Public Affairs Standing Committee - Reports

The Public Affairs Standing Committee held its final meeting of the 2023/24 academic year on May 13^th. General Council members will recall that PASC has been following the development of the University’s Community Plan since its inception, and so we were very pleased to be joined at the meeting by Gemma Gourlay, Head of Social Impact, to hear an update on the Community Plan following its three year anniversary.

Ms Gourlay highlighted some of the successes of the Community Plan to date, showcasing the scale of the funding and investment as well as the personal impact of the projects. The support that has been provided through the various initiatives is well summarized in the Community Plan’s Year 3 report, a copy of which is available here.

The Community Board continues to consider how to improve progress under the current initiatives – interaction with the alumni community is one area which could benefit from a greater boost in the remaining years of the plan. However, attention also is turning to the focus of the new plan post 2025. Ms Gourlay shared the list of possible themes for the new plan, ranging from Housing, and Ecology and Nature, to the Post-Covid World. Three priorities will be chosen from this list following extensive consultation with stakeholders including the local community. The new plan will benefit from internal learnings, such as how best to measure success, and from the experiences of other institutions looking to work more closely within the civic framework. PASC is looking forward to hearing more about the new plan as it takes shape alongside the University’s 2030 strategy.

The Business Committee is already exploring how the University can support more effective engagement with the different alumni groups in initiatives such as the Community Plan or more broadly. The General Council, Development & Alumni, and individual programmes all have distinct roles to play but there are many potential opportunities to work together to build a stronger Town and Gown relationship, and we hope to have a key role in bringing together interested groups.

The meeting then moved on to discuss the recently published Summer edition of Billet. This is the second edition in the new format and feedback continues to be positive. We also were very pleased to learn that a record number of people have signed up to attend the Half Yearly Meeting on June 15^th – although we expect this is less to do with the new Billet and more likely because the HYM is one of the first events to be held in the new Futures Institute! We are delighted that the event is so popular, albeit that has some knock-on impact on logistics and cross-university operational planning! There is now a waiting list to attend but the event will be livestreamed and recorded for those who are not able to join the sessions in person. For those of you planning to attend, we look forward to seeing you on the day. 

Candice Donnelly

Convener 

Public Affairs Standing Committee