It was good to speak again at the UIIN University-Industry Interaction Conference this morning. Last year I spoke about the pitfalls of local economic impact studies commissioned by universities, and today I talked about how current approaches to local engagement are impeded by outdated strategic planning models. Although ‘place’ needs...

Next week the Global University Leaders Council Hamburg holds its biennial conference, this time looking at universities and climate change. There’s a 150 page edited volume supporting the event, including seven country case studies. I supported the production of this publication, through UCL Institute of Education.

This was an interesting, data-driven project for Universities UK looking at the potential impact of university partnerships over the next five years. The training of key workers, the value of local regeneration projects, and business and community engagement are explored. All data is broken down by UK nation and English region. Here’s ...

Five universities in Greater Manchester and the Combined Authority recently undertook polling of over 1,000 local residents. The overall summary is interesting – for example that over half of residents have never visited a local university – but there are some gems hidden in the 230 pages of polling data. Take this, for example, from p...

My blog has moved home. Part of the reason for this is rethinking how I do communications around my research and consultancy work, and my PhD. It’s also part of a drive towards simplifying things. This blog will pick up what I talked about on the old site, but perhaps with shorter and more frequent posts. These will be a mixture of ann...