Public Benefit Statement

EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT

Our external engagement work is reflected in and driven by our University strategy, Impact 2022, and the imperatives it contains for the University to become better connected and more permeable, ever more student- and customer focused, business-oriented, strategically aligned and, above all, impactful. An essential aspect of the strategy is for the University to build strategic partnerships and alliances especially locally and throughout our region, but also further afield as well.

Helping to drive the skills agenda

The University’s improved engagement with the Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (BLEP) reflects our commitment to help drive the skills agenda for the county and meet the needs of the local employers and the region. We also work closely with the unitary Buckinghamshire Council to support them in progressing many of their ambitions.

We play our part in responding to the needs of the Skills for Jobs white paper in partnership with local FE colleges, the UTC, as well as primary and secondary schools. BNU is also proud to belong to the Arc Universities Group of nine universities that is driving forwards the research and education needs of the South of England.

We provide incubation spaces at our High Wycombe and Aylesbury campuses, enabling entrepreneurs and business start-ups to work flexibly and at low cost.

Our executive team’s contribution

External engagement is deeply reflected in the activities of the senior team as they lead the delivery of Impact 2022 and its commitment to strengthen engagement with key strategic partners.

The University is a member of GuildHE, one of two officially recognised representative bodies for higher education which enable the voices of universities to be heard, the other being Universities UK, of which the University is also an active member, through the contributions of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Braisby. In April 2021, we were proud to play our part in lobbying Government to reconsider stage two of its roadmap out of lockdown which saw shops, hairdressers, gyms, spas, and theme parks reopen but no mention of when students could resume their on-campus studies. Our Vice-Chancellor Professor Nick Braisby highlighted that students were ‘being forgotten and left in limbo with no return date in sight and so we welcomed the government’s decision to enable students to return to campuses in May 2021. The ViceChancellor also raised with the Department for Education some challenges with its proposed student number control and its relationship with franchise provision, intervention which also resulted in the Department issuing clarification and revised guidance.

The University is also a member of the All Party Parliamentary Universities Group.

The Vice-Chancellor has a number of external roles which help ensure the University’s voice influences national policy. During 2020-21, Professor Braisby continued his work as a member of the Universities UK Racial Harassment Advisory Group, established to develop practical guidance for universities on preventing and responding to all forms of racial harassment experienced by staff and students. The group published its recommendations in November 2020. Professor Braisby also served as a member of JISC’s Learning and Teaching Reimagined Advisory Board, enabling the University to contribute its vision of what learning and teaching should look like in 2030. The Board oversaw the JISC report Learning and Teaching Reimagined, which was also published in November 2020. The Vice-Chancellor is also a member of the Learning Analytics and Innovation Board sponsored by Civitas Learning Inc.

The University is a member of two representative bodies – GuildHE and Universities UK – and Professor Braisby represents the University at meetings of both. Since 2019 he has served as a member of the UUK’s Treasurer’s Committee and, with reforms to this committee, now serves on both the UUK’s Audit and Risk and Resources committees. In May 2021 the Vice-Chancellor joined the Executive Board of GuildHE.

Within the region, the Vice-Chancellor Chairs the Strategic Board for the Bucks Health and Social Care Academy, a novel, innovative multi-partner organisation, jointly founded by the University and Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, and bringing together Buckinghamshire Council, Buckinghamshire College Group, Buckinghamshire LEP, Fed Bucks (the GPs’ Federation), Health Education England, and the Universities of Bedfordshire and Buckingham. The Vice-Chancellor chairs the Board of Governors for the University-sponsored Buckinghamshire University Technical College and sits on the Development Board for Bucks Culture. The ViceChancellor joins other senior leaders of higher education institutions as a member of the West London HEI Vice-Chancellor’s group, a group aimed at ensuring higher education plays a significant role in the economic regeneration of West London, a region especially badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vice-Chancellor also represents the University on the Buckinghamshire Council sponsored Strategic Partners Board. In October 2020, Professor Braisby joined the Board of Trustees for the University College of Estate Management.

Professor Gavin Brooks, the University’s Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor is Chair of a county-wide group charged by Government with ensuring that the skills taught in universities, schools and colleges match what local employers need for their businesses to thrive, both now and in the future. The Skills Advisory Panel (SAP) brings together local employers and education providers to address the county’s skills challenges, which include helping people who have lost their jobs as a consequence of COVID-19 to retrain or transfer their existing skills to another sector. The SAP, one of many set up in local authority areas across the country since 2018, meets quarterly and reports to the Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board. Buckinghamshire New University has received £2.9 million of LEP funding since 2017 to support a variety of projects that benefit the county’s economy and health sector, including its Health and Digital Business Hubs and the Bucks Health and Social Care Academy.

The first Buckinghamshire Local Skills Report, by Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (Bucks LEP) and Buckinghamshire Skills Hub, highlighted the strong collaborative culture between education providers, and between employers and educators. Its findings showed that Buckinghamshire benefits from further and higher education institutions with a strong history of business engagement, and a focus on applied learning and employability. The report is set to become an annual publication, with Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership hoping it will become ‘the ‘go-to’ document for everything skills-related within Buckinghamshire, bringing together evidence, strategy, information on current and planned initiatives and examples of best practice.’

Further afield, BNU is part of the Heathrow Skills Partnership, helping to adapt and reskill the existing workforce and create a pipeline of talent not only to benefit Heathrow but also the wider infrastructure industry.

Working with NHS Trusts and social care providers

The University has very strong links with NHS Trusts and social care providers in the region. Our expansion in health and the establishment of the Institute for Health and Social Care will help to address the health needs of the county, and the UK more widely, by playing our part to shape and support the health and social care agenda in the region and across the UK. The leadership shown by the University in helping to establish the Academy for HSC, working with FE colleges to co-create and deliver, relevant work-based training programmes and meet the health needs of the region, demonstrates our commitment to being an anchor institution within our county and the towns in which our campuses are based.

Supporting careers in media and creative sectors

During the year we have expanded the University’s footprint with a new campus at Pinewood Studios to address the shortfall in jobs within the media and creative sectors. BNU is also represented on the High Wycombe BID company (HWBIDCo), helping to inform developments and activity in the town for the benefit of students and the community.