What is the nature and the extent of the obligations owed by universities to their local community and their region?
Recent Wonkhe contributions have emphasised the importance of universities becoming accredited living wage employers as an indication of their good faith as civic institutions.
As the Civic University Commission Report notes, the economic impact of universities is significant, contributing billions in GVA and supporting thousands of local jobs. Yet how universities treat their lowest-paid – often externally contracted – staff is, as Jonathan Grant has argued, a good indication of their genuine commitment to the broader civic agenda, with all of the commitments to place and place-based change that this involves.
