University museums for the 21st century

HEFCE, whose funding supports university museums in England, welcomes the publication of ‘Impact and engagement: University museums for the 21st century’.

The University Museums Group and University Museums in Scotland launched the joint publication, which celebrates the outstanding contribution made by such museums across the UK, at the Museums Association Conference in Liverpool on 12 November. The report praises the growing success of university museums within the UK’s higher education sector, and their unique contribution to the public profile of universities.

Case studies illustrate recent changes in how university museums participate in the academic missions of higher education institutions, as well as their remarkable record for wider public engagement and community impact.

The report shows how university museums deliver unique benefits to the higher education sector and to the culture at large, including:

• nearly 4 million public visits to university museums last year
• 3,500 public events and 200 exhibitions held last year by university museums
• students learning from museum objects on more than 700 university courses
• university museums increasingly delivering and supporting collections-based research across multiple disciplines.

University museums also demonstrate exceptional performance in attracting funding, with HEFCE’s core museums and galleries funding generating an increase in funding from outside the sector of 179 per cent to over £20 million over the last five years.

The report is available on the University Museums Group web-site.