Research and Development

Sharing our expertise

Cupp shares a strong belief in the potential for communities and universities to work together. Their combined resources have been seen to make a tangible difference to the effectiveness of the civil society sector, the quality of university education and research and the lives of local people.

Our new initiative offers a range of local, national and international support to other universities and civil society organisations to explore the potential for partnership working in their local context. It shares the expertise we have developed in:

• addressing issues of marginalisation and inequality through local partnerships
• embedding social engagement into university policy, teaching and research
• ensuring the knowledge base of the university is accessible to its local community.

Our Experience

Cupp has been part of the University of Brighton since 2003. We have six years experience of creating, developing and nurturing mutually beneficial partnerships between the university and its local community. Starting as an externally funded project we have now become central to the university’s corporate mission. Through our strong student community engagement programme and a broad range of local and regional projects Cupp encompasses over 130 academics, 1000 students and 500 community partners. In 2008 we received the Times Higher Education Award for ‘outstanding contribution’ to our local community. In 2007 we published ‘Community University Partnerships in Practice’ written in collaboration with community partners.

We have an established and published research base on the potential of community engaged work and experience of working in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. We are keen to support other universities and community organisations, particularly those in resource poor countries, in setting up their own partnerships that address a local development agenda. In turn we aim to develop a leading international knowledge base on the subject that can be further shared.

Supporting Your Needs

We can offer advice in the following areas:

• Strategic, (e.g. changes within structure and planning to accommodate partnership work);
• Research (e.g. approaches to community based research);
• Teaching (e.g. developing curricula that facilitates engagement);
• Discipline based (e.g. developing project ideas in specific discipline areas);
• Practical (e.g. managing partnerships and building relationships);
• Evaluating (e.g. helping assess the impact of our work);
• Access (e.g. identifying community priorities and navigating the university).

Depending on the context and the support required this could be provided by senior management personnel, academic staff, community partners or members of the Cupp development team.

Support can be delivered through:

• The exchange of literature, documents and reports;
• Face to face meetings or workshops (as part of a short consultancy visit) ;
• A joint time-bound programme of in country training;
• Periodic electronic (email or telephone) mentoring;
• We may also liaise between universities and set up third country support from one of our contacts to another working in a similar cultural or economic context.

There are a number of ways that our team could work with yours:

• Members of the senior management team may undertake to have a series of telephone discussions with colleagues in a partner country on the challenges involved in introducing engagement work into institutional policy;
• Members of the Cupp development team might exchange module outlines or activity reports to colleagues working on engagement in a partner country and follow these up with an ongoing email dialogue;
• An academic who has led on a community based project in their discipline area might host a visiting academic from a partner country showing them how the project has worked on the ground;
• A member of the development team might make an initial visit to a partner country to discuss a range of inputs and to look together at ways of funding an extended programme of support.

Testing Us Out

We are in a position to offer up to 3 hours of on line support and/or the travel costs for one face to face visit at no charge providing our in country expenses are met. Beyond that we will liaise with you on the range of activities you might require and subsequent charges or explore together possibilities for external funding.

For further information on our activities, our research initiative and our past experience please contact

Dr Juliet Millican
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Telephone international: 0044 1273 644155
Telephone national: (01273) 644155

Resources

Please also have a look at the materials and resource section where you can download publications that relate to Cupp's research and development work.