Resourcing universities to increase their civic impact: meeting challenges of communication, complexity and commitment

The 21st century has witnessed an increasing focus on universities’ civic role and their impacts on the social and economic wellbeing of their communities. Recent work in the UK has emphasised the multifaceted character of universities' potential impacts in a context of global and local challenges, but also the persistent difficulties they face in realising such potential at a time when universities’ own financial position is increasingly precarious. Drawing on findings from an action learning program involving 14 university-led partnerships, this article introduces a set of resources developed to support ‘civic’ universities and considers their utility and limitations in the context of the challenges identified by participants. These resources include definitions of civic activity, a framework for assessing impact and a theory of civic change. The article contextualises this material within the wider history of civic universities and draws on insights from institutional theory to reflect on the gaps between aspiration and implementation.