Rachel Mills, Provost

We are asking staff and postgraduate students to give their views on public engagement at Sussex as we want to be able to deliver high quality, effective engagement with the public.

Our ambitions in the Engage for Change strategy in Sussex 2025 are that we interact purposefully with people, organisations and communities at a local, regional, national and international level.

Our public engagement activities are important for a number of reasons as they support our overall academic vision and in particular contribute to:

• Our REF impact submission
• Our work on KEF
• Our Civic University Agreements

The questionnaire enables you to share your thoughts about public engagement, including if and how you engage the public with your work, and whether you would benefit from additional support from the University in your public and civic engagement activities.

The questionnaire, which will take no longer than 15 minutes to complete, will ask a few questions to explore the understanding of how we perceive public engagement at Sussex. The data will provide us with robust evidence, benchmarked across the sector, help to inform recommendations and actions to underpin our work in public engagement, and be influenced by cutting edge practice.

Please take part in the survey

Provost Rachel Mills said: “Our ambition laid out in Sussex 2025, is to be an engaged and impactful university and we need to understand what staff and postgraduate students aspire to deliver and whether there are gaps in our knowledge and capabilities.

“Public engagement hugely enriches the undergraduate experience; contributes to improving equality, diversity and inclusion; creates deeper relationships with key stakeholders; and underpins new developments in research.”

Debbie Keeling, Deputy PVC for Knowledge Exchange, said: “We’d encourage you to take part, as this short survey will also enable us to identify Sussex’s current strengths in public engagement; identify gaps and opportunities; and lay out concrete actions to take public engagement to the next level, informed by developments in other institutions in the sector.

“A key aspect of the programme is the opportunity to access the expertise of expert ‘peers’ with extensive experience of leading public engagement strategies in other higher education institutions.”

The survey is being run by third-party provider NCCPE and the information you submit will be published as part of a report, but confidentiality and anonymity will be maintained and no individual will be identifiable from any publications. You can read NCCPE’s Privacy Notice for further information.