Welsh universities picked up on lack of civic duty

Universities in Wales should be measured on their work with local communities to tackle a “problematic” tendency to not take civic engagement seriously, a think tank has suggested.

In its report, Maximising Universities’ Civic Contribution, the Wales Centre for Public Policy recommends that civic engagement should be included when assessing universities’ performance. Civic engagement is generally seen as a lower priority than teaching and research, but the centre says that civic engagement should be an overarching link between teaching, research and other activities, rather than an add-on.

“This tendency to compartmentalise civic engagement is problematic. How activities are categorised—and most importantly whether or not they are directly tied to incentive structures—has a clear effect on whether or not they are viewed as a priority,” the centre says in the report.