relevant.
Engaged Futures is a movement that's exploring what this evolution could look like. It brings together people from universities, community organisations, policy, and other sectors who are already thinking about how higher education might work differently in the decades ahead. Through conversations, workshops and shared research, the project aims to surface the challenges facing the sector today, identify promising ideas and experiments already happening across it, and connect the people behind them.
The goal isn’t to design a single solution, or to create a new organisation. Instead, Engaged Futures aims to align and embolden a network of like-minded people who are willing to work toward more open, collaborative and publicly engaged universities. In practical terms, the project gathers perspectives, maps current challenges and emerging innovations, and encourages participants to develop actions and collaborations that could help shape how universities evolve over time.
They face financial uncertainty, growing expectations to demonstrate public value, and questions about how closely they are connected to the societies they serve. Many people working in and around higher education believe this relationship needs to evolve if the sector is to remain trusted, sustainable and relevant.
Engaged Futures is a movement that's exploring what this evolution could look like. It brings together people from universities, community organisations, policy, and other sectors who are already thinking about how higher education might work differently in the decades ahead. Through conversations, workshops and shared research, the project aims to surface the challenges facing the sector today, identify promising ideas and experiments already happening across it, and connect the people behind them.
The goal isn’t to design a single solution, or to create a new organisation. Instead, Engaged Futures aims to align and embolden a network of like-minded people who are willing to work toward more open, collaborative and publicly engaged universities. In practical terms, the project gathers perspectives, maps current challenges and emerging innovations, and encourages participants to develop actions and collaborations that could help shape how universities evolve over time.