Solent University is committed to public engagement. Embedded within our 2025 strategy the University is proud to have secured the NCCPE Engage Watermark (Silver) in December 2022. The Engage Watermark is an award granted to institutions to recognise their strategic support for public engagement and their commitment to improve the support offered. Just as a watermark runs through the fabric of a document, an Engage Watermark indicates that engagement runs through the fabric of the institution.
Championed by our Vice-Chancellor, public engagement at Solent University is formed of two strategic priorities from the 2025 strategy, Engaging with our Communities and Research and Knowledge Exchange. Work is undertaken across the University by our staff and students and we are committed to working in partnership with our alumni, local community, business and global communities who form our definition of 'publics'.
"Public engagement describes the myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the publics. Engagement is a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit.” National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement.
At the start of 2021 we signed the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement's (NCCPE) Manifesto for Public Engagement and have committed to working with NCCPE to review our current public engagement strategies, activities and staff support. This will enable us to enhance our public engagement in line with the principles of the manifesto.
Our approach aligns with the NCCPE’s perspective of what makes up an engaged University.
Public engagement in action
Public engagement is in our DNA here at Solent. Here are some examples of our current and past activities to engaging with our publics.
Engaging with our local community
Engaging with our business community
Driving economic and sustainable growth to:
Engaging with our global research community
Public lecture series
The University delivers a series of in person and virtual public lectures open to academia, the local community, business, and our global research community. You can listen back to some of our previous lectures, including how to measure happiness, and top tips to enhance your running performance, through our virtual knowledge hub. For our upcoming events, visit our events page, follow us on @SolentCivic on Twitter and sign up to our newsletters.
Supporting public engagement at Solent University
Our leadership of public engagement
Our Chief Marketing Officer is responsible for the Engaging with our Communities strategic priority, supported by External Relations.
Professor Syamantak Bhattacharya, Provost, is responsible for the Research and Knowledge Exchange strategic priority, supported by the Research Office.
Our committees
With public engagement in our DNA, we have created structures to support our work and enable collaboration across the University.
To support our commitment to working in partnership with the local community, the group brings together areas from across the University that play an active role in engaging with our local community. The Civic (Local Community) Advancement Group shapes future policies, partnerships and ways of working while ensuring that community orientated activity is formally reported on.
Members of the group are:
- Chief Marketing Officer
- Research Office
- Lead for City of Culture
- Head of Marketing and Communications
- Access and Widening Participation Manager
- Environment Officer
- Head of Student Experience
- Head of Student Engagement, Solent Students' Union
- Head of Sports Programmes
- Strategic Lead for Knowledge Exchange
- Senior Communities Development Manager
Our external commitments
We are working with a range of partners and organisations in fulfilling our commitment to public engagement.
How to get involved and find out more
Solent staff and students
Join our Public Engagement Network
All our students, staff and academics have a role to play in public engagement at Solent University and our impact on our publics. The Public Engagement Network is open to everyone internally to engage you with our plans for public engagement, seek your views and opinions, and share best practice across the University.
Any student, staff member, or academic interested or involved in public engagement is encouraged and welcome to join the network.
Get in touch with key members of staff:
- Jonathan Ridley, Associate Provost Academic Strategy
- Mike Toy, Senior Communities Development Manager, Lead for Local Community and Business Engagement
Business community
Visit our one-stop-shop for enabling business growth and development. If you're unsure where to start, why not tell us a bit about your business and the challenge you are looking to address. One of our business advisers will then get in touch to discuss how we can work together.
Local community
Visit our community pages or send us an email with your idea.
Global research community
Visit our research pages or send us an email with your idea.
What do we mean by civic (local community) engagement and civic university?
A civic university is an institution that has a place-based strategy about how it connects to its local city area and local community. Universities and their communities build mutually beneficial relationships for the public good in order to maximise the civic impact of universities in their place.
What do we mean by knowledge exchange?
Knowledge exchange (KF) is a process which brings together academic staff, users of research, and wider groups and communities to increase the impact of research. The process encourages the sharing of ideas, data, experience and expertise which is mutually beneficial to all parties involved.
