Outreach and public engagement

How universities can use civic engagement and collaboration to get local communities and the broader public involved in their research and other work and generate positive impacts felt beyond the campus walls. These resources also explore effective ways for academics, educators and other teams to reach out and engage with school pupils and groups underrepresented in higher education to break down potential barriers to access.

Cathedral Square and Market Hall, Peterborough

Multilayered interventions to foster community relationships

Key components of positive community engagement include institutional-, faculty- and course-level links, writes Tom Williamson. Here, he offers a road map for embedding universities in their local area and regional economy

Tom Williamson

Anglia Ruskin University

Transparency and trust in international research

The secret to long-term international research projects is trust and transparency

To build an excellent research team you want talented individuals – but they also have to enjoy working together. Christine Raines explains how teamwork and open communication have made a multinational bioengineering project succeed

Christine Raines

University of Essex

Campus talks: how to do public engagement

What is best practice for universities’ public engagement? How do you enlist the public in your research? And how do you keep them interested in the long term? Two 2022 THE Awards winners share their insights – from their experiences tracking Covid and decoding Dickens

Tanya Wood, Hugo Bowles

King’s College London, University of Buckingham

To extend your research’s impact, be bold and collaborate widely

International collaborations expose your work to new and bigger audiences and give you unique opportunities for cross-organisational and interdisciplinary engagement, says Catherine Queen

Catherine Queen

University of Liverpool

The University of Birmingham hosted over 3,000 athletes for the 2022 Commonwealth Games

Transforming a university campus into an athletes’ village

As an official partner of the Commonwealth Games 2022, the University of Birmingham housed and fed over 3,000 athletes from across the globe. Malene Stanley explains how they turned their campus into an athletes’ village in just a few months

Malene Stanley

University of Birmingham

Case study: how to do an independent evaluation on homelessness on six continents

From working with resident researchers to navigating local salary schemes, Suzanne Fitzpatrick offers lessons on how to carry out a large-scale international evaluation programme

Suzanne Fitzpatrick

Heriot-Watt University

A blueprint for supporting students affected by forced migration

Higher education institutions should be places of safety, solidarity and empowerment for people affected by forced migration. Here’s how the Universities of Sanctuary Network is working towards this aim

Madeleine Dutton, Sophie North

The University of East Anglia

How to engage your staff in just 15 minutes

You need to get updates and other messages to faculty and staff, but they don’t have much time for internal communications. Here, Kelly Hibbs offers tips to reach a busy audience in a quick, engaging, accessible way

Kelly Hibbs

University of Southampton

How to support and attract disabled students

What can universities do to attract and support students with disabilities?

How can we effectively support and recruit more students with disabilities into higher education institutions? Husnul Fitri discusses outreach and accessibility

Husnul Fitri

The University of Indonesia

Learning the machine: shaping the future of creative education

Educators should engage with artificial intelligence and other technologies not just as users but as influencers, write Ed D’Souza and Sunil Manghani

Ed D'Souza, Sunil Manghani

University of Southampton

People in an office collaborating on a project

How to collaborate effectively to support care-experienced students

It’s clear there is still work to be done to support young people with care backgrounds coming into higher education. Here are lessons that Louise Harrison, Kate Murray and Alison Shaw have learned

Alison Shaw , Louise Harrison, Kate Murray

Newcastle University

Universities need to get better at using Instagram – here’s how

Instagram is the most effective social media channel to engage students, argues Ned Potter. In this resource, he outlines ways to produce successful content and increase reach

Ned Potter

University of York

Book with tree and compass green concept

How storytelling boosts environmental impact and engagement

Presenting sustainability research in a story – with a protagonist, goal and resolution – can bridge the gap between complex theory and real-world results for wider audiences and policymakers alike

Denise Baden

University of Southampton

Podcast discussing building resilience and protecting well-being among university staff and students

Campus talks: what to do when the principles of free speech are tested

Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, urges universities to take the path of principled neutrality and civil discourse in the face of polarising events

Daniel Diermeier

Vanderbilt University

Dealing with abuse after public commentary

Communicating to the public can result in abuse of academics. Here, University of Southampton staff describe their experiences and provide tips on anticipating and dealing with trolling

Michael Head, Larisa Yarovaya , Ashton Kingdon , Millie Downer

University of Southampton

Why buttons press our buttons

A design system can underpin consistency and content standards in university website and digital services, but it does not replace good design decisions. Here, Ayala Gordon offers guidance to content design teams

Ayala Gordon

University of Southampton

Making conferences more inclusive: opportunities, barriers and lessons learned

Caroline Green and William E. Donald share their experience of organising a one-day conference with inclusivity at its core

Caroline Green, William E. Donald

The Talent Cycle, University of Southampton, Ronin Institute

Universities on Fire climate change podcast

Campus talks: unlocking people power through citizen science

Find out how engaging non-academics in research can uncover and disperse new knowledge and ways of thinking that help shape solutions to seemingly intractable problems

Henrietta L. Moore , Joel Bitok, Alan Irwin

UCL, Copenhagen Business School

Civic education is crucial for today's students

How to improve civic education through service learning

Civic education is essential, writes Grace Ngai, so how can universities teach it effectively?

Grace Ngai

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

How to create K-12 programmes to boost belonging and participation

Learning outside the traditional school day can help shape a young person’s lifelong education journey. Here’s how university programmes can establish an environment where they can thrive

Sirocus Barnes

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

A case study in developing the next STEM generation

University ‘taster days’ can introduce teenagers to what global health research and advocacy might be like as a future career. Here four academics describe a pilot training session and what they learned from it

Michael Head, Jessica Boxall, Winfred Dotse-Gborgbortsi, Kathryn Woods-Townsend

University of Southampton

We need to bang the drum for music degrees

Music degrees aren’t as valued as they should be. Universities can do much more to make them attractive to students and parents, argues Sam Walton

Sam Walton

Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music

Asian man concentrating on writing at a computer

Authenticity sells because it matters

Written communication – whether that’s a press release or IT guidelines – should be clear, sincere and accessible. Here, Mike Brown offers ways to help colleagues build the confidence and skills to tell their stories in an authentic way

Mike Brown

University of Southampton

School girls take part in activities at the Digital Divas conference

What is needed to run a successful outreach programme?

Lessons on running a successful outreach programme designed to spark school pupils’ interest in university, based on a 13-year project focused on getting more girls studying STEM

Bia Hamed

Eastern Michigan University

Using co-creation to make young people equal research partners

Based on her experience developing a youth panel, Kathryn Woods-Townsend explains how her team collaborated with, employed and learned from the teenagers who are their lived-experience experts

Kathryn Woods-Townsend

University of Southampton

Student ambassadors, key players in widening participation

How to design and run an effective student ambassador programme to support widening participation initiatives

Ellie Nik

University of Technology Sydney

The benefits of having a web presence as an early career researcher

If you can be easily found online, you’re more likely to raise your research profile, receive media requests, get involved in peer review – or even just get nice emails from the public, writes Ashleigh Johnstone

Ashleigh Johnstone

Arden University

A young woman recording herself presenting on camera

Life after publication: promote your work for maximum impact

Seeing your work in print is by no means the end of the story. Chris Tancock offers advice on how you can make your published work stand out and benefit from the broadest visibility

Christopher Tancock

Elsevier

A group of college students swapping notes

Because you’re worth it: how universities can prove their value to prospective students

Steps universities can take to show their worth to prospective students amid rising costs and competition from alternative further education providers

Malik Johnson

Johns Hopkins University

Illuminating the shadowy path to success in academia

Postdocs and early career researchers, do not believe the myths about the route to a stellar academic career, says Andrew Stapleton. Here are better directions to get you and your work noticed

Andrew Stapleton

Independent academic

high school student watching remote mathematics lecture on laptop

How to make dual-enrolment programmes work

Dual enrolment can create student pipelines from high school to university, meet community education needs and improve retention and graduation rates. Here, Laura Brown Simmons breaks down the essential elements

Laura Brown Simmons

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Navigating crisis communications in HE: strategies for an effective response

Tiffany Beck provides a play-by-play guide to planning a comprehensive communications strategy for when crisis situations strike

Tiffany Beck

PLMR

Unlock knowledge within local communities through citizen social science

With regional prosperity now central to the UK government’s thinking, universities need to transform the way they conduct research to respond to emerging needs and provide solutions to today’s social, economic and environmental issues

Henrietta L. Moore

UCL

What distinguishes a university from a knowledge enterprise?

In this extract, David Staley and Dominic Endicott offer 12 features that characterise institutions committed to attracting talent to their region for economic growth and their own survival

David J. Staley, Dominic D. J. Endicott

The Ohio State University, Northstar Ventures

How a school exchange with my daughter led me to question the role of universities

Giving a class at my daughter’s school and having her visit my university gave rise to serious questions about childcare, education and how our universities fit into society, says Andy Farnell

Andy Farnell

Visiting professor

Man climbing up-and-down graph-like staircase

How to sustain a journal and beat the academic publishing racket

Starting a journal is hard enough – keeping it going is an ongoing challenge. Here’s how to maintain success in academic publishing

James Williams, Asma Mohseni

University of Derby

Making an inclusive ‘unconference’

Many people in minority communities within our universities do not have enough opportunities to be platformed or validated, or to share their lived expertise within our institutions. An ‘unconference’ could cultivate these voices for positive impact

Brooke Szücs, Joanne Walmsley

The University of Queensland

A bridge between academics and communications staff

Science communication in a post-Covid world calls for a new way to span the gap between researchers and university comms teams – and a new skill set, as Michael Head explains

Michael Head

University of Southampton

Group of four multiracial young people in a meeting

A DIY guide to starting your own journal

An antidote to frustrations with traditional academic publishing might be to launch a grass-roots open access journal. Here are the steps to consider

Judith Johnson

University of Leeds

Focus on hands of man presenting at conference

Tips for sharing research findings with diverse audiences

Research impact depends on researchers’ ability to reach the right ears and present content in the right format. Here’s how to tailor your communication – whether for policymakers, peers or the general public

Mohammed Al-Bahrani

Al-Mustaqbal University

Winery in Baja California knowledge exchange universities

How knowledge-sharing is making Baja’s wine industry the ‘next Napa’

Diana Celaya Tentori discusses the huge benefits of knowledge-sharing in wine research that can be applied to every academic discipline

Diana Celaya Tentori

CETYS Universidad

Podcast discussing building resilience and protecting well-being among university staff and students

Campus talks: how the university library is an agent of change

Often overlooked, university libraries are critical to the teaching and research missions of institutions. They also play a key role in digital innovation and community outreach. Two librarians tell us more about how they see their work as agents of change

Masud Khokhar, Toni Carter

University of Leeds, Athens State University

A group of international students chatting together on campus

Digital marketing as a route to reaching international students

Advice for university marcomms teams on shaping digital marketing efforts to reach and appeal to international students

Claire Roper-Browning

Heriot-Watt University Dubai

The three key building blocks for a successful knowledge transfer partnership

KTPs offer huge benefits to all involved – as long as you have the right partner, the right project and the right graduate, explains Ruth Greenhalgh

Ruth Greenhalgh

Arden University

How universities can help rebuild trust in science

The crisis of confidence in science has deep origins. The answer to regaining traction is compelling stories and the skills to tell them beyond the academy, writes Bartłomiej Knosala

Bartłomiej Knosala

Silesian University of Technology

Young girl school pupil looking through a microscope

How can universities get more school pupils enthusiastic about science?

Outreach in local schools and colleges is one way universities can work towards widening participation in higher education. Carl Harrington shares the lessons from a project designed to get more pupils interested in studying science

Carl Harrington

The University of East Anglia

How to convey the benefits of higher education to government and policymakers

From identifying the decision-makers to presenting clear evidence, Jamie Gilbert Mikell shares tips for communicating the value of higher education to government and policymakers in the US

Jamie Gilbert Mikell

Athens State University

Woman holding light bulb with symbols of academic fields surrounding it

A campaign to communicate the impact of university research

With public perception of US higher education in decline, universities urgently need to send an engaging, integrated message about how their work benefits society, writes Paul M. Rand. Here’s how his institution is doing it

Paul M. Rand

The University of Chicago

A phone showing key social icons with notifications

Making the most of social media: practical tips for academics

A guide for academics to using social media as a powerful tool to share and amplify their work and build professional networks, by David Riley

David Riley

The University of the West Indies

Connected wooden markers on a blue background

Questions to foster open and engaging research communication

Each stage of a research project comes with questions about what information to share and with whom. Richard Holliman offers practical advice on how to make your research communication more transparent and engaging

Richard Holliman

The Open University

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