Living Together, Working Together, is the first joint publication produced by NUS, UUK and GuildHE. Its aim is to illustrate the many creative initiatives across the UK that are running to address issues relating to students in the community.
Institutions, and students’ unions, are central parts of communities. We are all aware that in some areas tensions between long term residents, and students do emerge as a result of issues such as rubbish and litter, noise, poor housing quality and feelings of a ‘loss of community’. But, as we see in this publication Institutions and students’ unions are working proactively to address these problems.
A real appetite has emerged to address residents’ concerns and build more cohesive local communities. We need to ensure that this good work continues and we work proactively in this area, not simply reacting when things go wrong.
The publication captures just some of the best practice across the sector, both to offer support to peers and to stimulate discussion on a policy level of how to address student housing and community relations in the future. This report is a very small snapshot of the many projects, staff and resources currently dedicated to this agenda.
We want to hear from you
NUS would like to hear from you about what projects you are running in the community. If your students’ union is running any of the below projects individually, or together with your institution, please do get in touch with us and share your success.
Strategy
- Community engagement
- Effective planning
- Developing a framework
- Adopting a cohesive approach
- Inter-institutional partnerships
Breaking down the barriers
- Opening up campuses
- Getting out into neighbourhoods
- Responding to neighbours
- Broader partnerships
Being the solution
- Finding locally workable solutions
- Consultation
- Playing to strengths
- Measuring the impact
Regeneration
- Economic regeneration
- Sharing cultural wealth
- Planning for environmental impact
- Developing communities through sport
What to do with Living Together, Working Together?
The purpose of this document is to help improve students’ unions and institutions joint working in this area. Why not meet with your institutions senior management team to discuss this document, and identify what ideas from the publication could work on your campus.
If you would like a hard copy of Living Together, Working Together please email us.