Blog
culture change, equity and inclusion

Engaged Futures – work in progress

updated on 30 Apr 2025
5 minutes

NCCPE Co-director, Sophie Duncan and Project Manager, Sian Aggett reflect on the themes that are emerging from our three horizon process, and invite you to contribute.

Sophie Duncan presenting the 3Horizons process on stage at an event

We are now deep into our Engaged Futures project – we’ve been talking to lots of people in lots of places, and what is emerging are some key themes which provide a framework to help us begin to consider how a different set of futures for the university sector might be realised.

 Each theme focuses on a different aspect of the future system and helps crystalise the challenges and opportunities that are emerging from our consultation. Inevitably, they overlap with each other – but they are helping us to get a deeper appreciation of how system change might be both imagined and realised.

And we need your help – for each of these themes, we are actively looking for examples of organisations, activities or analysis that provide inspiration and learning to inform our collective thinking and help us imagine and plan for how engaged futures might be realised.

What society needs or wants from universities in 2045

Cutting across all of our conversations are questions about how the ways society values and uses knowledge will have changed – and what this will mean for universities. What new roles might universities need to play within this evolving system - e.g., as connector, validator, curator? How can we improve collaboration in how we produce and use knowledge?

To being to answer this, we have identified four topics for ‘deeper dives’. What examples have you seen that point the way to a more open, inclusive and engaged practices in each of these areas.

1. Fostering collaboration and connection between universities and the world outside:

Again and again, our conversations have focused on how to encourage flows of ideas, questions and resources between the universities and their places: ensuring partners are treated well including payments, contracts, ownership of intellectual property, ethical codes etc. And searching for mechanisms that support collaboration e.g. shared research hubs, pooling resources and expertise instead of competing for funding. What models have you seen that address power differentials, and embody ethical practice, and care?  

2. Research that works for us all in 2045

Nested in the above, this theme focuses on research, and asks us to reimagine what the role of academic research is within this evolving knowledge landscape. Who will be a researcher? Where will research be done? How will it be shared? What examples have you seen which you think help to answer these questions?

3. How might we want to learn…and teach in 2045?

Where does learning/education take place? What subjects and skill sets will be taught and valued? What approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment are offered? How will courses fit around people’s competing demands? Where are the promising practices in the present that help point the way?

4. Serving the needs of students in 2045

Who can access a university education in 2045? When in one’s life can people access a university education? How can the sector support a diverse student body? How can we create more accessible campuses? What insights or models have you seen which help us think differently about how students are valued and welcomed into higher education?

Other themes that have repeatedly come up explore some of the wider structural and systemic challenges: 

5. Addressing barriers to inclusion

This theme acknowledges past inequalities and asks how we can ensure the sector values diverse skills and experience, fosters a positive and inclusive workplace, and respects diverse ways of knowing. We are viewing this through our inclusion statement, recognising that people with protected characteristics need to be included, but so do people whose identities are not covered in that classification. Where have you seen examples which are genuinely encouraging inclusive ways of working that might be scaled up?

6. Confronting a Colonial Past

In order to address inclusion, participants in the Engaged Futures process have highlighted the need to confront our colonial past: universities are embedded in wider social structures, and our collective history and approach to knowledge has excluded and devalued so many people, their knowledge and their ways of knowing.  How can we address our colonial past, and ensure any futures we imagine are anti-racist? 

7. The place of our universities in an AI world

Inevitably, AI keeps coming up, and its potential role in transforming research and knowledge sharing and use. The NCCPE is currently looking at the ethical considerations of using different AI tools, and how we can ensure that we are using these tools responsibly. How are you making sense of how AI will impact on our collective work? What models or examples have you seen that can help us navigate this topic?

A final theme cuts across all of the above. How will universities be resourced and funded to realise their roles in these new futures. 

8. Resourcing the university

What funding models and mechanisms could fund Universities in the future? What is needed to ensure Universities and knowledge remains independent and critical? How might research funding support new modes of knowledge generation? How can we foster intra-institutional collaboration over competition? 

Get involved

Do any of these themes resonate with you? Do you have expertise to share, or perspectives to offer? Have you examples of people or organisations who are developing innovative and effective practices relating to these themes? 

To get involved, you can:

  • Join the catalysts group to share your insights, contribute to the consultation, or to apply for funding to host an Engaged Futures conversation with people in your network
  • Invite others to join the catalysts including people within the HE sector and those who work alongside
  • Add your thoughts and ideas to our padlet at Engaged Futures responses to the Blog
  • Email your thought and ideas to nccpecatalysts@uwe.ac.uk, or let us know how we can support you to contribute
  • Join one of our Engaged Futures Events. We have three more catalyst events coming up (details below)

We invite you to get involved and join a growing network of people who are keen to see a more inclusively engaged future for the HE sector. 

Apply to join the Catalyst Group
Read more about Engaged Futures

Catalyst Events - join the conversation

We'll be leading a selection of its own conversations on some of the themes that have emerged. You can choose to join the conversation as per the dates and times listed below. Please click on each Workshop title to register your attendance. 

Apply to be part of the Catalyst Group

Latest news