Professor Sherria Hoskins, Executive Dean, Faculty of Science and Health
In February 2019, the University of Portsmouth was among the first universities to commit to developing a Civic University Agreement and to embed this commitment in our University strategy. This is an opportunity for the University to work with other leading organisations in the region to have a meaningful and positive impact on our city and its residents.
I’m pleased to announce that the University has now signed a memorandum of understanding with a number of partners.*
This memorandum, the Civic University Partnership Agreement, brings together a range of anchor organisations from the private and public sector who together will mobilise for strategic large scale initiatives within six key priorities determined after much consultation within the University and with key regional stakeholders:
1. Address long term educational inequality in our region
2. Provide and support initiatives to fill the health and care gaps in the region
3. Support sustained economic growth in our region
4. Improve our environmental sustainability
5. Opening up our institutions
6. Promote diversity and inclusion in our community through engagement and leadership
This agreement is the start of our journey to becoming a civic university as laid out by the Civic University Commission.
From the correspondence I’ve received about our civic ambition, since we first announced it and from all that I learned in our initial survey back in 2019 of the civic activity already happening on the ground, I know how deeply many of you feel about this commitment. This is reflected by the hours spent in your own time being school governors, carrying out voluntary work, cleaning our beaches, and the many other ways you make a difference. Which is why we wanted to share this exciting news with you.
Current circumstances mean that there can’t be a live event so we will hold a virtual event later in the spring when you’ll have the chance to ask questions of a panel including some of our new civic partners.
In the meantime, if you think that something has the potential to grow into a significant strategic project, with positive impact in any of the key areas in the Civic University Partnership Agreement, please let us know at civicuniversity@port.ac.uk and we can arrange for the partnership board to explore your idea.
* The signatories to the Civic University Agreement are:
Airbus Defence and Space
BAE Systems Maritime Services
Hampshire Chamber of Commerce
HIVE Portsmouth
HM Naval Base, Portsmouth
Pompey in the Community
Portsmouth City Council
Portsmouth Football Club
Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust
Shaping Portsmouth
Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
Portsmouth and Highbury Colleges, Fareham College, Portsmouth College, Havant and South Downs College, Eastleigh College, St Vincent’s College, Chichester college and Isle of Wight College.
Our first step as researchers is to test the theory, but we wanted to test it in real-life settings, with teachers and pupils in schools, not in the lab. When this showed promise we wanted to share what we had learned with parents and carers. So we decided to help them to support their children through children’s books with guidance notes on the theory and research underpinning them.