In this Provocation, John Goddard argues that now is the time to re-invent the notion of the broadly based civic university.

Key recommendations:

• The civic university: provides opportunities for society; engages with its surroundings; partners with other universities; and operates on a global scale.
• Civic engagement has to be an institution wide-commitment, not confined to individual academics or projects
• Civic engagement should move beyond being a third or separate strand of activity for universities, instead becoming a guiding principle.  

In the context of a severe recession, pressure on the public finances and major societal challenges such as global warming and the ageing population, governments are quite properly asking: what are universities for?

This Provocation argues that all publicly funded universities in the UK have a civic duty to engage with wider society on the local, national and global scales, and to do so in a manner which links the social to the economic spheres. 

Author:

John Goddard