Community newsletter
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Find out moreEngaging our communities
As we enter 2025, we mark a key milestone for Southampton Solent University by celebrating 20 years of university status. While much has changed since our beginning as the Southampton College of Arts in 1856, our commitment to working in partnership with business and society hasn’t wavered. Now, as the world around us evolves, we must remain agile in our work as a civic university. As such we are taking the opportunity to restate our civic commitment to you.
Our refreshed Civic Charter will build on the strong foundations developed since our last civic charter launched in 2021. It cements our ongoing and shared commitment to our communities. Business and society have faced many challenges in the intervening years, which we have all had to adapt to. Global instability, the impacts of climate change and the advancement of technology alongside a volatile political environment have meant we must adapt our approaches and become more agile with our business models.
Engaging our communities
As we enter 2025, we mark a key milestone for Southampton Solent University by celebrating 20 years of university status. While much has changed since our beginning as the Southampton College of Arts in 1856, our commitment to working in partnership with business and society hasn’t wavered. Now, as the world around us evolves, we must remain agile in our work as a civic university. As such we are taking the opportunity to restate our civic commitment to you.
Our refreshed Civic Charter will build on the strong foundations developed since our last civic charter launched in 2021. It cements our ongoing and shared commitment to our communities. Business and society have faced many challenges in the intervening years, which we have all had to adapt to. Global instability, the impacts of climate change and the advancement of technology alongside a volatile political environment have meant we must adapt our approaches and become more agile with our business models.
The University’s 2035 strategy outlines our vision and priorities for the years ahead, with the Civic Charter acting as an enabler to share these benefits with business and society. We are pledging to act as a diffusion engine, embedding good practices and innovating new approaches for the benefit of businesses and society. This approach will underpin all our activities; creating and sharing research and knowledge to make a meaningful and positive difference to our city, region and beyond.
The next few years offer significant opportunity to Southampton, Hampshire and the wider Central South region, with the continued economic renewal of our urban areas and investment into our natural landscape and resources. Central to this will be the development of an active, high-skilled working population, driving innovation through the economy, and raising aspiration across our communities. The University commits to playing a coordination role, ensuring the region’s prosperity is maximised and the benefits are realised by both business and society.
Our commitments set out within this Charter align with those of our regional peers, who we commit to work in partnership with to foster future growth across Southampton, Hampshire and the wider regions.
Working with the local community
Community collaborations
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