Thursday 06-12-2018 - 10:36

Last week I was able to attend the first International Town & Gown Conference at Stellenbosch University, alongside Durham University’s Director of Student Support and Wellbeing, Sam Dale. One of my main priorities for the year is to develop Durham SU’s community engagement strategy, so this was a fantastic opportunity to hear from other universities about their ongoing work in this area and to share with them the challenges that we are facing in Durham.

The Conference was attended by student and staff representatives from 13 institutions, covering the UK, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Canada, the United States and South Africa. With such a diverse range of Universities in attendance, it was fascinating to hear about the different contexts in which they operate and the varying challenges that they are presented with when seeking a more positive relationship with their local community.

Over the three days of the conference we attended a number of sessions which addressed different aspects of community engagement, including case studies from institutions, engagement with local business, the role of sport in town and gown relations, integrating international students into the local community, and student communities in the town and gown context. I was pleased to be able to present with Sam on engagement with Durham’s immediate community, giving a student perspective on the existing work of the University and Students’ Union, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

I was particularly interested in how student communities at different institutions engage with their local resident communities, including how students at Lund University in Sweden have built strong relationships with local representatives, setting up formal structures to discuss common concerns and setting out a clear vision as to how students and residents should work collaboratively. I hope to stay in contact with many of the colleagues that we met at the conference and we will consider how we might be able to apply some of the fantastic work we learned about to the Durham context.

The Conference also agreed to establish a new Town & Gown Universities Network, with a view to facilitating further collaboration ahead of holding another conference in 2020. I am delighted that Durham University will be a founding member of this network and hope that this will mean that the University continues to engage with and seek to learn from the work being carried out by other universities and student bodies across the world.

As well as reflecting on how my experiences of the conference may shape Durham SU’s community engagement strategy, I will be contributing to a report to the University in collaboration with Sam, suggesting how they may be able enhance their work in this area.