Redefining roles: Building postgraduate capacity for community engagement

This event has ended
14 January 2026, 9:30am - 3:00pm

UK universities face ever-greater pressure to demonstrate their public value. At the same time, research and institutions are critiqued for approaches that don’t benefit communities – and for training that fails to equip postgraduate researchers for the ‘real’ world.

Undisciplined Spaces – a collaboration between the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King’s College London (KCL) and The Young Foundation, and funded via an Impact Acceleration Account from the Arts & Humanities Research Council – turns traditional models of engagement on their head. Rather than researchers leading the way, the programme fosters collaboration, with community needs guiding topics for exploration to deliver tangible benefits for local people. This reimagines what universities can achieve in local places, nurturing equitable partnerships between institutions, researchers and communities.

The event:

This free event will bring together funders, academics and community organisations, sharing the Undisciplined Spaces approach through talks, interactive workshops and networking opportunities.

The event will demonstrate what’s possible when universities step outside their traditional roles and truly engage with the world around them, providing inspiration and provocation.

This is an invitation to:

• see the difference that community-engaged doctoral training can have on the experience of students and communities
• think about the different ways that community-engaged doctoral training could be achieved
• identify practical next steps to implement community-engaged approaches in postgraduate training
• learn from doctoral students and community groups about the partnerships they developed
• contribute reflections and ideas to a shared charter for community engaged doctoral training, that will be co-produced throughout the day.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Directions:

For directions to the venue, see: https://coinstreet.org/about-us/contact-us

More information:

Further details on the event and schedule will follow. In the meantime, please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

Location

Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, 108 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH