Public Engagement
Any review of Business and Community Engagement should seek to identify the various ways that the institution engages with the general public. Both FE and HE institutions come into contact with members of the public in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.
Whether it is a potential student or a parent or other interested parties including the Press, both colleges and universities receive a huge number of requests for information about their courses and activities. The Freedom of Information Act 2005 has made it easier for the general public to get information from institutions and the Sector has had to respond with systems for storage and retrieval of information in order to meet the deadlines set by the Act.
These requests can come to any member of staff and so a staff development exercise was called for to ensure that that requests would be dealt with consistently in a timely manner and be recorded.
What is Public Engagement?
"Beacon North East defines public engagement as a mutually beneficial, two-way interaction between the universities and community members or organisations." - Beacon North East
The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement provides an excellent summary of 'why public engagement matters', covering the moral, business and academic case for doing so.
Examples of Public Engagement
Many institutional libraries are open to the public either for reference only, or as a full public lending library.
"The East End Campus of John Wheatley College in Glasgow has been designed as a community resource with publicly accessible library and child care facility - Students, staff and members of the public are exposed to new, more eco-friendly working, learning and living practices. All of this helps to prepare local residents for some of the practicalities of living and working in a 'low carbon' environment. John Wheatley College in Glasgow: East End Campus"
Myerscough College, a Land-Based specialist college in the North West has a library that is part of the County system. This means that students and staff can borrow any book held by any library in Lancashire and the public has access to any on-loan book from the specialist library at the college.
Resources and Links
"The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement [NCCPE] is part of the Beacons for Public Engagement project. Our role is to inspire a culture change in how universities engage with the public. We work with all the beacons to promote best practice in public engagement and provide a single point of contact for the whole higher education sector. We also work strategically with our key national partners to help develop work across the sector."
Many colleges offer services at a cost to the general public to give students practical experience in their chosen field of study. Restaurants, hair and beauty salons and massage services are an integral part of relevant courses and offer services to the public normally at a slightly lower rate than they would pay at a professional commercial outlet.
A common area where the public come into contact with students is public performance. These can be on campus or through local festival involvement and local theatre.
Institution and Local Authority Partnerships
A number of joint ownership and joint-funded projects exist where facilities such as sports and leisure amenities are used by the institution by day and the general public in the evenings and at weekends. Sports fields, swimming pools and spas are all examples of this type of agreement between educational institutions and local authorities.
