New article published: Auditing and Evaluating University-Community Engagemenet: Lessons from a UK case study

Angie Hart and Simon Northmore, Higher Education Quarterly 2010 - online edition

Abstract
The growing importance of community and public engagement activities in universities has led to an increasing emphasis on auditing and evaluating university–community partnerships.

However, the development of effective audit and evaluation tools is still at a formative stage. This article presents a case study of the University of Brighton’s experience of evaluating such partnerships. Drawing on this experience, a review of the literature and an analysis of published measurement frameworks, the challenges of measuring community and public engagement are discussed and a typology of dimensions for university public engagement presented. A critique of the Brighton case study and the lessons learned provides a basis for clarifying the activities that
universities might want to measure and the key questions they need to ask when determining which tools are appropriate.

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