University of Brighton (UK)

The University of Brighton is a community of 21,000 students and 2,100 staff based on five campuses. It is a leading university, known for the high quality of its work. Consequently, the institution is sought after by local communities as a partner for civic engagement; and local initiatives in support of economic regeneration, social cohesion, and community empowerment are increasingly drawing on its resources. University of Brighton’s website>>

Student Community Engagement

The SCE program in the Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) at the University of Brighton works across the university to match the skills and abilities of different student groups with the needs of local voluntary organizations working to address marginalization and disadvantage. Cupp designs modules which enable students to take initiative and leadership in selecting a project and either to work to a brief set by a community organization or to suggest an intervention that they would like to undertake. Assessment tasks involve practical work, analysis and reflection and enable students to gain academic credit for a particular community based intervention. Contrary to more traditional service learning or placement modules students are encouraged to question and challenge the approaches they come into contact with and to take a rights based rather than a welfare perspective on questions of marginalization and social justice. Brighton has also partnered with the University of Dzemal Bijedic Mostar in Bosnia to help that university implement a similar program. Learn more>>

Institutional Assessment

The University’s new Corporate Plan confirms its commitment over the next five years to ‘forge mutually beneficial relationships between the curriculum, research and economic and social engagement activities’. It cites, as an indicator of success, that by 2012 it will have: ‘increased the number of students taking modules involving learning in the community and entrepreneurship and the number of students involved in volunteering; and increased the number of schools from which such students are drawn.’ University of Brighton’s Institutional Assessment>>

Institutional Profile

The university’s mission statement emphasizes that the institution should seek to be an ‘accessible, dynamic and responsive community of higher education, enhancing lives, communities, disciplines and professions.’ Further, it aims to ‘nurture its intellectual capital ethically, imaginatively, and sustainably, and make this widely available.’ University of Brighton’s Institutional Profile>>