Community-University Partnership Programme

The Initial Programme

The early phase consisted of active engagement with key university staff and colleagues from community-based organizations in order to determine the aspirations, possibilities, constraints and traditions of the different sectors. The team members were encouraged to ‘define their work in the doing’, and three pilot projects were established in 2004 which offered some important parameters for the programme as a whole. These included the importance of activities that address social exclusion, directly connect with areas of university expertise and have prospects for sustaining themselves beyond any initial funding.

Cupp established three interrelated aims:

• 1.
  To ensure that the university's resources (intellectual and physical) are available to, informed by and used by its local and subregional communities
• 2.
  To enhance the community's and university's capacity for engagement for mutual benefit
• 3.
  To ensure that Cupp's resources are prioritized towards addressing inequalities with our local communities

The role of the Cupp development team became largely one of brokerage, bringing together partners who could learn from each other through shared activity, and in Cupp's early days, seed funding provided start-up [Page 151]money for small projects and academic ‘buyout’. By forming a group of senior researchers among academics interested in partnership working, Cupp was able to respond to a broad range of requests for research help and practical support.

The Help Desk

A key feature of the Cupp programme is the community-facing help desk which offers a route into the university. Universities are large and complex organizations, and the help desk provides the first point of contact for inquiries. Through networking and outreach activities, the help desk manager was able to promote the service and offer an initial chat with a researcher to help frame requests and explain the different ways in which the university might help. This could include research support, student involvement in either a practical or a research project or a longer term academic partnership.

Student Community Engagement

Taking a lead from the service learning movement in the USA, a programme of student involvement was added to the team's profile. This began with the development of a generic undergraduate module offered across a range of schools in which students undertake a period of practical work with a community-based organization. Accompanied by a series of academic and reflective assignments, it enables students to gain academic credit for experiential work. Discrete modules were developed on a similar model for particular schools, linking practical experience with reflection and including theory and policy analysis. Cupp also brokers live research projects for postgraduate students, drawing from the European Science Shop model (http://www.livingknowledge.org). These provide valuable experience in an organizational context for students and enable organizations and community groups to have access to research that might not otherwise be funded.

...