Coming down from the ivory tower? Academics’ civic and economic engagement with the community

Abstract This paper examines the degree and nature of universities' interaction with their communities from the perspectives of individual academics. It considers whether academic values and practice tend toward a 'detached' or 'universalist' perspective in which location is largely redundant and any perceived 'community' has a global character, or whether values and practice in fact indicate a significant perhaps substantial degree of community engagement at a local, regional or national level. We explore interaction with the community which takes a broadly 'civic' form, and that which is of more specifically economic relevance. This issue is of great importance at a time when higher education has become a more obvious object of political scrutiny, both in terms of its use of public funds and its more general social and economic purpose. Our findings are based on a postal questionnaire administered to a sample of academics, and a series of follow‐up interviews with a smaller sub‐sample of respondents. We conclude that academics exhibit a strong commitment to engagement and interaction with their communities both in principle and practice; that such interaction often takes place at a variety of geographical levels; and that it is often accomplished under less than propitious circumstances. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for supplying the funding for the research that made this paper possible, and two anonymous referees for their very helpful comments on an earlier draft. Notes 1. For an approach which contrasts with our own through examining the global status of universities, see Robins and Webster, Citation2002, although as these authors usefully point out, the local and global roles of universities should not necessarily be seen as distinct. 2. This does not mean that the institutional type or culture within which these individuals work is not relevant. While the nature of our sample (see below) means that we cannot draw conclusions about individual institutions, we can explore the potential influence of different types of institution. This issue is examined in some detail in Paterson, Citation2003; but see also notes 7 and 8 in this paper. 3. Recent comments from the former Westminster education secretary Charles Clarke and former higher education minister Margaret Hodge in particular have stimulated a great deal of comment from academics writing in the media. See for example Bassnett (Citation2003), Furedi (Citation2003) and Hunt (Citation2003). 4. This project formed part of the Nations and Regions Research Programme, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and co‐ordinated from the University of Edinburgh. See www.ed.ac.uk/usgs/forum/Leverhulme/TOC.html. 5. The achieved survey sample was broadly representative of the academic population as a whole with respect to age, gender and seniority. There are three instances of under‐representation. Contract research staff were under‐represented in the sample, most probably due to the transient nature of these people and the fact that they are therefore not as prominent in the web pages used for the final sample. Social scientists and those working in post‐1992 institutions were under‐represented due to lower response rates among these groups. Full technical details of the sampling procedure and final sample can be found at: http://www.institute‐of‐governance.org/onlinepub/paterson/technote.html In addition, in Scotland 43% of survey respondents had received most of their schooling in Scotland, 35% had been schooled in England, and 22% elsewhere. In England, 67% had received most of their schooling in England, 4% had been schooled in Scotland, and 30% elsewhere. 6. Where necessary, 'I' and 'R' are used to distinguish comments made by the interviewer from those of the respondent. Otherwise, all interview extracts are those of the respondent. To protect their anonymity, interviewees are referred to here only by means of their very broad disciplinary area, and specific institutions are not named. When the term 'lecturer' is used this also covers people at other levels of seniority such as reader or professor. 7. Our questionnaire data do not indicate that either opinions or activities related to civic engagement are strongly associated with type of institution. Although there is significant variation, particularly in relation to certain types of activity, there are no striking differences. The most obvious area of contrast is in media activity, where, perhaps not surprisingly, those employed in the more prestigious institutions north and south of the border (the ancient Scottish universities and Oxbridge) are significantly more likely to have appeared in print or broadcast media. 8. Opinion on the importance of contributing to the economy at a local and regional level is also an area where type of institution appears to be more significant in England than it is in Scotland. Those employed in Oxbridge are distinct here: while 50% do see contribution to the local economy as important, this rises to around two‐thirds in all the other categories of institution in England (in Scotland the figures exceed 80% in all types of institution). The differences in relation to contribution to the regional economy represent an even clearer divide: only around one third of Oxbridge academics in our sample saw this as important, compared to clear majorities in all other institutional categories in England.