Public Engagement
Focusing on being inclusive and accessible
Public engagement underpins Aston University’s 2030 Strategy, which focuses on serving our 3 beneficiary groups: Students, Business and the Professions, and Region and Society.
We have several key aims and ambitions through our public and community engagement.
As a civic university, we aim to:
- Serve our local community
- Enable student recruitment from Birmingham and the wider West Midlands region.
- Actively work to engage citizens in research and teaching, empowering them to contribute, collaborate and coproduce for maximum impact.
- Undertake public engagement to achieve transformational change, enabling us to ensure that policy is evidence-based.
We work with key partners to achieve this, from Aston Villa Football Club to Citizens UK to local schools.
Our Regional Engagement team manage public and community engagement, and work across the colleges and Professional Service teams to achieve maximum opportunities for public engagement. Additionally, our researchers can access internal training to support societal engagement.
- Each College has an Associate Dean for Public Engagement
- Dr Celine Benoit, Associate Dean for Public Engagement, College of Business and Social Sciences
- Dr Duane Mellor, Associate Dean for Public Engagement, College of Health and Life Sciences
- Prof. Kate Sugden, Associate Dean for Public Engagement, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
For general enquiries email us.
- Dr Celine Benoit, Associate Dean for Public Engagement, College of Business and Social Sciences
Here are some examples of how we to engage with the public.
Find out more about Aston University’s upcoming events.
- The Conversation
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The Conversation (independent news source)
- 50 Years of Transport Studies
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A recent celebration of 50 Years of Transport Studies at Aston and our ‘Children of the Railway: The Partition of India 75 years on’, which took place at the Birmingham and Midland Institute.
- Society Matters
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Podcasts, such as Aston Means Business from Aston Business School, and Society Matters from the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, which covers topical issues such as ‘COP27: Can protest change climate policy?’ from Dr Graeme Hayes, and ‘From the cradle to the grave: how the NHS can survive’ from Dr Alexis Paton.
- Inaugural Lectures
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Inaugural lectures, such as Professor Andy Lymer who spoke about the role of research during a cost-of-living crisis.
- Women Innovation Technology Strength
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Women: Innovation, Technology, Strength: we organise this annually to inspire women and girls into innovation technologies, and network with successful women in business and science.
- Thinktank
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Sessions at Thinktank | Birmingham Science Museums
- YouWIL
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YouWIL (Young Women in Leadership), an international programme for girls aged 14-16 to inspire future female leaders.
- Commonpurpose
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Common Purpose Birmingham150, a free leadership programme for 18-25s to create a greener Birmingham, whilst upskilling and empowering those young people to tackle the big issues in their communities, schools and homes.
- CityFest
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CityFest: Our Science Festival – featuring autonomous robots and self-driving cars - to inspire school children to consider STEM careers.