Public and community engagement

The University of Brighton reaches outside its walls to thousands of people every year. We engage with the cultural, social and economic life of the communities in which we live, work and study.

A culture of engagement is in our DNA. Its roots are in our history as a university that offered education by and for the area's teachers, designers, public workers, engineers and health professionals. Today, our education and research have a real-world collaborative ethos, with a commitment to addressing global challenges by making a tangible difference to lives and environments both locally and internationally.

A key focus of this work over the years has been through the acclaimed Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP). Founded in 2003, its flagship programmes are still at the heart of our public and community engagement activities that span the university. So too are its principles, including the importance of developing mutually beneficial partnerships underpinned by co-production, reciprocity and social learning.

Today public and community engagement is woven across the university. It is undertaken not only by CUPP but also by a variety of teams working across the university, as well as research and teaching colleagues and our students. Together they provide a breadth and depth of activities and multiple ways for us to engage with partners and communities.

Our Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP)
Community engagement
Students in the community
Research in the community
Community university news

Our Community University Partnership Programme

Group of elderly people at a long table enjoying tea and cakes as part of the University of Brighton's living lab

Community-university partnerships make a difference. They enrich teaching and the student experience, offer innovative ways of engaging communities with research, and provide tangible benefits for local people.

The award-winning Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP) has for two decades supported a series of co-designed projects with local communities that have led to many long-term strategic alliances.

Our two flagship programmes are Brains at the Bevy and the Ignite community-university partnership programme.

CUPP is an outstanding example of how we think learning has to happen in the twenty-first century. It’s challenging the traditionally accepted view that knowing is held by the university and applying is held by the community. It’s a learning partnership."

Prof Etienne Wenger-Trayner, co-founder of the communities of practice concept.

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Brains at the Bevy

The award-winning Brains at the Bevy programme is a unique collaboration between the university and an urban community-owned pub.

Since it started in 2016, hundreds of people have attended the programmes drawn by the engaging and topical talks on subjects ranging from the energy crisis to seaside gentrification. The academic often gives the talk in collaboration with an expert speaker from the community and the informality of the venue encourages debate and discussion amongst the audience.

One audience member summed it up: “Brilliant talk, great place – really inclusive, engaging and inspiring atmosphere”. The talks are free and open to all; we just ask you to book in advance.

Find out more about our award-winning ‘Brains at the Bevy’ programme.

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Ignite - seed-funding of partnerships that grow

Ignite is our flagship institutional programme that supports the development of new or existing community-university partnership projects. It is a fast-track programme underpinned by seed funding, co-production, one-to-one support, and knowledge sharing.

Given how busy community partners and researchers are, Ignite programmes are focused on supporting co-produced projects that can be delivered over weeks and months, not years. So far, we have seen some outstanding results including a booklet for parents to support the mental health of young children to securing £250k+ for research into marine pollutants and being featured on the BBC’s The One Show and Countryfile.

One iteration of the programme alone resulted in 18 community and university partners engaging, in under six months, with more than 350 key stakeholders across five countries: UK, Italy, Greece, South Africa and Egypt.

Find out more about our Ignite partnerships.

Community engagement

Brighton and Hove, pebble beach foreground and pier

Our community and public engagement is woven across the university. It is led by a variety of teams that deliver award-winning archives and public art exhibitions, to community sport.

Archives and collections

There are all-year-round opportunities for the public to engage with the university's cultural provision for the community.

Design Archives

The Design Archives holds world-class collections documenting British design and global design organisations. The team curates a dynamic programme linking content, enquiry and practice through to public engagement activities including exhibitions, events, digital resources and collaborations.

Find out more about the University of Brighton Design Archives.

Screen Archive South East

Screen Archive South East, a moving image collection, offers a distinct historical portrait of life across our region: everything from the development of our seaside towns, to rural village and agricultural life. The archive collects, preserves, researches and provides access to screen material related to the South East region of England.

Find out more about Screen Archive South East.

Audience and panel of experts at a University of Brighton Sallis Benney Theatre event

Events

The university hosts regular participatory events, either through inviting the public onto its campuses or taking its work into other venues through dedicated staff and student project work.

For example, our inaugural lectures are held throughout the academic year with an opportunity to hear accessible public-facing talks by newly appointed professors

Find out more about our inaugural lectures.

Sport Brighton sport and fitness opportunities for the local community

Our sports facilities offer a range of services and opportunities for members of the public and community groups and organisations. The Sport Brighton team also undertake a number of flagship community-focused programmes. These include coaching for Brighton Wildcats, a programme to support girls age 5 to 11 to get involved with football.

Find out more about Sport Brighton.

Students in the community

Students sitting around desk pointing to documents

Engaging with the local community is central to the values of the University of Brighton and students are given every opportunity to work with local schools, charities, businesses and organisations through placements and projects.

I'm so grateful to the University of Brighton for encouraging students to go out there and do what they can with the community and develop their own skills and experience."

Nadia Hammond, student volunteer

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Engaged Learning

Student community engagement has a long history and is embedded at scale across the university. Community placement modules are established where research links directly to local community interest areas from marine pollution to hospice care and primary school English and drama supported by the National Theatre.

A recent survey highlighted the breadth of community engaged learning across the university as well as a diversity of practice. Some examples include:

The MA Creative Writing draws on an extensive set of relationships with community partners including, for example, Diversity Lewes.
Our Social Work programme is closely involved with the surrounding region, where students complete extensive placements as part of their accreditation by Social Work England.
The School of Business and Law involved students in a recent project supporting a public awareness campaign on the impact of litter on Brighton & Hove beaches.
Two community engagement modules in the School of Humanities and Social Science have been running for well over a decade and take a deep dive into the subject.
Public and community engagement is embedded into the Pharmacy courses at all stages including outreach activities involving a Minority Ethnic mentoring scheme with local schools.
The Mithras community engagement research and knowledge exchange project, ‘Mapping the Mithras communities’ captures a range of local community, student and staff perspectives to historicise and celebrate the changes taking place around the University’s newly created campus at Mithras House in Moulsecoomb.
The MA Curating Collections and Heritage was developed with the Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton. Students are taught in part by staff from the Museum.

We continually evolve our engaged learning and respond to interest from community partners and students. For example, increasing the number of ‘live’ briefs, such as business students working with the not-for-profit Brighton Therapy Centre on a marketing plan for them.

Find out how to recruit a student volunteer through our Active Student service.

Mentoring programmes

Local people and organisations are a key element of the success of the University of Brighton's innovative mentoring programmes. Community volunteers are trained as mentors to support our students, and many of the mentoring programmes have a focus on inclusivity and diversity:

Men in Primary
Uni-Amex LGBTQ+
Identity Match
Momentum

We also have ‘Uni+School’ programme where university students have an opportunity to mentor school children in the local community.

One of our alumni, John-Paul Kunrunmi, explained how positive this experience had been for him and his mentee: "I took up the opportunity to mentor students from secondary schools that were also from the black minority ethnic group. Mentoring the students was a great way for us to connect on our shared experience and a way to let them know that higher education is an option for them."

Find out more about how to become a student mentor.

Aerial photo of Moulsecoomb campus showing high-rise buildings with cityscape towards the coast

Widening Participation Team

We have a longstanding commitment to widening participation and undertake outreach work with students from underrepresented backgrounds. Our engagement begins with pupils at primary schools and continues to year 13. Our activities include a number of Saturday clubs such as Formula 24, where secondary school students work with academics and university students to build and drive their own racing car. The Chemistry Club gives secondary school students experience in cutting-edge science in university-level laboratories. We have been delivering our flagship post-16 summer school for over 15 years, where year 12 students spend four days at the university and experience academic tasters and social activities.

Find out more about our widening participation programmes.

Research in the community

Man in sea fishing jacket leaning over boat to pull at industrial oyster net.

Co-researching new knowledge is part of a process that can bring mutual benefits to communities alongside researchers and students.

Below are some of the many successful ways in which academics have co-produced research with community members and students:

There is no doubt that the University of Brighton plays a global leadership role in partnership research. We appreciate learning about the diversity of excellence through CUPP."

Professor Budd Hall, UNESCO Co-Chair in Community Based Research

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Football 4 Peace

Through its research-informed programmes, Football 4 Peace has pioneered ‘values-based’ sports training and coaching programmes. Originally developed to support conflict resolution in Israel and Palestine, its programmes now operate around the world to address division, inequality and injustice. Since it started in 2001, Football 4 Peace has worked with over 12700 children and 1100 coaches in 87 communities.

Find out more about Football 4 Peace.

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Inclusive arts practice

Inclusive arts provides a meaningful platform for self-expression, helping to combat exclusion. Over two decades, University of Brighton artist and academic Alice Fox has expanded traditional forms of engagement with performers and the public to broaden the scope of inclusive arts. Across diverse sectors and communities, the work has enriched the cultural offer and the lives of specific, often marginalised, community groups, built new public and professional audiences for inclusive arts, and enabled partners to engage new audiences, giving their work legitimacy and licence to experiment.

Find out more about inclusive arts practices.

Group of school children sat at a wooden bench, drawing and discussing with large map on wall behind.

Community21– designing active local communities

Community21 brings communities together to tackle the issues that affect them most. Building teachable, shareable skills in making, technology, craft and design, it has supported communities, NGOs and industry partners in addressing twenty-first-century issues and creating sustainable and social development. Operating locally, regionally and globally, the many award-winning projects facilitate engagement and collaboration between researchers, students and communities.

Find out more about Community21.

Resilience for social justice

Our researchers have championed co-creation in response to community resilience for over a decade.

Their innovative Resilience Framework has been applied to an £11m, multi-partner, co-produced programme in Blackpool (2016-22), one of the UK’s most deprived towns. Led by Blackpool Council, it was one of five strategic investments by Lottery HeadStart and has delivered a range of social impacts, including training for over 70,000 public sector practitioners. A manifesto for community development was published with commitment from 18 organisations.

Find out more about resilience research.