University public engagement: 20 tips

By Claire Shaw. Experts from our recent #HElivechat share best practice and advice on better engaging the public in university research.
The definition of public engagement is changing
"Any member of a university embarking on public engagement should reflect on what it means to them, and external audiences and stakeholders should also speak up for what they think public engagement should mean. There's a difficult tension between recognising public engagement as a core university activity, and allowing the 'goodwill' and 'voluntarism' of earlier public engagement activities to flourish. If there are members of universities getting involved in public engagement without enthusiasm, the public engagement activity won't be of high quality." (Nicola Buckley, head of public engagement at the University of Cambridge). Read more...