People-Powered Universities
Our universities have huge untapped potential to address the 21st century’s many social and environmental crises. What if staff and students had more say on how they’re run and what they're for?
Some UK campuses are already experimenting with inclusive, deliberative spaces that are making this a reality. People-Powered Universities is a new F4F project that makes it easy and fun for you to follow in their footsteps.
We’ll help you hold a Peoples' Assembly on your issue of choice, that reveals and amplifies what your university’s people want to change at a local and national level. Then we’ll help you achieve those goals with the support of tools and experts that create possibilities for people-powered progress. We’ll connect you with other universities doing the same, to learn with each other. And we’ll cohere your voices to realise the deeper shifts that can unlock universities’ potential as forces for public good.
We’re doing this because against a backdrop of disciplinary silos, funding cuts and increasing pressure to generate economic impact to survive, the UK academic system is too often fuelling crisis root causes, overworking staff, and oversubscribing students. At this time of unprecedented and complex dilemmas, we need all of us to be involved in the decisions that shape how our universities treat their staff and students and influence the future of life on Earth.
We are currently working with our first cohort of universities to run inclusive deliberative assemblies in their universities. We plan to roll out our People-Powered Universities programme with a second cohort in September 2024, subject to funding. Most of these universities will likely be in the UK or Ireland, but we may seek a few participants from across the world too.
If you would like to be first on the list for this opportunity when it arises, please let us know by signing up – we'll be in touch in summer 2024 when we have more capacity. In the meantime, the best way to stay up to date with ongoing developments is to subscribe to our newsletter.
