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Lancaster University

Thumbs Up for Campus in the City

Thumbs Up for Campus in the City - Campus in the City

Funded through the Alumni Friends Programme, the Campus in the City programme has been a great success within the local community.

The launch of the Campus In The City (CITC) project took place earlier this year. A Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Enterprise Centre (FASS EC) led project, CITC gathered research and activities from across the university and put them into an empty unit in St Nicholas Arcades in the heart of Lancaster city centre.

The programme was awarded a grant by the Friends Programme and CITC ran 35 events (28 of which involved partnerships with local organisations) over 11 weeks designed to engage the local community. From a WWI exhibition and talks, continuing professional development events and language workshops, to student start-ups and philosophy drop-in sessions, the aim was to show the community how relevant the University is to their everyday lives and vice-versa.

Amongst the most popular events was the WW1 exhibition which was a collaboration between the History Department, Peter Donnelly (Curator of the King’s Own Regimental Museum) and the Lancaster Military Heritage Group. The department's Professor Ian Gregory, Dr Corinna Peniston-Bird and Martin Purdy (PhD student researching Westfield War Memorial Village) exhibited an exciting new project to the public with a unique map highlighting the homes of the dead showed the impact of the war on Lancaster. They discussed with visitors how best to develop this project to be valuable to the greatest number of users, from private individuals to schools to community projects.  Martin Purdy gathered the memories of Westfield War Memorial Village from inhabitants and visitors and commented: ' I have to say CITC has been fantastic for me! I’ve met people who grew up on the village that I’ve never met before and that’s after placing advertisements in the local places. This has been a very fruitful project for me!'

Over 3384 people visited the CITC shop with 228 voting for CITC to stay. Professor Chris May, Head of the FASS EC said “This project has demonstrated the wide interest in Lancaster in the Faculty researchers' work,and has importantly delivered real value to the community alongside the local businesses who benefitted from the project’s ability to draw extra people into St Nicholas’ Arcade.”

Due to its great success, Campus in the City will be repeated in 2015.

For more information on CITC or to participate, contact FASS Enterprise Officer Joe Buglass: j.buglass@lancs.ac.uk 01524 510808.