Stories from the project October 4, 2011
Posted by Chris Y in : Updates , comments closed
Download a copy of Business as Usual? [PDF]
From 2008-2010, our JISC-funded project, Awareness and Education in Business and Community Engagement (BCE) for the Wider JISC Community, examined the nature of external engagement within universities and colleges.
The focus for the project was on how increased engagement activity might impact on the ability of the internal functions of an institution to support it effectively and consistently.
We ran and took part in around 25 direct consultations and workshops, with individuals and groups representing the range of support and enabling functions found in UK universities and colleges. Staff from over 75 universities and colleges attended project events to share their experience, helping us build a picture of the landscape for support and management of BCE activities; both locally and more broadly across the sector.
We also engaged with professional bodies such as UCISA, SCONUL and the AUA to explore the engagement-driven activity taking place right across the HE and FE sectors, with the aim to find out the context in which it was being experienced by key support staff working in IT, libraries and administration.
During that time we accumulated a lot of rich material on the project blog, wrote a report of our findings and experience and shortened the project name (to simply BCE A&E). This publication is an attempt to present those findings in a more relevant and easily digestible way.
As well as explaining how and why the term BCE is being used to describe activities taking place in and around your organisation, we have highlighted five common issues that cropped up during the project and then spoken in depth with the people involved in key work taking place to address them.
Also included is an overview of the wider JISC Business and Community Engagement (BCE) programme from the programme manager Simon Whittemore, plus an introduction to the JISC Advance BCE team, who provide a useful first point of contact for all matters BCE.
You can find the BCE team, along with more information on the wider JISC BCE programme at: http://bce.jiscinvolve.org/