University of Derby public forum: Share your views on how we can support the city and county

The University of Derby is holding its first ‘Derby Civic Forum’ on Thursday 27 June at our Kedleston Road site, a free event providing the wider community with the opportunity to share their thoughts on how we can help to deliver long-term positive impact for Derby and Derbyshire.

The forum is part of a consultation exercise to identify the key priorities and challenges facing local communities, businesses and organisations within the city and county, and where we can focus our civic endeavours and work most effectively with our external stakeholders.

All are welcome to attend to help shape our future civic direction. Key areas of focus and topics for the day’s Q&A panels, discussions and roundtables will be Education, Socio-cultural, Economy, Environment and Health & Wellbeing.

As part of our commitment to becoming a true civic university, we signed up to developing a Civic University Agreement, a document that will reaffirm our ongoing commitment to playing our part in the city and county’s prosperity and wellbeing.  

Vice-Chancellor Professor Kathryn Mitchell said: “We are committed to becoming a true ‘Civic University’, responsible not only to our students and our staff, but also to the places around us. To ensure the impact we make is long-term and sustainable, we first need to understand what the real needs of our city and county are.

“The Civic University Agreement is an opportunity to set out clearly, coherently and creatively how we will fulfil our responsibilities. It will see us working closely with our partners to help deliver positive change across Derby and Derbyshire that makes a significant impact on the county’s local communities, businesses, organisations and overall prosperity.”

Under the Agreement, the University will be driven by the following principles:

1. As a place-based institution, we are committed to attaching a high priority to the economic, social, environmental and cultural life of our local communities.
2. Our civic role will be informed by an evidence-based analysis of the needs of our place, developed collaboratively with local partners and informed by the needs of our local community.
3. We will collaborate with other anchor institutions and form partnerships to overcome the challenges facing local communities.
4. With our partners, we will be clear about what we do and how this is measured, so we can say with confidence what we have achieved – and how we might do better in the future.

The most recent University of Derby Civic Forum took place in June at our Kedleston Road site. Future dates will be confirmed in due course.